We are pleased to be able to present this special issue entitled “Science, Law, and Industrial Toxic Exposure.” Tracking the long-term and lasting effects of a toxin takes time, and could even prove endless. There is never a definitive result to the total damage it has caused, and this factor of uncertainty is highlighted when its effects on health become the focus of a legal dispute. It is thus important to maintain a vigilant eye and stay up to date with the most recent developments, making it difficult to set out a tentative conclusion in the form of a journal article and to collect these into a special issue. Just as many of these articles are based on long-term research, this special issue itself has been a long-term project, which has taken some time to come to fruition. The invisibility of toxins allows for their omnipresence across borders, while their presence and effects often become evident only after observing cases across time and space. It is especially important that we rethink the governance and infrastructure surrounding industrial toxins in Asia, the global manufacturing base, and a court case in the US is an opportunity for such reflection. More detailed commentary can be found in the Introduction, by special issue guest editor Hsin-Hsing Chen.
This is the final issue of 2023, and I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to our editors and editorial board members and to welcome Lily Hsueh, Roselyn Hsueh, and Tom Özden-Schilling as new members of our advisory board. We are excited to be expanding our connections in North America and Singapore with scholars who engage with research on sustainability and regional studies. We have maintained a robust network of scholars who are experts in their respective fields, and they have constantly provided us with excellent feedback on the articles under consideration for publication. They are a group of stellar researchers whose contributions to the field of STS have been recognized by numerous awards and distinctions (see more in this issue’s News and Events). With their already busy schedule with research and teaching duties, our advisors have nonetheless generously taken their time to respond to our consultation. EASTS would be unable to operate without their intellectual insights, and we truly value our conversations. We thank them all, and sincerely hope that we can continue this most fruitful collaborative process in the years to come.
The following is a full list of our editors.
Hee-Je Bak (Kyung Hee University, Korea)
Jane Calvert (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom)
Hsin-Hsing Chen (Shih Hsin University, Taiwan)
Jia-shin Chen (National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan)
Fa-ti Fan (Binghamton University, USA)
Yuko Fujigaki (University of Tokyo, Japan)
Chihyung Jeon (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea)
Akihisa Setoguchi (Kyoto University, Japan)
Haidan Chen (Peking University, China)
Tzung-Wen Chen (National Chengchi University, Taiwan)
Yu-Ju Chien (National Taiwan University, Taiwan)
Hyungsub Choi (Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Korea)
Kim Fortun (University of California, Irvine, United States)
Lu Gao (Natural Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
Aya Homei (University of Manchester, United Kingdom)
Wei Hong (Tsinghua University, China)
Yu-Ling Huang (National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan)
Kohta Juraku (Tokyo Denki University, Japan)
Hyomin Kim (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Korea)
Kihyung Kim (Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea)
Tae-Ho Kim (Chonbuk National University, Korea)
Scott Knowles (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Korea)
James Lin (University of Washington, United States)
