Elizabeth Grossman, an acclaimed journalist who brought national attention to the contaminants hidden in computers and other high tech electronics, now tackles the hazards of ordinary consumer products. She shows that for the sake of convenience, efficiency, and short-term safety, we have created synthetic chemicals that fundamentally change, at a molecular level, the way our bodies work. The consequences range from diabetes to cancer, reproductive and neurological disorders.
Yet it's hard to imagine life without the creature comforts current materials provide-and Grossman argues we do not have to. A scientific revolution is introducing products that are "benign by design," developing manufacturing processes that consider health impacts at every stage, and is creating new compounds that mimic rather than disrupt natural systems. Through interviews with leading researchers, Grossman gives us a first look at this radical transformation.
Autorentext
Elizabeth Grossman is the author of High Tech Trash, Watershed: The Undamming of America (Counterpoint Press, 2002), and Adventuring Along the Lewis and Clark Trail (Sierra Club Books, 2003). She is also the co-editor of Shadow Cat: Encountering the American Mountain Lion (Sasquatch Books, 1999). Grossman's writing has also appeared in a variety of publications, including Amicus Journal, Audubon, California Wild, Cascadia Times, Chicago Tribune, Environmental News Network, Grist, The Nation, New York Times Book Review, Newsday, Oregonian, Orion, the Patagonia catalogue, Salon.com, Seattle Times, Washington Post, and Yes! A native of New York City, she has a BA in literature from Yale University. She now lives a minute's walk from the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. When not at her desk writing she's out exploring-hiking, camping, paddling, sketching, and watching birds.
Inhalt
Preface
Prologue
Chapter 1 There's Something in the Air
Chapter 2 Swimmers, Hoppers, and Fliers
Chapter 3 Laboratory Curiosities and Chemical Unknowns
Chapter 4 The Polycarbonate Problem
Chapter 5 Plasticizers
Health Risks or Fifty Years of Denial of Data?
Chapter 6 The Persistent and Pernicious
Chapter 7 Out of the Frying Pan
Chapter 8 Nanotechnology
Perils and Promise of the Infinitesimal
Chapter 9 Material Consequences
Toward a Greening of Chemistry
Epilogue: Redesigning the Future
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Principles of Green Chemistry and Molecular Design Pyramid Questions
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index.