Social Constructions of Bleach in Combating Aids among Injection Drug Users

Abstract

Following decades of corporate strategy promoting common household bleach as essential for peoples' health and happiness, a use for bleach was finally discovered in 1986 that actually achieved life-saving proportions for a certain population: injection drug users in preventing the spread of AIDS. Since then, substantial promotional efforts have surfaced – corporate, governmental, and community-based – to downplay or obstruct the public definition of bleach as a major AIDS prevention weapon. An analysis is offered of four competing social constructions of bleach that have emerged since 1986: bleach as a public health breakthrough; bleach as a liability; bleach as an endorsement for drug abuse; and bleach as a social policy copout.