Abstract
The paper elaborates risk society theory in terms of the hazards caused by environmental chemicals as well as the stress generated by individualization, utilizing recent findings provided by biosocial science, particularly epigenetic mechanisms in the developmental stage. Epigenetics explains that vital phenomena can be affected by environmental chemical contaminants and the psychosocial stresses of individualization that are transmitted to the next generation without any change in the base sequence. The paper tries to unify these two kinds of risk factors into an epigenetic system in which exposed fetuses and infants might have physical and mental disorders in later life. This biosocial perspective incorporates the reproductive mechanisms of risk over generations into risk society theory.
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