The green chemistry and their 12 guiding principles where created to prevent pollution, apply innovative solutions to real-world environmental problems, lessen or eliminate hazards from products and processes, reduce the negative impact of chemical productions (such as plastics) on human health and the environment, and works to design chemicals products and processes to reduce their intrinsic hazards. Reading about green chemistry makes me happy that there are people and communities working to solve the issues brought on by the creation of chemically made products. I had never heard of green chemistry, but with all that we have going on in the world revolving around waste and the effects it has on our environment, it makes sense that this exists. Each of the 12 principles can be applied to help change the impact that chemically made products that more often than not turn into hazardous garbage should be known to everyone. These should be discussed more when we talk about climate change and what organizations are doing to reduce these effects.
Environmental Justice as stated by the US EPA is "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." When I think about all the places around the world that turn the other way when it comes to polluting the earth it breaks my heart. This feeling deepens as I learn how these incinerators, waste lands etc are developed and ran near less developed neighborhood or countries and in communities filled mostly with people of color. It seems to happen more often than not, due to lack of education, socioeconomic status, employment levels, and the physical environment. This fits into the concept of social determinants of health because those living in low income communities have less opportunity or options available to them when it comes to removing themselves from such toxic environments. It is unfortunate ...
It is such an interesting concept, and it makes me think why we were not thinking with degradation and safety parameters in our mind when we were first starting to use chemicals with massive amounts of human contact/exposure?
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