“But I Know It’s True: Environmental Risk Assessment, Justice and Anthropology (2007)”

Melissa Checker

This article demonstrates through the examination of a case study the different “ways of knowing” that various identities have that can sometimes conflict with rigid constructions of “pure science”. Melissa Checker uses the example of a rural Georgia community that, after years of living at the intersection of several production plants, felt that the bi-products of these factories were responsible for serious health threats suffered by the individuals in the community. This case study shows how the identities of race, geographic region, and socioeconomic status all intersect to invalidate the lived experiences and knowledge of a local community in the face of an organization such as the EPA. Checker gives one example of the EPA concluding no environmental harm based off of soil samples that didn’t penetrate far enough into the ground to assess the damage. Had the environmental agency listened to the local knowledge of the community, they would have understood the local environmental practices that necessitated deeper sampling. Additionally, Checker describes how toxicity sampling was conducted on a generic “someone”, and how the impacts of certain toxins on one type of person couldn’t be generalized on an entire population. The incomplete results of this data shows the failure of “pure science” in achieving answers without factoring in the multiple identifying factors that caused variation in a situation. Furthermore, local environmental knowledge includes valuable insights that shouldn’t be ignored based off of social preconceptions.