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Short abstract:

Residues have been posited as a key concept to theorise the uncontrolled proliferation and ubiquity of pollutants in sociomaterial ecologies. Drawing on ethnographic insights, we contrast this with the 'wave pollution' associated with noise, light or 5G, characterised by intensity and intermittency.

Long abstract:

The adverse effects of environmental stressors, such as particulate matter in the air, toxins in water and soil, urban heat or noise, are often difficult to assess and affect bodies and ecosystems in a 'slow' and 'invisible' way. Standard risk assessments address this challenge by following a protocol of hazard identification and characterisation, exposure assessment and resulting risk characterisation. STS has problematised such cause-and-effect approaches by highlighting the socio-material entanglements and historical and structural inequalities that produce and sustain environmental pollution. In particular, the concept of 'residues' has recently been proposed to theorise 'from chemical domains rather than simply applying theory to chemical cases' (Boudia et al. 2021, 20). Residues are thus understood not only as physical elements, but also as markers of political and cultural choices, objects of scientific inquiry and governmental regulation.

However, this conceptualisation of particle pollution misses key features of what we, the ERC WAVEMATTERS team, have come to call 'wave pollution'. Indeed, while residues emphasise the uncontrolled proliferation of pollution sources in time and space, as well as their permanent nature, wave pollution has an intermittent nature, as it disappears when the source of environmental stress ceases to emit. By exploring controversies about noise pollution and EMF as a potential health hazard, this presentation develops a theory of wave pollution as a distinct mode of environmental contamination.