“NO PFAS Moms”: Understandings Parenting and Reproduction in a Context of Life Altered by Chemical Contamination

Abstract

The NO PFAS Mothers’ movement in the Italian province of Vicenza originated when it was found that their children’s blood contained perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that were produced by the Miteni plant in Trissino and were causing the pollution of groundwater. Confronted by the serious health damages these chemical compounds can induce, they have taken a stance where the care of their children and the remediation of the territory intertwine in a worldview that combines issues of reproductive and environmental justice. Their “resistance” actions against contamination rest on networks of consolidated relations and a shared feeling that mothers have a moral responsibility towards future generations, in a process of rethinking reproduction and kinship that appears to be the women’s burden. My contribution explores these questions in an intrafamilial and intergenerational frame, with the aim of capturing the imaginaries, the asymmetries and the forms of relationality that emerge.