Front and Back Covers, Volume 36, Number 6. December 2020

Abstract

Front and back cover caption, volume 36 issue 6Front coverTOXIC FLOWSThis image was taken in the control room of Sweden's iconic Ågesta nuclear power station, essentially unchanged since it was last operated in 1974. The power station was commissioned shortly after the end of World War II when Sweden adopted an ambitious nuclear programme aimed at energy self‐sufficiency.A small plant, Ågesta was the first energy‐generating nuclear reactor in Sweden. From 1964 to 1974 the pressurized heavy water reactor supplied electricity and district heating to the Stockholm suburb of Farsta. Due to its proximity to this residential area, the reactor was largely built underground, inside a bedrock cavity.The plant operated reliably except for one dramatic incident that occurred in 1969. A technician made an error in a routine change of a valve, releasing 500 tons of water from a cooling tower 30 metres above the reactor building that knocked out the reactor control system. Short circuits resulted in valves opening and closing at random, putting the plant at risk of a meltdown. The public was not notified after officials determined that evacuation of the area at risk could not take place fast enough. However, after a closure of seven months, the plant continued to operate safely until its closure in 1974.Stockholm's fire services subsequently used the decommissioned plant as a training site. There was some interest in preserving the power station as a national heritage site in recognition of its aesthetic, cultural and historical significance. Some expressed national pride in the facility as an impressive technological achievement of its time. However, in December 2019 the decision was taken to demolish the buildings, which would otherwise have required major investments to meet safety standards.In advanced industrial societies some types of toxic exposures, like radiation, are measured extensively, using a variety of technological devices that feed into the calibration of risk. However, as Penny Harvey points out in this issue, the promise of monitoring toxic flows from the new nuclear station under construction at Hinkley Point does not allay everyone's fears.In this special issue on toxic flows, a variety of toxic substances are shown to escape regulation. Their seepage into the environment through waste recycling, dumping and unplanned incidents distributes and potentially continues to displace contamination far from the sites of their production and use.Back coverTOXIC FLOWS: PESTICIDESDuring her 2019 fieldwork with smallholder farmers in western Kenya, Miriam Waltz observed many instances of the manual application of pesticides through various methods, sometimes involving knapsack sprayers, sometimes handheld sprayers or plastic bottles ‐ as well as various levels of protective equipment.Smallholder farmers increasingly use pesticides to secure their harvests, especially as new pest infestations and changing weather patterns contribute to a sense of precarity around agricultural production as a source of income. Many also share concerns around the potential toxic effects of these substances. Yet, the uncertain status of pesticides as both poison and medicine, combined with divergent temporalities of risk and exposure, meant that decisions around pesticide use at the household level were heavily shaped by economic considerations.While farmers express considerable uncertainty and ambivalence around the application, effects and sourcing of pesticides, they consider these to be increasingly part of modern farming and a legitimate means to secure aspirations for the future as well as shorter‐term livelihoods. In this context, it is important to understand how these farmers are simply ‘trying’: trying out new things, unsure of the outcome, in an effort to secure livelihoods, food and good health.The negotiations that arise at a community and household level around the everyday use of toxic agricultural chemicals point to the complicated act of balancing between different kinds of investments associated with agricultural production and the need to secure livelihoods under conditions of climate change, intensifying pest infestations and the increasing trade in synthetic pesticides.Across the globe, industrially produced chemical compounds such as agricultural pesticides are entering into local livelihoods, economies and forms of consumption, where there is little regulation and where risks remain uncalculated. While international conventions seek to regulate the production and use of harmful chemicals, human populations are unequally exposed as local capacities to monitor and regulate differ enormously between industrialized and developing countries.