A form of technology that has received insufficient attention is synthetic chemicals. Perhaps this is because, unlike genetic engineering, they have been around for some time. Where people have become concerned about them it has generally been about the harms caused by specific types of chemicals, such as PCBs, CFCs, or organophosphates. What has gone by unremarked is the way that the production of products based on synthetic chemicals brings into being a very different world to that associated with the natural products they replace. For example, bobbins used to be produced from sustainably coppiced woodland in Cumbria. Most of these bobbin mills closed down in the 1960s because wooden bobbins were replaced by plastic ones that were produced in chemical manufacturing plants. These were elsewhere, so we still have the woodland. But functionally, and as the world in which people work, chemical plants have replaced coppiced woodland. A similar process is happening now with cork: the switch to plastic from cork stoppers for wine bottles is bringing about the loss of the Cork Oak forests in Portugal. The sustainable livelihoods the Cork Oak forests provided is no longer viable and they are being felled.
Many synthetic organic chemicals are different chemically from any produced by living organisms: they are new kinds of matter, alien to the earth. Such chemicals may start off in shampoo bottles or sofas, but they eventually find their way into our fat tissues, or the local river system, and may end up in some far-flung corner of the ocean. For example, triclosan, an organochlorine compound that has antibacterial properties, is widely used in toothpastes, deodorants and chopping boards (as ‘Microban’). It has been found in human breast milk and in fish living downstream of sewage treatment works. HBCD (hexabromocyclododecane) is a flame retardant often present in furniture. It is now ubiquitous in the environment and may interfere with the metabolism of thyroid hormone, which regulates metabolism. Organochlorines and brominated organic compounds such as HBCD are not produced by living organisms, but only by industrial synthesis. The current risk assessment process requires certain tests to be done on such chemicals, but these tests do not consider the full range of long-term effects such chemicals may have. Unless these limited tests provide good evidence that a chemical causes harm industry can produce it and put it in products without restriction.
Producing novel synthetic chemicals is messing with a complex system - our planetary life-support system - that we do not understand. It is highly risky and the regulatory system should recognise this: it should assess how risky individual chemicals are, taking into account the degree to which we are ignorant about the chemical, not simply the known risks.
Although it is not possible for us to avoid exposure to non-naturally occurring synthetic chemicals, it is possible to reduce it substantially, and to put pressure on manufacturers and retailers to provide products that are free of such chemicals. Eating organic food is an obvious option. It is also possible to buy toiletries, cosmetics and cleaning products made from natural ingredients. With other products - furniture, electronics, clothes and paint, to name some obvious ones that contain risky chemicals - it is more difficult as manufacturers do not have to tell you what chemicals are present. Always ask, even if you do not get an answer at least it shows interest. Organic clothes are available, as are paints and DIY products that are free of synthetic chemicals.
Technology is not some autonomous force over which we have little control. It is the result of human decision-making. We can, and should, take control over those decisions so that they result in a better world for human life on earth.
