Will-O-the-Wisp Things: Scientific Uncertainty in Disease Cluster Communities

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Abstract

This paper focuses on community and institutional response to residential toxic exposure in the company town of Clyde, Ohio where approximately 40 children have been diagnosed with or have died of cancers of the brain and central nervous system since the mid-1990s. Using an ethnographic and critical qualitative approach, I examine these topics through the analysis of impacted residents’ narratives. I argue that not only concerns about job loss, but also preservation of the town’s identity itself play a major role in community inaction. Through the framework of risk theory, I examine the scientific uncertainty of risk assessment in disease cluster communities, and the increasing emphasis on self-protection in the media and public health organizations.

Author

• Laura Atkins, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign