Benign by Design

With toxic compounds turning up in animals, food, and people all over the world, scientists are calling for green chemistry: a sustainable ethos of product design.

More than 40 years ago, Rachel Carson warned of a “silent spring.” Twenty years later, Bill McKibben wrote of the human alteration of every aspect of the natural world. Nature has not ended, but signs of severe and subtle disturbance are everywhere. Scientists are now watching natural systems that have evolved over millennia begin to falter in response to chemical wrenches we’ve introduced into the global environment. The manufactured materials we’ve used for the past century have served us well in many ways. But it is now clear we can no longer afford—if we ever could—to proceed with designs that serve but one generation.

There are now tens of thousands of synthetic chemicals—materials that exist nowhere in nature—that are manufactured commercially and go into products that range from electronics to cosmetics, clothing, cookware, and building materials. They now permeate every aspect of our lives. These chemicals were created to perform specific tasks and are intended to make our lives easier, more convenient, and often safer.

But many of these manufactured materials can also behave in ways that produce adverse health impacts. Chemicals that make up lightweight, shatterproof, and bendable flexible plastics; nonstick, waterproof, stain- and grease-resistant surfaces; and flame retardants are being released into the environment. This contamination stems not only from industrial plants and waste sites but also from finished products as we use them. Many of these chemicals are turning up far—even continents—away from where these products are made, used, or disposed of.

Such chemicals are being found in animals, in food, and in people all over the world. Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control have found dozens of such chemicals in the majority of Americans they’ve tested over the past 10 years. Babies are now born in the U\S with synthetic chemicals already in their bloodstreams.

The acute adverse impacts of exposure to large amounts of highly toxic chemicals have long been known. What’s been discovered more recently is that many synthetic chemicals can interact at very low levels of exposure—levels present in the environment —with the biological mechanisms that maintain reproductive, metabolic, immune system, neurological, and even cardiac health. These effects can lead to chronic conditions that include diabetes, obesity, learning difficulties, and reproductive system disorders.

Read more . . .

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Tags: benign by design, bill mckibben, ethos of product design, global environment, green chemistry, health impacts, rachel carson, silent spring, synthetic chemicals, toxic compounds, world scientists

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 12:40 pm and is filed under Consider This, Dire Warnings, Health, Innovation Needed, Need to Know, Seed Magazine, Shape of Things to Come?, environment, food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.