Record Display for the EPA National Library Catalog

RECORD NUMBER: 9 OF 83

Main Title Chasing Molecules Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry / [electronic resource] :
Type EBOOK
Author Grossman, Elizabeth.
Publisher Island Press/Center for Resource Economics : Imprint: Island Press,
Year Published 2012
Call Number RA565-600
ISBN 9781610911573
Subjects Environmental sciences ; Nanochemistry ; Medicine ; Environmental chemistry ; Environmental Medicine ; Pollution
Internet Access
Description Access URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-157-3
Collation XXXII, 256p. online resource.
Notes
Due to license restrictions, this resource is available to EPA employees and authorized contractors only
Contents Notes
Preface -- Prologue -- Chapter 1. There's Something in the Air -- Chapter 2. Swimmers, Hoppers, and Fliers -- Chapter 3. Laboratory Curiosities and Chemical Unknowns -- Chapter 4. The Polycarbonate Problem -- Chapter 5. Plasticizers -- Health Risks or Fifty Years of Denial of Data? Chapter 6. The Persistent and Pernicious -- Chapter 7. Out of the Frying Pan -- Chapter 8. Nanotechnology -- Perils and Promise of the Infinitesimal Chapter 9. Material Consequences -- Toward a Greening of Chemistry. Epilogue: Redesigning the Future. Acknowledgments -- Appendix: Principles of Green Chemistry and Molecular Design Pyramid Questions -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- Index. 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 harmless, environmentally-friendly materials? Elizabeth Grossman, an acclaimed journalist who brought national attention to the contaminants hidden in computers and other high tech electronics, now tackles the hazards of ordinary consumer products. She shows that for the sake of convenience, efficiency, and short-term safety, we have created synthetic chemicals that fundamentally change, at a molecular level, the way our bodies work. The consequences range from diabetes to cancer, reproductive and neurological disorders. Yet it's hard to imagine life without the creature comforts current materials provide-and Grossman argues we do not have to. A scientific revolution is introducing products that are "benign by design," developing manufacturing processes that consider health impacts at every stage, and is creating new compounds that mimic rather than disrupt natural systems. Through interviews with leading researchers, Grossman gives us a first look at this radical transformation. Green chemistry is just getting underway, but it offers hope that we can indeed create products that benefit health, the environment, and industry.