GUS (Gave Up Smoking) is a community support diary for Kossacks in the midst of quitting smoking. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are quitting or even thinking about quitting, please -- join us!
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Good evening everyone! I hope your weekends have been treating you well. I fought off some pretty strong smoking urges while having beer the last two nights so I feel pretty good. It's really amazing how less crappy you feel in the morning when you didn't smoke while drinking. Anyway, I'll get started with my topic of the day.
I feel like when many people hear the word "chemicals" some of the images and thoughts they immediately conjure up are those of toxins, pollution, and and generally unhealthy and unnatural stuff. The word of course is a generic word that literally refers to any substance from water to pcb's. Of course here on GUS, it has been documented well the sort of chemical additives are put in cigarettes. In this respect, I feel like the field/industry of synthetic chemistry is looked at with great suspicion by many on the left. While of course synthetic chemistry is responsible for most of our medicines, solar cells, and all sorts of other useful things it also put lead in our paint and BPA in our babies bottles even though the industries knew they posed threats. Ultimately the science of chemistry is simply a tool which like any other tool can pose threats if not applied responsibly. With that in mind I would just like to talk about the now well established field of Green Chemistry.
One of the great things about working in an academic setting is that I routinely get to meet and see presentations from other academic sciences. In the past few months I've had the chance to meet a couple of really impressive researchers who have made a great impact on the field of science and the field of Green Chemistry.
While I was aware of the field called Green chemistry I never really knew much about what it really meant. Who better to see a lecture then from one of the two people that actually came up with the term, chemist John Warner. In 1990, together with EPA official Paul Anastas, well before anyone was using the word "green" John Warner came up with this term to refer to a new approach to chemsitry in which a focus and priority was placed on minimizing or eliminating harmful waste in chemical processes while simultaneously using only renewable feed stocks. I realize this sounds pretty obvious but there is a little more too it as his deffenition of green chemistry has 12 steps.
1 It is better to prevent waste than to treat or clean up waste after it is formed.
2 Synthetic methods should be designed to maximize the incorporation of all materials used in the process into the final product.
3 Wherever practicable, synthetic methodologies should be designed to use and generate substances that possess little or no toxicity to human health and the environment.
4 Chemical products should be designed to preserve efficacy of function while reducing toxicity.
5 The use of auxiliary substances (e.g. solvents, separation agents, etc.) should be made unnecessary wherever possible and, innocuous when used.
6 Energy requirements should be recognized for their environmental and economic impacts and should be minimized. Synthetic methods should be conducted at ambient temperature and pressure.
7 A raw material or feedstock should be renewable rather than depleting wherever technically and economically practicable.
8 Reduce derivatives - Unnecessary derivatization (blocking group, protection/ deprotection, temporary modification) should be avoided whenever possible.
9 Catalytic reagents (as selective as possible) are superior to stoichiometric reagents.
10 Chemical products should be designed so that at the end of their function they do not persist in the environment and break down into innocuous degradation products.
11 Analytical methodologies need to be further developed to allow for real-time, in-process monitoring and control prior to the formation of hazardous substances.
12 Substances and the form of a substance used in a chemical process should be chosen to minimize potential for chemical accidents, including releases, explosions, and fires
There are many new examples of important industrial chemical processes that are being reformed to meet or approach these guidelines, because I'm crunched for time I'll cheat and refer you to Wiki's examples.
While having lunch with Mr. Warner I inquired as to how he came up with the term green chemistry and he informed me that green had a threefold meaning. One, green is the color of $ (which you save), another is that green is formed from the fundamental colors blue and yellow, and of course environmental factors. Interestingly he received an award from GW Bush a couple years ago and he told me he spent a half hour with him in the oval office. I would love to know how that conversation went. He truly is an impressive scientist and even has his own green chemistry research institute named after him.
Another chemist who has made a big impact in green chemistry is Terry Collins at Carnegie Mellon University. He has developed a wonderful series of iron based catalysts that in the presence of hydrogen peroxide will destroy just about any organic pollutant in water. These non-toxic catalysts would be excellent replacements for things currently used in water purification like chlorine. Here he is talking about it.
One of the things I find exciting about green chemistry is that the challenges it provides really pushes researchers to try new things which inevitably lead to exciting new science that they might not have stumbled upon otherwise.
I hope that this brief diary has helped shed a little light on where chemistry is going in terms of the environment and that as a science it does have the capacity to have a profound impact on reducing pollution.
Sorry everyone but I probably won't stick round long tonight as we have guests stopping by tonight. I hope the second wave of GUS'ers are getting excited to kick the butts out!
GUS 1.5 the next scheduled group quit date, is this upcoming Tuesday, December 15.
coloradomomma
hulibow
indyada
MillieNeon
Sark Svemes
The above are the current Kossacks who will quit smoking on December 15th. This is a great start, and there is room for many more! If you are thinking of quitting, this is your chance. Get prepared, get studied up and make a real go of it! You are of course invited to check in with your fellow GUSsacks and maybe even do a diary or two.
December 15th is the six-month anniversary of the start of GUS and falls on a Tuesday. If you feel better quitting on a weekend, you can move your quit date forward or put it off until the next weekend. You cannot give yourself and your family a better holiday present than to quit the smokes once and for all!
Current members of the GUS team! Please post a comment in the butt can if you would like your name added to the GUS Buddy List:
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