April 30, 2005

Chemistry - learn it

ReadJust read where the UN is meeting next week to discuss banning 12 chemicals that are poison to the environment worldwide. I wonder - how many chemists are invited to this meeting? Most of the banned substances are highly toxic, but have specific uses that function well when treated with proper application. The mechanism works at much, much lower concentrations in biological systems that people expect, but an outright ban is ludicrous.
ReadFirst - it could never be enforced even handedly. The technical knowledge is beyond our enforcement personel and there are better things for law enforcement to be doing. Second - since these chemicals all have functional utility, there is an economic loss required to develop a product to replace their function. The replacements are worse. The list is political, and once started, will be added to in never ending fashion by bureaucracies saving us from ourselves.
ReadWhy? How much contact did you have with the freon in your refrigerator in the past 40 years? Why is asbestos a problem when solid and contained, and not a bigger problem when its ripped out and torn apart? People need to learn chemistry for themselves and not trust what they've been taught to believe by the propaganda that the chemical manufacturers spew forth. Flouride and Aluminum ions are more of an immediate human health problem that mercury. Chemical wastes are sold as manufactured products to save the cost of disposal - hence we have the agricultural fertilizer industry.
ReadDon't allow politicians to make decisions for you. Learn how chemistry works; elements, the nitrogen and water cycles, physiology, carbon chemistry. Figure out if global warming makes sense in your own terms. Then do something about it - if it's a problem.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Stop this crazy talk! Government knows best. Think about how much good banning DDT has been for the people of Africa! I'm sure the politicos at the UN know what they're doing.