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Short abstract

This contribution explores the spatial conditions which shape the ways in which distinctions between the vitalities and toxicities of PFAS substances are contested in remediation efforts.

Long abstract

Where are the lines between the toxicity and vitality of substances drawn, contested, and negotiated? Where and how do substances transform from being ‘essential’ and ‘vital’ chemicals to contemporary social, political, and economic life to being ‘toxic’ contaminants which disrupt bodies, environments, and daily lives? Drawing from my ongoing ethnographic fieldwork around PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) remediation efforts in the south of the Netherlands, I explore the various sites—such as, court rooms, local vegetable gardens, and chemical plants—where scientists, local residents, politicians, corporate actors, and environmental consultants contest the lines between the vitality and toxicity of PFAS substances.

Through ethnographic vignettes, this contribution details how vitalities and toxicities of PFAS are constructed and confronted differently across various spaces; in doing so, I explore the spatial aspects of not just establishing and evidencing toxicity but also maintaining the distinctions between substances which are vital and those which are toxic. By focusing specifically on the social, political, and environmental entanglements of the PFAS remediation efforts in the south of the Netherlands, this contribution traces how the contingent and spatial conditions of remediation efforts inform notions of chemical transgression, disruption, and normalcy.