Better Safe Than Sorry : How Consumers Navigate Exposure to Everyday Toxics / Norah MacKendrick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacKendrick, Norah, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Consumer goods--United States--Safety measures.

Consumer goods.

Product safety--United States.

Product safety.

Women consumers--United States--Psychology.

Women consumers.

Consumer behavior--United States.

Consumer behavior.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations (black and white)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

How toxic are the products we consume on a daily basis? Whether it's triclosan in toothpaste, formaldehyde in baby shampoo, endocrine disruptors in water bottles, or pesticides on strawberries, chemicals in food and personal care products are of increasing concern to consumers. This book chronicles how ordinary people try to avoid exposure to toxics in grocery store aisles using the practice of "precautionary consumption." Through an innovative analysis of environmental regulation, the advocacy work of environmental health groups, the expansion of the health-food chain Whole Foods Market, and interviews with consumers, Norah MacKendrick ponders why the problem of toxics in the U.S. retail landscape has been left to individual shoppers-and to mothers in particular. She reveals how precautionary consumption, or "green shopping," is a costly and time-intensive practice, one that is connected to cultural ideas of femininity and good motherhood but is also most available to upper- and middle-class households. Better Safe Than Sorry powerfully argues that precautionary consumption places a heavy and unfair burden of labor on women and does little to advance environmental justice or mitigate risk.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

1. Introduction

2. Safe until Sorry: Chemical Regulation in the United States

3. Personalizing Pollution: Th e Environmental Health Movement

4. Be a Super Shopper! Precautionary Consumption at the Grocery Store

5. The High Stakes of Shopping: Precautionary Consumption as Mothers' Work

6. Precautionary Consumption as a Class Act

7. Moving toward Environmental Justice

Methodological Appendix

Notes

Reference List

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 21. Dez 2019)

ISBN:

9780520969070

0520969073

OCLC:

1011548284