Title: A lifetime of exposure: Insights into women’s realities of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in Vancouver, Canada
Supervisor: Dr. Liv Yoon
Committee members: Dr. Moss Norman, Dr. Brian Wilson
Abstract:
Industrial activities create endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that negatively affect human hormonal systems resulting in cancer, reproductive, and epigenetic diseases (Duh-Leong et al., 2023). Social determinants of health (SDOH) such as gender, race, and class shape EDC exposure risk, resulting in disproportionately higher risk for women facing multiple axes of marginalization (Scott et al., 2015; Shadaan & Murphy, 2020). Canadian policies and proposed solutions frame EDCs as an issue of individual consumption and behaviour (Scott et al., 2015; Shadaan & Murphy, 2020). With the rise in viewing EDC mitigation as an individual responsibility, the political, economic, and social relationships that enable EDC production are protected and left unquestioned (Shadaan & Murphy, 2020). Scholars call for mitigation policies around EDC that can protect all women (Scott et al., 2015; Shadaan & Murphy, 2020). Using collage followed by semi-structured interviews and focus group sessions, this study aims to explore how women of various social positions in Vancouver, Canada experience EDCs, with a focus on the sociopolitical and economic structures that may have led to disproportionate risk in the first place for some. The aim is to inform thinking about policy solutions that expand beyond consuming the ‘right’ products to the structural issues that created the disproportionate EDC exposure and associated risks. In turn, the goal is to push for structural, regulatory changes in order to recognize and mitigate the uneven and unequal environmental risks that disproportionately harm women already facing multiple forms of marginalization.