November-December 2009

l’actualité chimique canadienne canadian chemical news ACCN

NOvember/December|novembre/Décembre • 2009 • Vol. 61, No./n o 10

The Chemicals In You How Compounds Burden Your Body

Flu fighters Fire retardants in our blood

Plus: Free pull-out poster on the history of intoxication!

A Publication of the Chemical Institute of Canada and Constituent Societies / Une publication de l’institut de chimie du canada et ses sociétés constituantes

november/December|novembre/décembre • 2009 • Vol. 61, No./n o 10

Contents

Features

Our Chemical Buzz 16 Chronicling A History of Human Inebriation – Free Pull Out Poster!

24 13 Departments 5

From the editor De la rédactrice en chef

7

Guest Column Chroniqueur invité

25 Fighters 18 Flu Are Vaccines Safe?

By Ronald L. Doering

9

Chemical News Actualité chimique

26

Society News Nouvelles des sociétés

30

Chemfusion

By Joe Schwarcz

in the Blood 22 Borne Excerpt from Experimental Man

From the editor De la rédactrice en chef

ACCN Executive Director/Directeur général Roland Andersson, MCIC Editor/Rédactrice en chef Jodi Di Menna, MCIC Graphic Designer/Infographiste Krista Leroux Communications manager/ Directrice des communications Lucie Frigon

T

here’s nothing like having a baby to make a person hyper-aware of the chemical burden on our bodies. I, for one, had chemicals on the brain with the birth of my daughter last year: From the food I ate while I was pregnant (should I splurge for organic chicken or stick to the usual?), to the water I drank (I had the tap water in our old house tested for lead), the pharmaceuticals I was and was not permitted to take (how I missed the miracle of ibuprofen), the exhaust I tried not to breath while I waited at the bus stop, through to the onslaught of vaccines I took my baby girl to receive in her first few months and now the food, formula and occasional baby aspirin I allow her, the substances I expose her to weigh on my mind.

As Joe Schwarcz points out in his ChemFusion column on the back page, sometimes our worries about the chemicals in our bodies are out of proportion to the risk, like the bisphenol A hysteria of the last few years. But other times our worst fears turn out to be true as the citizens of Buchans, Newfoundland found out this fall when they learned that the soil from an abandoned mine site near their community contained dangerously high levels of lead as well as arsenic, copper and uranium and that the toxins could have made their way into their blood.

Lawmakers create regulations partly to protect people from too much exposure to chemicals that could be harmful. In their world, the precautionary principle often rules, a notion that Ronald Doering, a lawyer and former president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, puts in perspective in his Guest Column.

Of the chemicals we voluntarily allow into our bodies, surely vaccines top the list of headline makers in this, the flu season of H1N1. Our Q and A talks to Andrew Potter, one of Canada’s foremost experts on vaccine development to get to the bottom of why people are worried about vaccine safety.

In an excerpt from his book Experimental Man, David Ewing Duncan describes his encounters with polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), one of the environmental toxins in the public consciousness in recent years.

And for anyone who has ever felt the ache of a hangover and wondered “why do I do this to myself?,” we’ve crafted a pull-out poster, presenting a timeline of the history of drugs and alcohol, the ultimate voluntary chemical burden on our bodies.

I hope you enjoy the read! ACCN

Marketing Manager/ Directrice du marketing Bernadette Dacey Staff Writer/rédactrice Anne Campbell, MCIC Awards and Local Sections Manager/ Directrice des prix et des sections locales Gale Thirlwall Editorial Board/Conseil de rédaction Joe Schwarcz, MCIC, chair/président Cathleen Crudden, MCIC John Margeson, MCIC Milena Sejnoha, MCIC Bernard West, MCIC Editorial Office/ Bureau de la rédaction 130, rue Slater Street, Suite/bureau 550 Ottawa, ON K1P 6E2 613-232-6252 • Fax/Téléc. 613-232-5862 editorial@accn.ca • www.accn.ca Advertising/Publicité advertising@accn.ca Subscription Rates/Tarifs d’abonnement Non CIC members/Non-membres de l’ICC : in/au Canada CAN$60; outside/à l’extérieur du Canada US$60. Single copy/Un exemplaire CAN$10 or US$10.

