Pollution and progress are not synonymous! "Green" chemistry aims to solve environmental ills BEFORE they develop, with the use of chemical processes that are safer for the environment, use less energy, and produce less waste.

Date:   7/3/2005 5:24:20 PM ( 19 y ago)

For years, I've thought of modern chemistry as "the enemy" because of the environmental degradation and ill health of living beings caused by chemical processes and products, particularly since the 1950's with the rise in the development and use of chemicals for manufacturing and agriculture. Yet my heart soared after reading this article from the June 27, 2005 edition of Chemical & Engineering News, titled "Green Success: Presidential awards honor chemists for developing cleaner and economically viable technologies." We have a very long way to go in cleaning and greening our environment, yet this news that my "enemy" is slowly turning itself around is a good start.

The following is an excerpt from that article:

" 'We have changed innumerable things in the practice of chemistry, but the most important thing we have changed is our minds,' commented American Chemical Society President William F. Carroll, speaking last week at a ceremony honoring the winners of the 2005 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. A few moments earlier, Carroll had recounted a story about how, during a recent discussion in China, one student's pronouncement that 'pollution is inevitable with growth and progress' had stopped him cold.

'From the perspective of the chemical industry, pollution and progress are not synonymous,' Carroll recalled telling the student. 'Pollution is waste, and waste means cost.' Carroll followed up by telling the student that the job of chemists is not to find a singular solution to a technical problem, but to challenge themselves to constantly find better solutions. 'That understanding is fundamental to what we call green chemistry,' Carroll said.

Green chemistry is all about more efficient production of industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and consumer products. That is to say, the purpose of green chemistry is to find ways to develop ever-better chemical products and processes that require fewer reagents, less solvent, and less energy to produce, while being safer, generating less waste, and increasing profitability.

The concept of green chemistry was formally established at the Environmental Protection Agency 15 years ago in response to the Pollutiion Prevention Act of 1990. The principles that guide green chemistry may seem intuitive or be viewed simple as common sense, but over the years they have become an intangible framework for the chemical community. Today, these principles are ingrained in the day-to-day operations of companies and increasingly are being incorporated into empirical research carried out at universities and national labs.

The Pollution Prevention Act 'formally recognized what we had learned--that laws and regulations alone are not enough to solve our toughest environmental problems,' noted Margaret N. Schneider, acting deputy assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides & Toxic Substances. 'What we needed was the creation of scientific and technical innovations that eliminate pollution before it's created, which we see reflected in the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards.'

The results of the awards program 'are pretty impressive' Schnieder added. Since it began, EPA's tracking of the impact of the winning technologies shows them to have prevented on average 140 million pounds of hazardous substances from being produced each year, saved more than 55 million gallons of process water per year, and prevented 57 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year, she noted. 'In total, by our current conservative estimates, green chemistry technologies are preventing more than 3 billion pounds of hazardous materials or waste per year.' "

Read the companion piece to this article, "Plastics" from Corn and Soy!: http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=309&i=40



 

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