Environmental chemistry, 1950-2016
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Environmental chemistry is the study of chemical processes in the natural environment. Environmental chemists study how naturally occurring and human-generated chemicals move through and affect the atmosphere, ground-level air, soils, surface water, and groundwater. This involves studying which chemicals are naturally occurring, how chemicals enter and affect the environment, how human activity is involved, and how the negative effects of chemicals on the environment can be reduced and managed.[1]
Environmental chemistry is an interdisciplinary field that incorporates mathematics, biology, geology, ecology (the study of ecosystems), hydrology (the study of water), and toxicology (the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms) into its study of the effects of chemicals on the natural environment.[2]
Background
Environmental chemistry emerged as a discipline as scientists began studying the occurrence of compounds from human activity in the environment. During the 1950s and 1960s, industries, agriculture, and households began using more chemical compounds, which appeared in pesticides, cleaning products, detergents, polyester, synthetic rubber, automobile batteries, pigments, and more.[3][4]
In the 1970s, environmental chemists began studying the effects of human-caused chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) on the stratospheric ozone layer. Discovered in the 1930s, CFCs were used as solvents, refrigerants, and foaming agents in plastic and rubber manufacturing. Though CFCs are non-toxic, inert compounds, CFCs have atmospheric lifetimes of between 20 and 100 years, and their inertness and relative stability allow CFCs to remain in the stratosphere. When ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun reaches the stratosphere, CFC molecules break down to produce chlorine atoms. These chlorine atoms then react and remove ozone molecules from the stratosphere. Stratospheric ozone shields living organisms on Earth from harmful UV radiation from the sun, and the CFCs' contribution to ozone depletion led the United States to ban the use of CFCs beginning in the late 1970s. In 1988, the United States ratified the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement ratified by 196 states to phase out the industrial production of CFCs.[3][5][6]
Since the 1970s, environmental chemistry expanded to include the study and behavior of chemical compounds in water, soil, biological systems, and more.[3]
Focus of study
Environmental chemists study how chemicals enter and affect the air, water, and soil. These chemists often focus on issues related to environmental and human health. Many environmental chemists collect water and soil samples from outdoor ecosystems and analyze them in a lab environment. The chemicals in these samples are studied for their properties and their potential effects on the environment.[2]
Based on their lab work, environmental chemists look at ways to keep harmful chemicals from contaminating the air, water, or soil, particularly in areas where industrial facilities may use and discharge some chemicals into the air or in bodies of water. Environmental chemists also monitor factories or industrial facilities to figure out how to prevent certain chemicals from negatively affecting the environment. These chemists often serve as consultants for private businesses that comply with federal and state regulations. Other private businesses such as waste management companies hire environmental chemists for cleanup work. Meanwhile, colleges and universities employ environmental chemists as professors and academics and governmental regulatory bodies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state government agencies also employ environmental chemists.[2]
Approaches and examples
Below is a sample list of questions that environmental chemists ask during their work:[2]
- Where does a chemical compound come from?
- How is a chemical compound produced and released?
- How is a chemical compound transported within an ecosystem and what chemical mechanisms govern its movement?
- What effects does the compound have on an ecosystem, specifically living organisms?
- How does a particular ecosystem work, and what physical, chemical, and biological processes are involved?
Below is a sample list of questions that environmental chemists ask regarding specific problems in their work, according to the American Chemical Society:[7]
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| —American Chemical Society[7] | ||
Major groups
- The American Chemical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization chartered by Congress in 1937. The society is composed of more than 161,000 chemists, environmental chemists, chemical engineers, and related professionals. Its stated mission is "to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people." The society's main activities include publishing scientific journals and databases, organizing local and national research conferences, and operating educational or policy career programs for chemists. Its leading scholarly journal is the Journal of the American Chemistry Society. [9]
See also
External links
- American Chemistry Society
- World Health Organization
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Footnotes
- ↑ University of Alaska, "Environmental Chemistry," accessed February 24, 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 American Chemical Society, "Environmental Chemists," accessed February 24, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Environmental-Chemistry.dk, "Environmental chemistry," accessed December 1, 2016
- ↑ Dummies, "The Top 10 Industrial Chemicals," accessed December 1, 2016
- ↑ National Geographic, "Ozone Depletion," accessed December 1, 2016
- ↑ U.S. State Department, "The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer," accessed December 1, 2016
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 American Chemical Society, "Environmental Protection," February 24, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ American Chemical Society, "About ACS," accessed February 25, 2015
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