Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Chasing Molecules

Poisonous Products, Human Health, and the Promise of Green Chemistry

  • Book
  • © 2012

Overview

Authors:
  1. Elizabeth Grossman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • The first book for general readers about green chemistry--a promising and exciting new field
  • Timely because of the intensifying interest in the health effects of everyday products
  • A "good news" environmental story
  • Author is a tireless promoter with a proven sales record
  • Author's ability to explain complex issues clearly in a journalistic style

  • 5927 Accesses

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxxii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. There’s Something in the Air

    • Elizabeth Grossman
    Pages 1-18

  3. Swimmers, Hoppers, and Fliers

    • Elizabeth Grossman
    Pages 19-40

  4. Laboratory Curiosities and Chemical Unknowns

    • Elizabeth Grossman
    Pages 41-54

  5. The Polycarbonate Problem

    • Elizabeth Grossman
    Pages 55-82

  6. Plasticizers

    • Elizabeth Grossman
    Pages 83-98

  7. The Persistent and Pernicious

    • Elizabeth Grossman
    Pages 99-121

  8. Out of the Frying Pan

    • Elizabeth Grossman
    Pages 123-141

  9. Nanotechnology

    • Elizabeth Grossman
    Pages 143-157

  10. Material Consequences

    • Elizabeth Grossman
    Pages 159-189

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 191-251
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

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.

About the author

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.

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Societies and partnerships

Back to top

Search

Navigation