CA+-+Go+Fix+It+-+Green+Chemistry

One of the largest contributors to the current environmental crisis we are facing is the chemical industry. To blame just them though would be a gross oversight on just how many products are made using harmful chemical practices. The norm is to lobby against these big companies and encourage the government to step in and place regulations on the chemicals and inputs these companies can use. This has had some beneficial impact, but won’t change that fact that companies can easily use other harmful chemicals with little or no regulations currently placed on them. The new solution, focus on the laboratory, where products begin.

[|Green chemistry], a practice still in its infancy, has been suggested as positive solution to one of the largest issues impacting the environment. It tackles the problem that harmful chemicals cause by eliminating the hazards before they even exist. In 1998, Paul Anastas and John Warner developed the “[|12 Principles of Green Chemistry].”

1. [|Prevention of Waste] 2. [|Maximize Atom Economy] 3. [|Design Less Hazardous Chemical Syntheses] 4. [|Designing Safer Chemicals and Products] 5. [|Use Safer Solvents and Auxiliaries] 6. [|Design for Energy Efficiency] 7. [|Use of Renewable Feedstocks] 8. [|Reduce Derivatives] 9. [|Use Catalysts, not Stoichiometric Reagents] 10. [|Design Chemicals and Products to Degrade After Use] 11. [|Real-time Analysis for Pollution Prevention] 12. [|Minimize the Potential for Accidents]

These principles include obvious practices currently being implemented in most laboratories. These practices include preventing laboratory accidents, pollution prevention, and preventing waste. With green chemistry, these current practices are thought of at a new level, by keeping the overall impact of the chemical process in mind and not just focusing on personal safety.

Some of these practices are already being put into practice. Companies such as [|Pfizer] have been creating chemical guides to be used in pharmaceutical laboratory settings. They have taken current literature that has been recently published and enforcing stricter chemical regulations on them. Pfizer believes that by encouraging chemists to practice restraint in their research and not constraining them with legislation, they are more likely to make the switch to more sustainable practices. In their research, Pfizer has focused not only on the environmental impact of chemical processes, but has also considered the impact to the people working with them. In doing so, they have created a safer work place, which is one of the main points of green chemistry.

[|James Clark], a chemistry professor at the University of York, agrees with the idea green chemistry, but believes in a different approach to imposing change to industry. Clark is a firm believer in changing education and implementing stronger government legislative policies. He feels that all universities should implement some form of green chemistry education for all chemical science related degrees, so that the next generation of chemists can begin to implement and discover more sustainable chemical practices. Clark also goes on to discuss the positive impacts that government regulation has had on the chemical industry. REACH ( Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals) is just one example of regulatory practices currently being used. This kind of practice still allows companies to purchase the same chemicals they always have, but in restricted amounts with permits that are expensive to acquire. By implementing these regulations, companies will have to switch to greener chemicals or be forced to pay the raising prices of endangering the environment.

To take the idea of greening the chemical industry a step further, [|green laboratory practices] have also begun to be enforced. These changes though are more common in light of other sustainability practices being implemented in everyday life. Some of the most common changes include regulating energy use in the lab, recycling, and disposing of hazardous wastes properly. Chemical sharing though is a less common lab practice. By placing chemicals in a shared cabinet, it allows for chemicals that would have otherwise been wasted, to be put to good use in another lab. Additionally, simple solutions such as pooling smaller lab shipments together with other laboratories, either within a company or university, it can cut down on the environmental impacts of shipping products.

These sustainable changes to the core problem of the chemical industry can lead to big positive changes. Encouraging green chemistry education and sharing alternative chemical discoveries, will allow green chemistry to become the norm in the work place. By preventing the problem instead of treating the impact it has, will inhibit further environmental and health impacts from occurring and allow for remediation plans to have a beneficial result.