Evaluate, Innovate, and Alternate he environment is oftentimes perceived as shot through with threats. Hazards seem to be a trade-off for eased living. Consumers are alarmed when the toxicity or potential for disease due to another household item is reported, and begin to wonder if anything is safe. Part of the fear stems from frustration that the full picture is not clear. For a scientist or engineer, frustration is best assuaged by investigation and/or innovation to tackle the problem. This issue of ES&T, as with any other, features articles that demonstrate the facets of confronting complex problems, so as to polish away the cloudy uncertainty and reveal the underlying crysts of solutions. Bisphenol A (BPA) is on many consumers’ minds, especially as international governments strive to decide on its use. Providing a plastic liner for food containers, BPA has been credited with vastly decreasing cases of food poisoning. However its possible endocrine disruption activity has alarmed many and thus spawned widespread scientific investigation. In this issue, Schecter et al. report on the concentrations of BPA in U.S. canned and fresh foods, providing information for risk assessments (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/ es102785d). To keep our abodes clean, vacuum cleaners are arguably so taken for granted that the thought of living without them is a nonsensical proposition to many. Yet with any technology, such ubiquitous acceptance hardly means it can’t or shouldn’t be improved, especially if there is consumer interest. Lutz et al. report on the efficacy of a vacuum equipped with an ultraviolet C (UV-C) lamp (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/ es1015982). There are probably many consumers who delight at the possibility of making cleaning the floor a marriage of suctioning up dirt and casting a biocidal light for sterilization. While researchers investigate and inventors innovate, another active realm of assuaging frustration and confronting risk is to alternate out hazards. In this issue’s cover Feature, Lavoie et al. explain how the EPA’s Design for Environment (DfE) program works with stakeholders to identify what ingredients in consumer products should be switched out for safer versions (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es1015789). Since a formulaic inclusion like a (brominated) flame retardant, plasticizer, or pigment is
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hardly a modular component, this requires deft consideration of formula chemistry and risk assessment. DfE also strives to ensure that alternatives do not ironically worsen the hazardssurely few users would be comfortable that the lessening of carcinogenicity comes at the expense of ecotoxicity. As alluded to in the November 1, 2010 Comment (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es103243r), DfE is one of several efforts to cap alternatives and risk profiling with a label to quickly inform consumers yearning for a greater sense of security and confidence in their purchasing choices. The wheel of fortune of environmental risk monitoring and assessment continues to turn in these pages, most hopefully with net forward progress. This past summer saw the environmental hazards of modern living thrown into stark relief with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which still populates online news sites nearly wall to wall. As the smoke has cleared, data sets are being populated and reported. In this issue, two research Articles from EPA scientists report on airborne measurements of dioxins from controlled burns of the slick: Aurell and Gullett address the sampling of dioxins (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es103554y); Schaum et al. assess the health risk of the dioxins (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/ es103559w); and Anastas et al. remark on the challenges to environmental research during a crisis (Environ. Sci. Technol. DOI 10.1021/es103700x). ES&T continues to welcome articles on evaluation, innovation, and alternative(s) creation, be it for oil spills or any other aspect on the natural and built environments. As we close out this year, we encourage you to read the content in our January 1, 2011 Special Issue (noting the immediately previous link will not be active until two weeks after this Comment’s release) on Environmental Policy: Past, Present, and Future. We are using that issue to celebrate both the International Year of Chemistry and the 45th Anniversary of Environmental Science & Technology.
Darcy J. Gentleman Managing Editor*
[email protected] December 15, 2010 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 9 9243
