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.

Andrea Azizi Kifyasi examined how HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns expanded the use of disposable products while creating new waste-management pressures in Tanzania.

Jeremy Greene revisited the medical “plastics problem” of the 1960s and the regulatory sciences that helped earlier evidence of synthetic harms to be forgotten.

Bruno Strasser and Eloïse Richards examined how toxic ethylene oxide gas enabled the expansion of disposable medical plastics while its risks were made less visible.

Eloïse Richards' AAHM 2026 presentation explored how disposable medical devices became associated with safety, efficiency and convenience, and what histories of resistance might offer for rethinking healthcare practices today.

Eloïse Richards presented ‘Behind the White Coat: Cleaning and Sterilizing Hospital Textiles in the Early 20th Century’ at the international conference ‘A History of Textile Cleanliness’, exploring the labour, infrastructure, and material practices that supported hospital care before the widespread turn to disposability.