Industrial capitalism engendered human and animal bodies toxic in myriad and uneven ways. This talk examines the entanglements of public health and the body through the history of carbolic acid. Derived from coal tar production in British industrial factories in the early 19th century, carbolic acid exploded in use from the 1870s after Joseph Lister’s pioneering use of the chemical in antiseptic surgery. Heralded as the first public health and surgical 'magic bullet', chemists and coroners clamored to legislate carbolic acid as a dangerous poison- by 1900 carbolic acid poisonings and suicides were significant causes of death around the Atlantic World. By the early 20th century, carbolic acid became a common household tool in the fight against germs and in the beauty industry. Looming was the nature of risk. I show how exposure to carbolic acid skin damage and death differentially impacted women and laborers, particularly in the Global South. Carbolic acid's use in the plastics industry, and as an insecticide led to a surge in production in the 20th century, including widespread water and soil pollution. This talk thus explores questions about risk and regulation, the unequal burdens of toxicity, and the longue durée invisible health impacts of chemicals.

Jacob Steere-Williams, PhD, is professor of history and medical humanities at the College of Charleston, and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, and Editor of the Epidemic Histories book series with Johns Hopkins University Press. His work explores the history of public health, epidemic disease, and the environment, interrogating questions about disease surveillance, governance, and everyday scientific practice in Britain, across the Atlantic World, and the former British colonies. In addition to dozens of articles and op-eds, he is the author of the 2020 book The Filth Disease and the 2023 Port Cities of the Atlantic World.