The Chlorine Debate: How White Do You Want It?
?
Chlorine is one of the world's most widely used chemicals, the building
element vital to almost every United States industry. We use chlorine and
chlorine-based products whenever we drink a glass of water, buy food wrapped in
plastic, purchase produce in the supermarket, pour bleach into a washing machine,
have a prescription filled, print out a computer document like this one, or even
drive a car. (Abelson 94)
Chlorine, a member of the halogen (salt-forming) group of metallic
elements, was first made by Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1774, who
treated hydrochloric acid with manganese dioxide. In 1810, the English chemist
Sir Humphrey Davy determined that chlorine was a ...
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PVC, are burned.
Life as we know it will change, if a Greenpeace campaign is successful.
The powerful environmental group has mounted a well-organized campaign that has
as its objective nothing less than a total, worldwide ban on chlorine. With the
public health and billions of dollars at stake, the debate over chlorine has
become one of the world's most contentious and controversial issues. "Is a
chlorine-free future possible?" asked Bonnie Rice, a spokesperson for
Greenpeace's Chlorine Free Campaign. "Yes, it can be done without massive
disruption of the economy and of society, if it is done in the right matter."
(Gossen 94)
The chlorine industry and its allies say a total ban on chlorine would
be neither wise, possible, nor economically feasible. "We find the chlorine
campaign outrageous in its scope and purpose," explained Leo Anziano, the
Chairman of the Washington-based Chlorine Chemistry Council, and organization
that lobbies on behalf of the chlorine industry. "We ...
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annually.
The phase out of chlorine would take place over a 30-year period and
would involve substituting what Greenpeace describes as "traditional materials
and non-chlorinated plastics." In the pulp and paper industry, for example, a
totally chlorine-free bleaching process would be implemented, while, in dry
cleaning, water based systems would replace chlorine-based solvents. Nothing is
more contentious in the chlorine debate than Greenpeace's firm position that all
chlorine and organochlorines threaten people and so should be banned. "Industry
produces more than 11,000 chlorine chemicals, each of which could take years of
study, " explains Jack Weinburg, a spokesperson for ...
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The Chlorine Debate: How White Do You Want It?. (2006, October 12). Retrieved November 22, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Chlorine-Debate-How-White-Do-You/53787
"The Chlorine Debate: How White Do You Want It?." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 12 Oct. 2006. Web. 22 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Chlorine-Debate-How-White-Do-You/53787>
"The Chlorine Debate: How White Do You Want It?." Essayworld.com. October 12, 2006. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Chlorine-Debate-How-White-Do-You/53787.
"The Chlorine Debate: How White Do You Want It?." Essayworld.com. October 12, 2006. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Chlorine-Debate-How-White-Do-You/53787.
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