New publication: A New System to Assess New Chemicals for Endocrine Disruption
A groundbreaking new paper outlines a safety testing system that helps chemists design inherently safer chemicals and processes. Resulting from a cross-disciplinary collaboration among scientists, the innovative “TiPED” testing system (Tiered Protocol for Endocrine Disruption) provides information for making chemicals and consumer products safer. TiPED can be applied at different phases of the chemical design process, and can steer companies away from inadvertently creating harmful products, and thus avoid adding another BPA or DDT to commerce.
The study, “Designing Endocrine Disruption Out of the Next Generation of Chemicals,” is online in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Green Chemistry.
The 23 authors are biologists, green chemists and others from North America and Europe who say that recent product recalls and bans reveal that neither product manufacturers nor the government have adequate tools for dealing with endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). EDCs are chemicals commonly used in consumer products that can mimic hormones and lead to a host of modern day health epidemics including cancers, learning disabilities and immune system disorders. The authors conclude that as our understanding of the threat to human health grows, the need for an effective testing strategy for endocrine disrupting chemicals becomes imperative.
Historically, chemists have aimed to make products that are effective and economical. Considering toxicity when designing new chemicals has not been their responsibility. This collaboration between fields expands the scope of both biologists and chemists to lead to a way to design safer chemicals.
Scientific understanding of endocrine disruption has developed rapidly over the past 2 decades, providing detailed, mechanistic insights into the inherent hazards of chemicals. TiPED uses these insights to guide chemical design toward safer materials. And as consumers are increasingly concerned about endocrine disruption (eg BPA, flame retardants) they are demanding products that do not contain EDCs, creating a market opportunity for companies that can take advantage of the new science.
There is a companion website to the paper, www.TiPEDinfo.com. One can access the paper there and learn more about the TiPED system.
Building Links Between Green Chemists and Business in Education.
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012The first one, by Phil Dell’Orco, head of sustainability at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), addressed the question of fostering and coordinating green chemistry in a large pharmaceutical company. Lynn Leger from Green Center Canada presented how her organization is constantly touring universities (in Canada and outside)
PHOTO: Phil Dell’Oroco, Process Engineering at GlaxoSmithKline. By Owen Egan for the McGill Reporter
to find scientific innovations and bring them to the market. She elaborated on some of the challenges associated with the transition from research to the market. We also had a few smaller classes to introduce the concepts of green chemistry, such as the green principles and metrics, and what it takes to be successful in innovation, as well as green drivers of innovation.
Students were then divided into mixed groups (composed of both business and chemistry and engineering students) and had to work together on building a case study. They were given an innovation, coming straight from Green Centre Canada – an antibacterial compound mimicking garlic active ingredient. Students had to find a market, build a financial case and work some of the chemistry associated.
They came out of it with amazing presentations on their ideas and demonstrated outstanding ability to interact with people from a different discipline. They all pointed out how much they appreciated being exposed to a difference academic culture and recognized the importance of building bonds across disciplines to bridge the gap towards greener innovations.
This workshop was made possible through funding from the CREATE program of NSERC, a Canadian federal funding agency, and the Marcel Desautels Institute for Integrated Management. Steve Maguire (from the School of Management) and I created an organized the whole two-day event. And we’re very excited about it. We’ll definitely do it again next year.
Read about the workshop in the McGill Reporter.
By Audrey Moores, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry
McGill University
Tags: education, GREEN CHEMISTRY, innovation
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