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.