L’Actualité chimique canadienne/Canadian Chemical News (ACCN) is published 10 times a year by the Chemical Institute of Canada / est publié 10 fois par année par l’Institut de chimie du Canada. www.cheminst.ca.

Recommended by the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC), the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE), and the Canadian Society for Chemical Technology (CSCT). Views expressed do not necessarily represent the official position of the Institute or of the societies that recommend the magazine.

Recommandé par l’Institut de chimie du Canada, la Société canadienne de chimie, la Société canadienne de génie chimique et la Société canadienne de technologie chimique.

Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement la position officielle de l’Institut ou des sociétés qui soutiennent le magazine.

Change of Address/ Changement d’adresse circulation@cheminst.ca

Write to the editor at editorial@accn.ca

Printed in Canada by Gilmore Printing Services Inc. and postage paid in Ottawa, ON./ Imprimé au Canada par Gilmore Printing Services Inc. et port payé à Ottawa, ON. Publications Mail Agreement Number/ No de convention de la Poste-publications : 40021620. (USPS# 0007-718) Indexed in the Canadian Business Index and available on-line in the Canadian Business and Current Affairs database. / Répertorié dans la Canadian Business Index et accessible en ligne dans la banque de données Canadian Business and Current Affairs.

ISSN 0823-5228

www.accn.ca



Continuing Education for Chemical Professionals

INDOOR AIR QUALITY course 2009 Schedule November 19–20

British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT)— Burnaby Campus Registration fees

$495 CIC members $695 non-members For more information about the course and locations, and to access the registration form, visit:

www.cheminst.ca/ profdev

T

he Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) and the Canadian Society for Chemical

Technology (CSCT) are presenting a two-

day course designed to enhance the knowledge

• Overview of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Issues • Typical IAQ Parameters: carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons,

and chemists. This course will provide a range

formaldehyde, moulds, total particulates,

of material which will enable the participants

temperature and relative humidity.

to understand the transformations that take

A-typical parameters such as asbestos,

place in air when pollutants are present, and

radon, sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides

to familiarize themselves with the analytical techniques currently used for air testing. Upon completion of this short course, the participants will be able to perform some of the laboratory

and trace metals.

• Sources of indoor contaminants, chemistry and possible transformations.

• Health effects of indoor pollutants:

analyses for the major atmospheric contaminants

carbon monoxide, organic contaminants,

as required by engineering consulting firms,

particulates, formaldehyde, airborne

private laboratories, and government laboratories

moulds and others.

involved in pollution analysis.

• Industrial pollutants: sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides: sources, effects and detection methods.

• Sampling techniques and instrumentation

Instructor

used for IAQ studies. Demonstration of

Joffre M. Berry, MCIC

of operation and limitations.

British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Berry received his BSc in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, a doctorate in chemistry and a post-doctoral fellowship from the University of British Columbia. Today he heads the Environmental Chemistry and Waste Management Program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and is an adjunct and kinesiology at Simon Fraser University.

Berry is also president of JMB Research Ltd., an environmental consulting firm, where he has managed numerous scientific projects and has applied research programs in the areas of organic chemistry, environmental chemistry and waste management.

6 L’Actualité chimique canadienne

1

and working experience of chemical technologists

professor for the departments of chemistry



Day

Canadian Society for Chemical Technology

novembre/Décembre 2009

several portable analyzers, their principle • Participant use of IAQ instruments in a laboratory setting. Including calibration of air flow meters, sampling for carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, total particulates, airborne asbestos, formaldehyde, trace metals, surface moulds and airborne moulds.

 Day

2

• Participant use of IAQ instrumentscontinued.

• IAQ case studies, interpretation and possible solutions.

• Open Discussion.

