Searching for harmless chemicals

In a world where chemicals are widely seen as a problem, a three-year-old EU programme is working to prove that they can instead be the solution.

The European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry - or SusChem - was launched in 2004 by industry and the European Commission to increase research into ‘green’ chemistry. Specifically, it aims to identify areas where chemicals can tackle modern challenges, including climate change and healthcare, without harming the environment.

A five-year action plan published in 2006 identified "eight themes of major importance for sustainable chemistry": energy, healthcare, transport, information and communication technologies, nanotechnology, quality of life, industrial biotechnology, product and process design, and transport. The action plan also outlined so-called visionary projects, including an energy-efficient house and a clean bio-refinery.

"We are taking all three aspects of sustainability very seriously," said Marian Mours of SusChem. "The projects identified have to be environmentally friendly, with the lowest possible impact on the environment, and also bring something sustainable to the economy and society."

In the energy category, for example, SusChem encourages research in alternative energy sources, improved materials for solar panels, and the use of nanoparticles as fuels, among other green innovations.

Mours also works at the research department of Cefic, the European chemicals industry federation.

Cefic, together with biotechnology groups EuropaBio and ESAB, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the German Chemical Society and the Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, is responsible for funding and managing SusChem activities.

Mours said that the platform very quickly attracted interest from academics around Europe who contributed to its action plan and research agenda. National and EU policymakers, as well as animal rights groups and other non-governmental organisations, have also participated in SusChem meetings and research.

SusChem research projects will be funded through a combination of the EU’s 7th framework programme for research (FP7) and competitiveness and innovation programme (CIP), industry money and public finance from the member states.

SusChem is now working to establish sub-groups in the member states, so that research can also be carried out in line with national priorities.

Nadia Haiama, an EU chemicals policy director with Greenpeace, said that the focus on ‘green’ chemistry was welcome. But she warned against taking things too quickly - especially when it comes to nanotechnology. "We don’t yet have toxicological tests to fully evaluate nanotechnology and it is not properly covered by REACH," she said. "We need to deal with these issues before rushing to put nanotech products on the market."

Chemical risks

• If there was a prize for communicating the idea that chemicals carry a risk, environmentalists would win hands down.

In 2003, the results of blood-tests revealing potentially dangerous - and in some case banned - chemicals in human blood were picked up by newspapers and lobby groups around the world.

This DetoX blood test campaign, co-ordinated by WWF, the conservation group, increased public support for the EU chemical legislation REACH. Various conservation groups continued the campaign throughout negotiations on the new regulation, consistently finding carcinogens and mutagens in the blood of everything tested, from eels to MEPs.

But critics say that DetoX misses the point. Any substance, they say, is toxic if the dose is high enough. Frightening people about the level of exposure uncovered by blood tests in developed countries (typically, measured in parts per million or billion) risks a backlash against necessary chemical products.

A 16th century physician is often called up to support this argument. Research by Paracelsus into diseases including miner’s disease was among the first to show that chemicals which are in some cases fatal can also be beneficial.

His work laid the foundations for modern toxicology and for chemotherapy - the treatment of diseases with chemicals.

Paracelsus’s theory that "the dose makes the poison" has not been communicated as successfully as DetoX in this century. But it is championed by many leading academics, notably Bruce Ames, professor of biochemistry at the University of California, and John Emsley of Cambridge University.

Ten years ago Emsley published ‘The Consumer’s Good Chemical Guide’, which he said was an attempt to quieten popular concerns over "chemicals such as perfumes, sweeteners, alcohol, cholesterol, fats, fibre, painkillers, PVC, dioxins, nitrates and carbon dioxide".

More recently, Cefic, the European chemicals federation, has tried to put the blood test results into context, pointing out that one part per million equates to one second in 280 hours and one part per trillion to one second every 32 years.

In a world where chemicals are widely seen as a problem, a three-year-old EU programme is working to prove that they can instead be the solution.