Toxic contamination, community health, and the attribution of blame: The Dunsmuir metam sodium spill

Abstract

This analysis presents a case study of the Dunsmuir metam sodium spill and how community perceptions of public‐health effects were subsequently constructed. As a case of a particular toxic event, the analysis invokes existing theory regarding the social construction of risk, particularly the attribution of blame. We relate the significance of the attribution to blame to Ellickson's (1991) typology of competing social control systems and how the sudden imposition of the formal, legal social order may contribute to community responses to toxic contamination, particularly community perceptions of health. From community‐survey data, we conclude that a community's attribution of blame is a social response to not only environmental change but a shift in the social order. Implications of these findings for community health and disaster response are discussed.

Keywords:

• community health
• Dunsmuir
• environmental health
• environmental risk
• risk perception
• toxic contamination