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| title | has_sessions |
|---|---|
| Hormones, Toxicity and Body Sovereignty | excavatinghistoriesandfictions, micromacroconnections, urinehormoneextractionaction |
Since the rise of industrial capitalism (petrochemical, agricultural, and pharmaceutical) in the mid to late 1800s, synthetic molecules have been produced and manufactured at a grand and unrelenting pace, and now pervade every aspect of the planet. These synthetic molecules are commonly known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), or xenoestrogens because of their estrogen-mimicking and estrogen-displacing properties. From the discovery of PCBs in the Marianna’s Trench, the deepest parts of the earth, to whole populations of birds, frogs, and fish failing to produce viable offspring, to the trans-generational cancers inherited from grandmothers who were prescribed diethylstilbestrol as pregnant women trying to prevent miscarriage, this microscopic moment on the scale of geologic time is already (and continues) to be marked by unprecedented levels of environmental toxicity, drastic planetary changes and collective species mutations. Writer Rob Nixon has named this phenomenon of the Anthropocene, a kind of “slow violence” that is everywhere yet difficult to perceive. In contrast to obvious catastrophic events such as the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, or nuclear disaster of Chernobyl, the effects of environmental toxicity (akin to climate change) are gradual and therefore imperceptible. Furthermore, it is important to note that the presence of these molecules are unequally distributed, more often affecting black, indigenous, and marginalized communities. The effects of these synthetic molecules on the human body have been linked to neurological (autism, lower IQ, mood disorders) and physiological effects (diabetes, obesity, early onset puberty, worldwide sperm count drop), as well as various reproductive cancers.