Note: the above schedule includes two coffee breaks and a one-hour lunch on each day.

Guest Column Chroniqueur invité

The Uses and Abuses of the Precautionary Principle

By Ronald L. Doering

R

egulators cope every day with applying science-based standards to complex fact situations. The task is tough enough when the science is relatively certain but when the science is not so clear — and this is far more common than is generally recognized — then the regulator faces a truly daunting challenge.

In recent years, the precautionary principle has emerged as a recommended approach to deal with uncertain science in a range of public health areas. Famously enshrined in the preamble to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and incorporated into the Cabinet Directive on Streamlining Regulations (CDSR), the precautionary principle continues to be cited by public servants to justify decisions: they are told in the CDSR that “the application of precaution may be necessary when there is an absence of full scientific certainty and a risk of serious or irreversible harm.”

The Gage Canadian Dictionary defines precaution as “taking care beforehand.” This sounds like the simple common sense aphorism of “better safe than sorry.” But the concept has proven to be more complicated than that: the Swedish philosopher Sandin has recently documented no less than 19 definitions of the precautionary principle in various treaties, laws and academic writings.

Beyond the definitional difficulties, the precautionary principle has another fundamental flaw: it can be used to support any side of an issue because it is all in how you define the hazard. If the hazard of DDT, for example, is a possible threat to the environment, then the application of the precautionary principle would be to ban the product until the science is clearer; if the hazard is malaria-causing mosquitoes and the million persons killed by malaria each year (and the 300 million made seriously ill every year) then wouldn’t the principle support taking the action to continue to use the product until the science is more certain? A principle that is this malleable cannot be a reliable guide to decision making but it is still often used as a justification for a decision taken for other reasons.

I was reminded of this on reading recent articles reporting an Irish study that reviewed the growing body of research that has found a link between high intakes of folic acid and a possible increased risk for colon cancer.

I was a food regulator in the mid-1990s when research began to show that neural tube defects (NTDs), such as spina bifida and anencephaly, could be significantly reduced if pregnant women took folic acid supplements. Before resorting to mandatory food fortification, Health Canada, concerned about the health hazard to the general population, applied the precautionary principle and sensibly began a pilot project to determine if there were any adverse effects associated with food fortification especially for the vast majority of Canadians who would receive no benefit. Concerned about the children with NTDs, the U.S. decided they could not wait, applied the precautionary principle and made fortification of white flour with folates mandatory. For trade and political reasons, Health Canada rushed through a similar regulation, effective November 1, 1998. This is our law today. Applying the same precautionary principle, Britain and Ireland declined to require mandatory fortification.

Beyond its lack of practical utility, the concept creates its own dangers: it could, for example, undermine innovation. A leading British scientist, Sir Colin Berry, has pointed out that all of the great scientific advances of the past 200 years have come from a process of “learning as we went along.” If the precautionary principle had been the guiding maxim our society would have been denied, for example, life saving technologies such as x-rays and blood transfusions.

There is another danger. The principle has been widely abused to support trade protectionism: the European Union continues to use it to prevent the importation of Canadian and American beef and genetically modified corn. The United States used it to prevent the importation of live cattle from Canada after the discovery of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in Canada until Japan used it against them.

The practice of using it as a cover continues. Canada’s current proposed action to ban some phthalates hides behind the precautionary principle to disguise a decision taken for political and economic, rather than science reasons.

The purpose of regulations is to establish tolerability and acceptability for technological risk, but it’s a risky business setting standards and enforcing them when the science is uncertain. The precautionary principle can help by posing useful questions. It does not provide answers. And if we aren’t cautious and don’t watch for when it is used and abused to provide cover for decisions made for other than science reasons, we run the risk of being more sorry than safe. ACCN Ronald L. Doering is past president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

He practices regulatory law in Ottawa and can be reached at Ronald.doering@gowlings.com

Want to share your thoughts on this article? Write to us at editorial@accn.ca NOvember/december 2009 Canadian Chemical News 7

Chemical News Actualité chimique



Bawdy Buzz When Joel Levine’s team genetically tweaked fruit flies so that they didn’t produce certain pheromones, they triggered a sexual tsunami in their University of Toronto Mississauga laboratory. In fact, they produced bugs so irresistible that normal male fruit flies attempted to mate with pheromone-free males and even females from a different species — generally a no-no in the fruit fly dating scene.

