The twentieth-century saw the stunning and rapid introduction of toxic substances into the bodies of Americans. These were new and old, synthetic and naturally occurring: lead, PCBs, asbestos, polyvinyl chloride, silica, and others. These stories have largely remained beneath the surface until recently, with the emergence of once-secret documents that sat in the attics of companies for decades. My presentation will discuss this story and an attempt — ToxicDocs.org — to bring these materials to the public. I'll also spotlight novel information technology advances — from cloud-computing to AI — that have aided our efforts. Throughout, I'll highlight major facets of this new world of environmental health risk: corporations suppressing information about the safety of their products, obfuscating scientific results to regulators who inquired about them; and running PR campaigns that misled the public about the dangers of their everyday lives.

Merlin Chowkwanyun is the Donald Gemson Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health. Their first book was All Health Politics is Local: Community Battles over Medical Care and Environmental Health, published by UNC Press. They are now finishing up a short trade book for W.W. Norton assessing the social influences of health in an age of AI hype. Merlin is also the Principle Investigator of ToxicDocs.org, a National Science Foundation-funded database of once-secret documents on industrial poisons such as lead, asbestos, and PCBs.