Blog posts tagged ‘disposability’

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on a white desk with small tools some plastic medical devices are taken apart into components with an arm in frame

Information Gaps in Medical-Device Materials

Presentations

Millie Marriott Webb examined how ISO 13485 records detailed medical-device material information, while gaps in access limit its use for safety and sustainability.
A hand in a blue glove puts a single use medical device into a box after use.

Why Is My Medical Test Cased in Plastic?

Presentations

Alice Street, Mary McPoland, Claire Lindsay and Maiwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas examined how plastic cassette housing became standard in lateral flow testing—and the histories that challenge its apparent necessity.
A black and white advert for disposable linen has two medical staff changing sheets on a bed.

Plastic Essentiality and Forgotten Sterilisation Infrastructures

Dani Farrow traced how the loss of hospital sterilisation infrastructure has locked Scottish healthcare into dependence on single-use plastics.
Young protesters stand on a stone wall with placards highlighting plastics and planetary health.

Reframing Plastic as a Health Emergency

Presentations

Cat Acheson and Rob Ralston examined how plastics are being reframed as a human-health emergency within negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty.
A medical testing room with various apparatus white white walls and blinds over the windows.

HIV/AIDS Prevention and the Overuse of Single-Use Devices in Tanzania

Presentations

Andrea Azizi Kifyasi examined how HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns expanded the use of disposable products while creating new waste-management pressures in Tanzania.
A 1960s advert with saturated colours showing plastic medical tuning, gloves and overlayed text.

The Plastics Problem: Inventing and Forgetting Sciences of Synthetic Harms

Presentations

Jeremy Greene revisited the medical “plastics problem” of the 1960s and the regulatory sciences that helped earlier evidence of synthetic harms to be forgotten.
A black and white advert where a group of four people are throwing medical devices into the air.

Safe but Toxic: Hiding the Risks from Gas Sterilisation of Medical Plastics

Presentations

Bruno Strasser and Eloïse Richard examined how toxic ethylene oxide gas enabled the expansion of disposable medical plastics while its risks were made less visible.
Researchers stand in front of 3 presentation screens in a room lined with tables and chairs.
20 Jul 2026

Plastic Amnesias at HSS 2026: Forgotten Histories of Plastics and Health

At HSS 2026, two linked Plastic Amnesias panels explored how evidence of plastic harms, reusable technologies and material alternatives has been repeatedly obscured or forgotten across medicine and global health.
Anne Kveim Lie press shot with a leafy bright background.

Plastics and Disposable Equipment in Healthcare, Past and Present

Presentations

Anne Kveim Lie joined an online training session for infection-control personnel in Norway, examining how disposable equipment became associated with cleanliness and safety in healthcare.
Miranda Melcher stands on a staircase pointing at the words "More Books" which have been printed on the wall by her side.
14 Jul 2026

Bruno Strasser Discusses The Mask on New Books Network

Bruno Strasser joined the New Books Network podcast to discuss the history of respiratory masks and the changing ideas of health, risk and responsibility surrounding them.
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