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Environment
Great Story, Bad Rap
December 6, 2010
| A version of this story appeared in
Volume 88, Issue 49
ACS 2009 IRS Form 990 Available
The American Chemical Society’s 2009 Form 990 is now available on ACS’s website. To access the information, go to www.acs.org and follow these instructions: Click on “About Us,” then click on “ACS Financial Information.” Go to the heading, “ACS IRS Form 990,” and click on “2009 IRS Form 990.”Please see also the related “Guide to Schedule J” for explanatory information regarding ACS Executive Compensation. If you have any access problems, contact webmaster@acs.org.
I have long been puzzled by the poor image of chemistry since those halcyon days of the 1950s and ’60s. Somehow chemists have taken a bad rap for a variety of societal maladies, notably the environment.
But we are victims of our own success. Take fabric: Towels don’t fray. Shirts last longer. And few remember ever darning a sock. Why? Those darn chemists! We have developed fibers, improved surface treatments, made colors fast, improved comfort, and made it all wrinklefree. Great news for consumers, but the clothing and towel stores have lost business!
Repeat this story for pretty much any aspect of life: food, health, transportation, communications, personal care ... the answer remains the same. Those darn chemists have improved the products, made “stuff” cheaper for consumers, and been central to improvements in life and society for over a century.
Chemistry has a great story. We should tell it better.
Mitchell D. Erickson
New Providence, N.J.
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