Chemistry has an important role in nearly ever aspect of our life; the clothing, shelter, forms of communication, transportation, and food that we use daily all have some element of chemistry that went into their making. Our every biological function is controlled by chemical reactions. We wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for chemistry. How cool is that? (Says the environmental chemistry graduate student!) Now before you groan and close your web browser because you don’t really care for chemistry, hear my plea and read this article so you can begin to understand the importance of chemistry and the growing field of environmentally conscious chemistry, called green chemistry.

There are many different kinds of chemistry—environmental, analytical, physical, inorganic, synthetic, organic, biochemical—and they all have varying impacts or relationships on the environment and industry.  Environmental chemists are usually the ones who deal with the detection and monitoring of environmental problems, remediation, modeling natural phenomena, or studying things such as ozone depletion and global warming. Analytical chemists develop new and more sensitive methods to detect or monitor compounds.  Synthetic chemists are the ones who design new chemicals and the ways to manufacture them. It is sometimes hard for synthetic chemists to predict the effect their chemical will have on the environment because they are at the very beginning of the process and the effects are not seen until the end, many, many, steps later. (Anastas and Warner 1998)  For this reason many people think it is the chemist’s fault for the release of the toxic chemicals and waste.

Chemistry itself is not “good” or “bad” in a moral sense since it is a natural phenomenon that follows physical laws.  Chemists, however, have control over its use and in the past, irresponsible, ignorant, and amoral people have misused chemistry.  Anastas and Warner (1998) point out that the chemist knows about the “character of the tools of their trade” and therefore should be held accountable for their part in the whole system.  However, most of us realize that corporations do not have our best interests in mind and that they will continue to use hazardous substances in their operations if it is the least expensive method.  The good news is that industry is becoming increasingly aware of the indirect costs that hazardous waste plays on deteriorating public relations, both in Europe and in the US.  The bad news is that some are approaching this news from the wrong angle—the leading US trade association for the chemicals industry, The American Chemical Manufactures Association, recently changed their name to The American Chemistry Council since “chemical” has a worse connotation to the public than “chemistry” (Clark and Macquarrie 2002). 

Synthesis of a chemical or product includes the costs of the feedstocks (the starting materials used), equipment, labor, waste disposal, liability costs, treatment costs, and any other costs associated with regulations or hazardous waste generation (Anastas and Warner 1998).  The traditional way of dealing with the hazardous waste is to deal with it after it has been generated in manufacture, usually by avoiding exposure to it through clean up and disposal. This can cost a lot of money and the people exposed to the hazardous waste include the chemists and the workers in industry in addition to the public and the environment. Yet this is the way things are currently and the way they have, historically, been done, and while it is certainly not sustainable, eco-friendly, or even human-friendly, it happens to be the cheapest way.

But is it really that cheap? It is often the case that the cost of waste disposal is equal to several times the cost of the initial starting materials going into production!  In many of the large chemical companies in the US, the expenditures on research and development equals expenditures on environmental health and safety.  (Anastas and Warner 1998) Therefore, it is up to the synthetic chemist to come up with methods of synthesis that do not lead to hazardous outcomes and which are more profitable for industry in order to encourage the process' practice.  This involves a restructuring of the approach to chemical synthesis and manufacture, and is part of the burgeoning field of green chemistry.

My next article will discuss what green chemistry is and the 12 principles around which it revolves, so stay tuned!

Part 2 What is Green Chemistry

References

Anastas, P. and Warner, J. (1998)  Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice.  New York:
Oxford University Press.

Clark. J and Macquarrie D., eds. (2002) Handbook of Green Chemistry and Technology.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Science.

Last update: July 13, 2008
08:37 am

Published in : Research, Eco Culture

Keywords : Green, chemistry, design, new, clean, pollution

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