Based on fieldwork in Puerto Rico, this article examines the views on health hazards of residents in a semi-rural community in relation to the influx of industrial development since the early 1970s. It is suggested that “folk” terminology and particular aspects of Puerto Rican culture are less significant in this instance than many studies in medical anthropology suggest. The focus is on the emergence of a protest movement concerned with health problems which community residents and workers attribute to a nearby Union Carbide factory. Residents of El Ingenio, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, have brought a law suit against Union Carbide and, the management of the plant has attempted to dispel the conflict. The article argues that health concerns of residents, industrial workers, and plant management cannot be interpreted without taking into account problems of unemployment, political affiliations, and company policies and their impact over time.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
VincentJ.Discussion for Symposium on The Cultural Selection of Risk. American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York, May 26, 1984.
2.
DavisS.Victims of the Miracle: Development and the Indians of Brazil. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1977.
3.
Scheper-HughesN.Saints, Scholars and Schizophrenics. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1979.
4.
LindenbaumS.Kuru Sorcery: Disease and Danger in the New Guinea Highlands. Mayfield Publishing Co., Palo Alto, CA, 1979.
5.
EstroffS.Making it Crazy: An Ethnography of Psychiatric Clients in an American Community. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1981.
6.
BaxterE., and HopperK.Private Lives, Public Spaces: Homeless Adults on the Streets of New York City. Community Service Society, New York, 1981.
7.
TurshenM.The Political Economy of Disease in Tanzania. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1984.
8.
MullingsL.Therapy, Ideology and Social Change: Mental healing in urban Ghana. University of California, 1984.
9.
LoganM.Humoral medicine in Guatemala and peasant acceptance of modern medicine. In Health and the Human Condition, edited by LoganM. and HuntE.Duxbury Press, Scituate, MA, 1978.
10.
PadillaE.Up from Puerto Rico. Columbia University Press, New York, 1963.
11.
HarwoodA.RX: Spiritists as Needed. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1977.
12.
GarrisonV.Doctor, espiritista or psychiatrist: Health seeking behavior in a Puerto Rican neighborhood of New York City. Medical Anthropology1: 65–180, 1977.
13.
KleinmanA.Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1980.
14.
Romanucci-RossL.Anthropology of Medicine. Praeger, New York, 1983.
15.
SusserI., and WatsonW.Sociology in Medicine. Oxford Press, London, 1962.
16.
KarkS., and SteuartL.A Practice of Social Medicine, Edinburgh, Blackwell, 1962.
17.
NewP. K., and NewM. L.The barefoot doctors of China: Healers for all seasons. In Culture, Diseases and Healing, edited by LandyD., pp. 503–511. MacMillan, New York, 1977.
18.
LeslieC. M.Pluralism and integration in Indian and Chinese medical systems. In Culture, Disease and Healing, edited by LandyD.MacMillan, New York, 1977.
19.
NelkinD., and BrownM.Workers at Risk. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1984.
20.
ChavkinW.Walking a tightrope: Pregnancy, parenting and work. In Double Exposure: Women's Health Hazards On the Job and at Home, edited by ChavkinW., pp. 196–211. Monthly Review Press, New York, 1984.
21.
GarciaN.Puerto Rico Siglo XX: Lo Historico y lo Natural en la Ideologia Colonialista. Pensamiento Critico 08, September, 1978.
22.
CamposR., and BonillaF.Bootstraps and enterprise zones: The underside of late capitalism in Puerto Rico and the U S. Review4: 556–590, spring, 1982.
23.
BaverS.Policy Making for Industrialization in Puerto Rico 1947–76. Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University, New York, 1979.
24.
CardonaMorales T.Ponencia presentada ante el panel examinador de la Junta de Calidad Ambiental sobre el plan estatal de implementacion (SIP) y el reglamento para el control de la contaminacion atmosferica en Puerto Rico, Departmento de Farmacologia, Escuela de Medicina, University of Puerto Rico, Medical Center manuscript, 1979.
25.
CardonaMorales T.Problemas de toxicologia ambiental en Puerto Rico y su importancia para las ciencias medicas, Departamento de Farmacologia, Escuela de Medicina, University of Puerto Rico, Medical Center manuscript, 1982.
26.
ReeveG.WaxweilerR., and LeffingwellS.An investigation of brain and lymphopoetic cancer at a Union Carbide plant in Seadrift, Texas, September 10, Document 09171A National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, 1983.
27.
UtidjianH.Epidemiologic studies of toxic response-significance requirements. In Measurement of Risks, edited by BergG. and MaillieJ.Plenum, New York, 1981.
28.
New York Academy of Sciences, Brain Tumours in the Chemical Industry, edited by SelikoffI. and HammondE.Annal of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 38, New York, 1982.
29.
New York Academy of Sciences, Brain cancer deaths possibly job-linked. Science News116: 278, November 1980.
30.
PereraF. P., and AhmedK.Respirable Particles: Impact of Airborne Fine Particulates on Health and the Environment. Ballinger Publishing Company, Cambridge, 1979.
31.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Interim Report No. 1, Health Hazard Evaluation Project no. HETA 81-284. Union Carbide Grafito, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, August, February, 1984.
32.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Interim Report No. 1, Health Hazard Evaluation Report, HETA 81-284-1292. Union Carbide Grafito, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, revised, February, 1984.
33.
OrtizOteroB.Estudios revelan Union Carbide cumple normas calidad de aire. El Mundo, July 30, 1982, p. 5-A.
34.
FridmanH.2 surveys find clean air in Yabucoa barrio. The San Juan Star, San Juan, July 30, 1980.
35.
Segan estudios Union Carbide no contamina aire, El Vocero, San Juan, July 31, 1982.
36.
SimonJ.No perjudica el ambiente la Union Carbide, El Nuevo Dia, Friday July 30, 1982.
37.
Union Carbide.Resumen de los estudios de ERT y Bird. Grafito11(4): 3. Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, July/August, 1982.
38.
Environmental Research and Technology, Inc.Ambient Concentration of Air Pollutants in Ingenio, Puerto Rico, Document P-A894. Yabucoa Puerto Rico, Prepared for Union Carbide Grafito, Inc., July, 1982.
39.
MintzS.Canamelar: The subculture of a rural plantation proletarian. In The People of Puerto Rico, edited by StewardJ., pp. 314–417. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1956.
40.
LevineA. G.The Love Canal: Science, Politics, and People. Lexington Books, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1982.
