Editor's Page
A little internal honesty Dr. Raymond P. Mariella, associate executive director of ACS, was the speaker at an American Institute of Chemists dinner in Chicago late last month. Here is part of what he had to say: What is a chemist? Is a chemist a professional? What does a chemist do? Does he or she perform any really useful function? How would the general public answer these questions? Not only would the general public have trouble answering these questions, but we do also! We are finding it difficult even to agree on a simple definition of a chemist, or on the minimum training needed to qualify as a chemist. What do chemists do? They do just about everything. Chemists are remarkably resourceful people. They are trained to think, reason, analyze, and reach conclusions. Such training is an excellent background for many careers. But what may be strength to us may be confusing to the general public, since most nonchemists are not really sure what a chemist does and, cruel as it may sound, society will reward, generally, the individual as society deems fit and proper! So, in the minds of the general public, the chemist does not merit the importance, the status, and income of the physician, the lawyer, the dentist,.because the general public has no way of knowing that the chemist merits them. Apparently it all boils down to the image of the chemist. What do outsiders think of us? Can we converse with them properly? If we are professionals, do outsiders consider us so? What's the problem? So, do I have any magic solutions about our image? First of all a little internal honesty is important. Being envious of the income of a physician, a dentist, or a lawyer is an unproductive exercise. Getting society to appreciate us properly takes time. Collectively, we have done many good things and it is up to us to try to associate chemistry and chemical engineering with the many significant advances so that the people out there recognize us and relate us to such progress. This also takes time and much effort from all of us, and is a slow process. Who speaks for chemistry? Who represents us to the public? Every one of you, and none of you! There is no one person who is the spokesman! The board of directors of ACS officially speaks for ACS and although much has been done in this manner, we still have a long way to go to improve our timing, performance, and therefore our total image in the U.S. Because of the cautious nature of chemists, most are reluctant to speak out on sensitive and often controversial issues. Since we have honest disagreement among ourselves, we frequently do nothing! We are used to dealing with facts, and so many of us tend to avoid plain matters of personal opinion. Because of our preoccupation with truth we have difficulty with issues concerning halftruths. This issue doesn't stop politicians, lawyers, or government bureaucrats—who act on these matters frequently affecting us. There is no doubt that scientists and engineers have made wonderful contributions to humanity; to our health, happiness, and future way of life, but at the same time the public has become aware of many related problems on the negative side. Yes, some chemicals do cause deaths; do cause cancer; do pollute the environment. This we cannot and need not deny. But we really must explain to the public that there is no sure thing! It is incumbent on us to maximize awareness of our contributions to humanity by simply reiterating all the good things we have done, and to make sure that by our actions, to the extent possible, the seriously negative effects are reduced to a minimum. This we must do collectively as well as individually. If one out of nine M.D.'s is an alcoholic, we don't condemn all M.D.'s. If one out of nine M.D.'s is a drug addict, we don't try to arrest all M.D.'s. If one or two chemical companies are caught in damaging circumstances through poor judgment or some regrettable accident, we shouldn't brand all chemical companies as monstrous violators of the environment—nor should we remain silent when others do so. •
C&EN editorials represent only the views of the author and aim at initiating intelligent discussion.
Sept. 5, 1977 C&EN
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