Analyze

What kind of monitoring was used to monitor the amount of exposition to radiation (or, “occupational gamma doses”)? In the film they talk about badges, so I did a little research about what these badges are. I found out, that usually, these badges were TLD (Thermoluminescent dosimeter) badges. Murphy and Goel write on Radiopedia: TLD “is a passive radiation detection device that is used for personal dose monitoring or to measure patient dose”. They work as the following: When radiation falls on TLD, electrons are excited and store energy. After a defined period, for example a few months to a year, the badges are evaluated: The reader is a heater, on getting heated, the excited elevtrons come back to the ground state and emit light in doing so, this light is read by a photomultiplier. Light output is proportional to the radiation exposure (Murphy & Goel).  As Clarence R. Schneider (Health and Safety Representative for Electricians) explains (around min 24), the badges they used went to lab every night, if they weren’t “normal”, the workers were not allowed to work at the process areas the next day, they had to use a blue uniform this day and work in another area. So, this monitoring for me has some similarities with a diagnosis: a sample is sent to a laboratory and the next day you know if you are “normal” and can proceed as every day or not. And if not, then the consequence is that you can't work as usual the next day - that you then also got too much radiation, and were more exposed to the risk of illness, that didn't matter to the workers, Schneider says here. After all, it was their job. Later in the film, around 1h19min, Bill Hoppe, a plant worker, also talks about the badges: he stresses that they were supposed to have badges and other security material, but in fact, they did not have it.

Murphy, A. & Goel, A.: Thermoluminescent dosimeter. Available at https://radiopaedia.org/articles/thermoluminescent-dosimeter, last accessed on 18.05.2021.

In March 2021, the company Greenfield Louisiana LLC has proposed to build a new grain elevator, and has received air pollution permits. The project has raised concerns about grain dust emissions (Parker 2021). Further, Joy Banner, co-owner of the Fee-Fo Lay Cafe has pointed out the grain terminal's adverse effects on predominantly Black neighborshoods and nearby cultural heritage sites, including the Whitney Plantation. 

This text historically traces the exploitative nature of energy supplies and charges (costs). Impactful statistics to consider in Oaxaca are that energy users pay for usage of one-hundred water plants when only twenty are operational but even more drastic is the fact energy companies overcharge residential customers to undercharge commercial customers (Boyer, 2019:100, 133). Here, we can think of COVID-19 parallels where nationwide job loss has burdened families' abilities to cope with utility bill payments. Companies have been pushing for cost/usage increases in residential sectors due to burdens experienced whilst contemporarily reducing cost/usage in commercial sectors. However, if burden experienced by residential customers is ignored, many will likely ask for subsidy payments, as CFE's customer base (98% of customers receive 70% off on their energy costs) (Boyer, 2019:152). The pre-COVID-19 burdens in Oaxaca have likely worsened since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, which should inform or at least direct wider discussions of energy rights as situated both within and outside a pandemic. More than informing understandings of COVID-19-situated conditions, this text provides us with the grounds to investigate pre-pandemic burdens and to discuss vulnerabilities to energy losses or scarcity, but also of the needs and willngness to promote efficiency, net-zero emissions, or even carbon neutral energy.

Energy is still seen as something we all need. The lights must say on, even under COVID-19, a national crisis with no end in sight, our current levels of energy consumption must remain the same. COVID-19 has not caused people to ask fundamental questions like "why do we use so much energy, do we need to? what even is energy?" We had even failed to do this to some extent. Electric companies offer payment options and plans, but their relationship to their customer has not fundamentally changed under COVID-19.

As we think of the COVID-19 and energy shifts due to closure for social distancing aims, we can think of Dr. Daggett's argument of energy systems modeled for energy intensive and productive labor. In a sense, despite COVID-19 shifting energy consumption to the residential area, we can argue COVID-19 has also led to an overall reduction in energy use for industrial sectors. However, these reduced expenditures are not as significant as energy analysts had anticipated and, instead, call to Dr. Daggett's discussions of energy governing labor and hierarchies, as developed in a 19th century world. We can think of ways in which our systems (socioeconomic and political) have become wholly dependent on energy production and, thus, even our leisure activities will inevitably lead to the consumption of energy. Our COVID-19 energy paradigms demonstrate energy is so engrained into our regimes, even social distancing measures cannot wholly reduce overall energy expendatures, despite best efforts. In a way, we should try to understand energy paradigms in Dr. Daggett's eyes as specifically situated in the COVID-19 pandemic.