"Some of the `hot button' items have to do with environmental issues," says ACS president Ned Heindel, a professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa. "One symposium titled `Benign by Design' has to do with retooling industrial processes chemically, so as to make the byproducts less polluting and more `green.'
"There will also be a session on oxygenates--gasoline additives [added to reduce lead] that have come under a lot of fire lately because of their believed health hazards."
Scheduled at the conference is a presentation dealing with the health implications of oxygenates and a discussion of some recent data from the Environmental Protection Agency that report insufficient evidence to support claims of any health risk.
Given the uncertain climate surrounding the job market for chemists (B. Spector, The Scientist, Nov. 15, 1993, page 1), professional development and employment will receive a lot of attention this year. "There is ...