Tzung-De Lin (National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan)
Koichi Mikami (Keio University, Japan)
Takuya Miyagawa (Hiroshima Shudo University, Japan)
Izumi Nakayama (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
Takashi Nishiyama (SUNY Brockport, United States)
Sangook Park (Seoul National University, Korea)
Sung-Yueh Perng (National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan)
Sigrid Schmalzer (University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States)
Victor Seow (Harvard University, United States)
Ryuma Shineha (Osaka University, Japan)
Hallam Stevens (James Cook University, Australia)
Honghong Tinn (University of Minnesota, United States)
Ayo Wahlberg (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
Andrea Whittaker (Monash University, Australia)
Yi-Jui Wu (National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan)
Tomiko Yamaguchi (International Christian University, Japan)
Mei Zhan (University of California, Irvine, United States)
Jianfeng Zhu (Fudan University, China)
Yu-Ling Huang (National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan)
Mary Augusta Brazelton (Cambridge University, United Kingdom)
Shun-Ling Chen (Academia Sinica, Taiwan)
Eriko Fukumoto (Hiroshima University, Japan)
Jaehwan Hyun (Pusan National University, Korea)
Stephan Kloos (Austrian Academy of Science, Austria)
Xiao Lu (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
Heong-Hong Por (Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia)
Grant Otsuki (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
Koari Sasaki (Sapporo Medical University, Japan)
Youjung Shin (Chonbuk National University, Korea)
Martina Siebert (State Library of Berlin, Germany)
Sulfikar Amir (Singapore)
Warwick Anderson (Australia)
Joshua Barker (Canada)
Wiebe E. Bijker (Netherlands)
Francesca Bray (Scotland)
Kuo-Hui Chang (Taiwan)
En-Chieh Chao (Taiwan)
Karine Chemla (France)
Dung-Sheng Chen (Taiwan)
Hung-Ying Chen (Taiwan)
Ruey-lin Chen (Taiwan)
Pingyi Chu (Taiwan)
Gregory Clancey (Singapore)
Adele Clarke (USA)
Catelijne Coopmans (Sweden)
John P. Dimoia (Korea)
Gary Downey (USA)
Prasenjit Duara (USA)
David Edgerton(UK)
Steven Epstein (USA)
Kjell David Ericson (Japan)
Judith Farquhar (USA)
Ulrike Felt (Austria)
Michael Fischer (USA)
James Flowers (Korea)
Daiwie Fu (Taiwan)
Joan Fujimura (USA)
Jean-Paul Gaudillière (France)
Francis Gealogo (Philippines)
Connor Graham (Singapore)
Marta Hanson (USA)
Sa-Na Ho (Taiwan)
Sungook Hong (Korea)
Lily Hsueh (USA)
Roselyn Hsueh (USA)
Chun-Ju Huang (Taiwan)
Kuang-Chi Hung (Taiwan)
Sheila Jasanoff (USA)
Lijing Jiang (USA)
Eric Kerr (Singapore)
Aalok Khandekar (India)
Boumsoung Kim (Japan)
Eun-Sung Kim (Korea)
Taewoo Kim (Korea)
John Law(UK)
Jung Lee (Korea)
Wan-Ju Lee (Taiwan)
Sean Hsiang-Lin Lei (Taiwan)
Angela Ki Che Leung (Hong Kong)
Shang-jen Li (Taiwan)
Jongtae Lim (Korea)
Tze-Luen Lin (Taiwan)
Wen-yuan Lin (Taiwan)
John Chung-En Liu (Taiwan)
Shiyung Michael Liu (Taiwan)
Ming-cheng Lo (USA)
Shi-Lin Loh (Singapore)
Christine Luk (China)
Zhiying Ma (USA)
Ian McGonigle (Singapore)
Leandro Medina(Mexico)
Jianjun Mei (UK)
Hiromi Mizuno (USA)
Anto Mohsin (Qatar)
Suzanne Moon (USA)
Atsuro Morita (Japan)
Hideto Nakajima (Japan)
Tom Özden-Schilling (Singapore)
Laurent Pordié (France)
Amit Prasad (USA)
Dagmar Schafer (Germany)
Li-Wen Shih (Taiwan)
Dongwon Shin (Korea)
Masashi Shirabe (Japan)
Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner (UK)
Sang-yong Song (Korea)
Soyoung Suh (USA)
Shirley Sun (Singapore)
Akihito Suzuki (Japan)
Sharon Traweek (USA)
Daniel Fu-Chang Tsai (Taiwan)
Togo Tsukahara(Japan)
Chi-Mao Wang (Taiwan)
Zuoyue Wang (USA)
Chia-Ling Wu(Taiwan)
Chen-Pang Yeang (Canada)
Chih-Wei Yeh (Taiwan)
Hsiao-Pei Yen(Taiwan)
Doogab Yi (Korea)
