Explore the Project
This ERC funded, 5 year research project offers the first systematic sociological analysis of the global petrochemical industry in relation to corporate social responsibility and environmental justice. Examining different claims about the health impacts of toxic pollution, this is a highly topical, interdisciplinary project.
Key Concepts
Toxic Expertise, Environmental Justice, Petrochemicals.
The Global Level
Mapping the global petrochemical industry and the environmental justice movement.
National, Regional and Local Levels
Case studies in US and China.
The Collaborative, Participatory Level
Developing a scaled-up international public 'resource' of toxic expertise.
The Global Petrochemical Map now live!
One of the key outputs of the Toxic Expertise project, an interactive map of the petrochemical industry is now live. This pilot version of the map has 75 case studies of petrochemical sites, written by members of the Toxic Expertise research team. We are now seeking contributions and feedback on the map. Most importantly, we are inviting the collaboration of community and environmental groups, and the communities they represent, to add their comments, stories and experiences to the map.
Toxic News E-Magazine
Our November 2019 17th edition, edited by Lorenzo Feltrin, explores the theme of Mapping and Making Petrochemical Connections on a Global Level and includes contributions by authors who have been working in different capacities on five of the cases covered by the Global Petrochemical Map: Asaluyeh, Iran, Bahía Blanca, Argentina, Gela, Italy, Grangemouth, UK and Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Peyman Jafari discusses the large-scale development of the petrochemical industry in Asaluyeh; María Giovis explains how she came to produce a documentary on the negative impacts of the Bahía Blanca petrochemical industry; Elisa Privitera writes about the Sicilian petrochemical complex of Gela; Peter Phillimore reflects on the comparative research on industry-community relations he and his team carried out in Grangemouth and Ludwigshafen in 2001; and finally Rajji Desai writes on the disposal of space technology waste.
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Credit: Louis Vest, Flickr - Industrial Landscape in Houston, Texas
