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E C O F U T U R E S
C H E M I S T R Y & Y O U |
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CHANGING CHEMISTRY
Industry gets serious about cleaning
the muck
Organic Pigments
Red, orange and yellow pigments historically were created using toxic heavy metals such as lead, chromium and cadmium.
Engelhard an award winning com-pany in the US has developed envi-ronmentally friendly
Rightfit pig-ments and this year will entirely phase
out its use of heavy metals.
Sticky
problem
One-half of the paper and paper-board currently used in the USA is
recycled, but adhesives, coatings, plastics and other materials on the old paper can
produce spots and holes in the new paper. Called "stickies," they cost the
industry US $500 million annually. Buckman uses a new enzyme to turn stickies into a
water-soluble, non-sticky material. The enzyme is produced by a bacteria and is completely
bio degradable. Since 2002, more than 40 paper mills have converted to the enzyme.
Source: USA
TODAY/2004 |
Most industrial chemical processes and laboratories make use of
starting materials (reactants) that can be harmful to human health and the environment
unless properly han-dled and stored. Remember Bhopal? No wonder your chemistry teacher is
always asking you to be careful and cautious while doing experiments in the chemistry lab!
Enter Green Chemistry
Green chemists investigate whether it is possible to reduce the hazards by using safer
reactants to produce the same products. In response to the environmental and economic
costs many chemical companies have made progress in doing this, and others are begin-ning
to follow.The fundamental idea of green chemistry is that the designer of a chemical is
responsi-ble for considering what will hap-pen to the environment after the agent is put
in place. Companies also realize that there is money saved in proper waste and
environ-mental disposal. Companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up
dioxins, heavy metals, mercury and asbestos.
Learning from Nature
Just as in any natural process chemical products should be designed so that at the end of
their function they break down into innocuous degradation products and do not persist in
the environ-ment. In many ways a sustainable future depends on how we pro-duce, use and
dispose the products we use everyday. Green chemists of the future will determine whether
that will happen or not. Chemistry is no longer the same.
Become
a green chemist
Industry needs responsible
scientists, researchers and business managers. You can be one of them.
Though not many specialised courses in green chemistry exist in the world today
but with increasing need for cleaner production systems ‘green chemists’ will be
in great demand in the future. These are exciting times for ecologically conscious
scientists tinkering in their labs. Here are some ideas on what you can do at home and in
school as a budding green chemist:
 Speak to your chemistry teacher and organise a
classroom session on developing a green chemistry curriculum in your school.
Develop a green chemistry activity in
your school chemistry laboratory.
Consider how you can convert a current
lab experiment into agreener one.
KEYWORDS:
Chemical reactions, Rate of reaction,
Risk management, Toxicology,
Exposure, Hazard, Laboratory safety |
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