The dynamics of toxic dust

Abstract

By examining railway workers' narratives of poussière (dust) and their practices of repair work in the train depot at Rufisque, Senegal, the article reveals how the workers' understanding of dust encapsulates a toxic mixture, not only of pollution and sand but also asbestos lodged in the coaches. Attendant to the corporeal and intimate stories of the workers and the histories of the trains imported from India, the article sheds light on how workers handle their daily encounters with the granular materiality of the toxic dust as it seeps into the bodies of machines and workers, conditioning their past and future. In the context of institutional as well as industrial negligence, despite an awareness of the dangers, the workers continue their unsafe practices in toxic environments for fear of losing their jobs. The article argues that disentangling the nostalgic, future and toxic aspects of the railway, helps to demonstrate how an otherwise fleeting, invisible toxicant ‐ unequally distributed and travelling across geographies ‐ remains stuck in the organisms of both men and machines.