Chemistry and national well-being What the Pimentel report says on the subject
George C. Pimentel Opportunities in Chemistry, published by the National Academy Press in October 1985, is also well-known in the chemistry community as ihe “Pimentel repori,” after George C. Pimeniel of the University of California. Pimeniel, who is President of the American Chemical Society, was chairman of the National Research Council S Committee to Survey Opportunities in the Chemical Sciences. One area of opportunity outlined in the report is in work for a betier environment In Chapier V “Chemistryand the National Well-Being,” the commiitee states that chem’siry is critical to our attempt to monitor and protect our planet. Chapier V i s divided into five areas, thefirst ofwhich is entitled “Better Environment.” This seciion is broken down into seven subareas, each on an environmenial theme. Each of these subareas describes receni and imporrant accomplishments and identges possibilities for the future. Siarting with this issue, and continuing for the next six, ES&T is publishing-verbatim and with the copyright holder’spermission-each of the topics in the first section of Chapter V This month ‘s installment is the chapter introduction. In coming issues we will publish ihe sections on detection, ozone in the stratosphere, acid rain, the greenhouse effect, clean water and safe waste disposal, and radioactive waste management. 128 Environ. Sci. Te;
lol., Val. 20.No. 2,1986
Better environment Every society tries to provide itself with adequate food and shelter and a healthful environment. When these elemental needs are assured, attention NrnS to comfort and convenience. The extent to which all these wishes can be satisfied determines a society’s “quality of life.” However, choices are usually required because one or another of these needs or wishes is more easily satisfied at the expense of others. Today we find our desires for more abundant consumer goods, energy, and mobility in conflict with maintenance of a healthful environment. A major concern of our times is the protection of our environment in the face of increasing world population, increasing concentration of population (urbanization), and increasing standards of living. Environmental degradation-with its accompanying threats to health and disruption of ecosystems-is not a new phenomenon. Human disturbance of the environment has been noted from the earliest recorded history, The problem of sewage disposal began with the birth of cities. Long before the 20th century, London was plagued with air pollution from fires used for heating and cooking. An early example of an industrial hygiene problem was the reduced longevity of chimney sweeps attributed retrospectively to cancer arising from prolonged exposure to soot with its trace carcinogen content (polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons). There is small consolation, though, in the fact that environmental pollution is not a new invention. The global population burgeons upward, while cities grow even faster. Per capita consumption and energy use continue to increase. Pollution problems are becoming increasingly obvious, and we are recognizing subtle interactions and secondary reverberations that went unnoticed before. A number of environmental disturbances have begun to manifest themselves on a global scale. Occasional industrial accidents, like those at Bhopal and Seveso, remind us that large-scale production of needed consumer products may require handling of large amounts of potentially danger-
ous precursor substances. On the positive side, the public awareness has been raised about the importance of maintaining environmental quality. In the United States, a large majority of citizens from across the political spectrum have indicated that they are prepared to pay more for “cleaner” products (e.g., lead-free gasoline) and to pay more taxes to improve their environment. These attitudes are spreading abroad, an essential aspect of containment of the problems more global in scope. Effective strategies for safeguarding our surroundings require adequate knowledge and understanding. We must be able to answer the following questions: What potentially undesirable substances are present in our air, water, soil, and food? Where did these substances come from? What options are there-alternative products and processes-to alleviate known problems? What is the quantitative degree of hazard as a function of the extent of exposure to a given constituent? How shall we choose among and implement available options that offer corrective action? Plainly, chemists play a central role in answering the first three crucial questions. To find out what is around us, we need analytical chemists to a p ply and develop ever more sensitive and selective analytical techniques. To track pollutants back to their origins, again we look to analytical chemists acting as sleuths, now usually in collaboration with meteorologists, oceanographers, volcanologists, climate dynamicists, biologists, and hydrologists. But finding origins can require detailed chemical understanding of reaction sequences and transformations that intervene between the source and the final noxious or toxic product. Then, developing options calls on the full range of the chemist’s arsenal. If the world’s mortality rate from malaria is not to be reduced with DDT because of its environmental persistence, what substances can be synthesized that are
Opportunities in Chemistry @ 1985 by the National Academy of Sciences
