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Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry
by Elizabeth Grossman
New Book Shelf RA1226 .G76 2009

Outing the truth about commonly used hazardous chemicals that are leaching out of everything from plastic bottles to children’s toys and infiltrating the biosphere and our bodies to deleterious effect. The Susan Grossman tracks the migration of synthetic, petroleum-based molecules emitted by pesticides, cosmetics, food containers, and vinyl, to name just a few sources. She accompanies scientists to China, the Great Lakes, and the Arctic,where these chemicals (82,000 and counting) are found in alarming quantities. These are dramatic expeditions, but even more revealing are Grossman’s quests through mountains of daunting lab studies and reports, which reveal that we are continually ingesting chemicals that disrupt endocrine hormone functions and other biological and genetic mechanisms and that cause cancer and other diseases.

Grossman profiles the worst offenders,including bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates,but she also portrays the good guys who are coming to the rescue, John Warner and Paul Anastas, founders of the burgeoning green chemistry movement. Green chemistry aims to replace hazardous synthetic chemicals with chemicals that are “benign by design.”
reviewed by —Donna Seaman, Booklist, September 15, 2009.

Check out Chasing Molecules: Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry by Elizabeth Grossman, available now on the New Book Shelf RA1226 .G76 2009