META: What discourses shape the way people in this setting talk about and conceptualize civic data infrastructure and capacity, right-to-know, freedom of information, the potential of expanded public participation, and so on?

In ‘The Safe Side of the Fence,’ workers of Mallinckrodt Chemical Works plant and nearby Dow Chemical Works share their experience of a lack of discourse around safety and an inability to speak to others (like spouses) of what their jobs were like. This lack of discourse directly impacted their and their surviving family members’ ability seek compensation for health damages occurred as a result of their work, often because lack of communication and information created a void of data that made it difficult to reconstruct estimated exposure levels in order to provide compensation. The lack of discourse and information kept workers in the dark about the risks of their jobs and denied them a choice in taking those risks.