PFAS and the pollution trap contested knowledge in environmental justice struggles
Van Der Donk, Layla Lome (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Llavero Pasquina, Marcel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. SGR-Grup de Recerca Economia Ecològica)

Date:	2025
Abstract:	Emerging evidence on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination hotspots has put these persistent chemicals under growing scrutiny. However, chemical corporations' deliberate efforts at veiling risks associated with PFAS have led regulatory bodies to give a slow response to this ominous environmental and public health threat. This article analyses 25 environmental conflicts over PFAS contamination using the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice, paying particular attention to the contestation of knowledge and the roles of PFAS' chemical properties in shaping these conflicts. In doing so, it situates environmental justice struggles in the arena of post-normal science and adds to the empirical demonstration of manufactured uncertainty by PFAS-emitting industries. It highlights how the invisible nature of PFAS allows those responsible for contamination to keep the environmental threat under the radar, which supports the case for treating embodied experiences of people in affected communities as valuable sources of data informing timely policy interventions. The analysis contributes to environmental justice literature by pointing at the emergence of new environmental justice communities and sacrifice zones through what we liken to a "pollution trap" created by invisible yet persistent toxics. Our findings call for urgent preventive action, research, dissemination, and regulation, particularly out of concern over the expansion of toxic frontiers to the Global South.
Grants:	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CEX2019-000940-M Ministerio de Ciencia e innovación TED2021-132007B-I00
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	PFAS ; Forever chemicals ; Environmental justice ; EJAtlas ; Post-normal science ; Manufactured uncertainty
Published in:	Environmental science & policy, Vol. 174 (December 2025) , art. 104281, ISSN 1873-6416

DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2025.104281

11 p, 3.0 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles