Chasing Molecules Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise
Each day, headlines warn that baby bottles are leaching dangerous chemicals, nonstick pans are causing infertility, and plastic containers are making us fat. What if green chemistry could change all that? What if rather than toxics, our economy ran on har
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CHASING MOLECULES Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry
Elizabeth Grossman
/ Shearwater Books Washington | Covelo | London
A Shearwater Book Published by Island Press
Copyright © 2009 Elizabeth Grossman All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher: Island Press, 1718 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20009. SHEARWATER BOOKS is a trademark of The Center for Resource Economics. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data. Grossman, Elizabeth, 1957– Chasing molecules : poisonous products, human health, and the promise of green chemistry / Elizabeth Grossman. p. cm. “A Shearwater Book.” Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-59726-370-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-59726-370-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Environmental toxicology—Popular works. 2. Environmental chemistry—Industrial applications—Popular works. 3. Consumer goods—Toxicology—Popular works. I. Title. RA1226.G76 2010 615.9′02—dc22 2009028279 British Cataloguing-in-Publication data available. The paperback edition carries the ISBN-13: 978-1-61091-161-0 and the ISBN-10: 1-61091-161-X Printed on recycled, acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Jane and Olivia, with love and hope
In virtually every aspect in society, it has long been acknowledged that preventing a problem is superior to trying to solve it once it has been created. —Paul Anastas and John Warner, 2000
Contents
Preface xiii Prologue xvii Chapter 1
There’s Something in the Air 1
Chapter 2
Swimmers, Hoppers, and Fliers 19
Chapter 3
Laboratory Curiosities and Chemical Unknowns 41
Chapter 4
The Polycarbonate Problem 55
Chapter 5
Plasticizers 83 Health Risks or Fifty Years of Denial of Data?
Chapter 6
The Persistent and Pernicious 99
Chapter 7
Out of the Frying Pan 123
Chapter 8
Nanotechnology 143 Perils and Promise of the Infinitesimal
Chapter 9
Material Consequences 159 Toward a Greening of Chemistry
Epilogue: Redesigning the Future 191 Acknowledgments 201 Appendix: Principles of Green Chemistry and Molecular Design Pyramid Questions 203 Notes 205 Select Bibliography 229 Index 241 xi
Preface to Paperback Edition
Since Chasing Molecules was first published in the fall of 2009, synthetic chemicals have been very much in the news. And for good reason. Almost every week, if not daily, new scientific studies are published documenting the adverse health effects of some chemicals that most of us encounter daily. Consequently, once-obscure substances like bisphenol A and phthalates have become household names and it’s now becoming common knowledge that many materials once thought to be biologically inert are in fact mobile and active. As we learn more about how tiny amounts of these chemicals—particularly those known as endocrine disrupters—can interfere with the innermost workings of living cells, it becomes
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