Microbiology, Tuberculosis — Immunology, AIDS — Epigenetics, Body Burdens

This entry examines the epistemological implications of body burdens. Body burdens is the toxicological term for the concentration of chemicals in the body due to repeated exposure to a chemical. Because body burdens rely on an analysis of dosages and the exposure biographies of not only a given person but also of their parents, and possibly their ancestors, they are hard to individualize. Rather, contamination and contagion are, in many ways, prior and necessary to the conceptualization of the notion of environment and how exposure breaks down modern notions of an isolated nature outside.