The study, published in the October 15 issue of Nature, points to a link between sex, species recognition a specific chemical mechanism.

It is part of Levine’s larger research into the genetic basis of social behaviour.

“This is important not only from the point of view of understanding social dynamics, but it’s also fundamental biology, because these pheromones provide recognition cues that facilitate reproductive behaviour,” says Levine, an assistant professor of biology.

“Lacking these chemical signals (pheromones) eliminated barriers to mating. It turned out that males of other species were attracted to females who didn’t have these signals, so that seemed to eliminate the species barrier.”

In this study, they focused on recognition — how individual Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies) know what their species is and what their sex is. While previous studies had suggested that pheromones played an important role, Levine’s team decided to genetically eliminate a certain class of these chemicals, called cuticular hydrocarbon pheromones, to determine their particular effect.

The researchers found that female flies bred without the hydrocarbons were melanogaster Marilyn Monroes to normal males. But the

effect didn’t stop there — males lacking the hydrocarbons were also sexually irresistible.

In fact, females lacking the hydrocarbons were so sexy that males of other Drosophila species courted them.

When the researchers treated females bred without the hydrocarbons with a female aphrodisiac, it restored the barrier preventing sex between species, suggesting that a single compound can provide species identity. “That means the same chemical signals and genes are underlying not only social behaviour in groups, like courtship and mating, but also behaviour between species.”

Levine stresses that while pheromones are part of the human mating dance, the cues for attraction are far more complex in our species.

“Although I am no expert on human pheromones, there is evidence that men and women may discriminate odours from the same sex or other sexes differently, and there’s even some evidence that how an individual discriminates those odours may reflect their gender preference,” he says. “We may rely more on the visual system, and we may have a more complex way of assessing other individuals and classifying them and determining how we’re going to relate to them than a fly does.”

“But what we’re looking at is a spectrum across biology of a tendency to understand how others relate to ourselves. It’s clearly an issue that humans are caught up in — it’s in our art, like Madame Butterfly and it's in our newspapers, in terms of sports issues like the recent controversy about the sexual identity of the South African runner Caster Semenya.”

CIC can help with your career!

Being a member of one of the CIC Societies­has its advantages­ during uncertain­ times: • If you lose your job, and have been a full-fee member for at least one year, the CIC will waive your membership­fees. This option­is available for up to two years; • Unemployed members can attend­the annual­CSC or CSChE conferences­at the same price as an undergraduate student. They can stay informed on what’s going on in the scientific community­ and participate in career­building­ events; • Local Section activities are valuable­ networking­ opportunities­. Most positions are not advertised­; • Take advantage of our range of Career­Services. See details­ at

www.cheminst.ca/careers

University of Toronto Mississauga

NOvember/december 2009 Canadian Chemical News 9



Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering

Nominations are now open for

The Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering

2010AWARDS Act now!

Do you know an outstanding person who deserves to be recognized?

The Bantrel Award in Design and Industrial Practice is presented to a Canadian citizen or a resident of Canada for innovative design or production activities accomplished in Canada.

The activities may have resulted in a significant achievement in product or process design, small or large company innovation, or multidisciplinary designdirected research or production. The achievement will relate to the practice of chemical engineering and/or industrial chemistry whether in research and development, process implementation, entrepreneurialism, innovation, production or some combination of these.

It may be via a well-known, long-standing reputation for translating chemical engineering principles into design and industrial practice and, through this, contribute to the profession as a whole.

Sponsored by Bantrel.

Award: A plaque and a cash prize.

The D. G. Fisher Award is presented to an individual who has made substantial contributions to the field of systems and control engineering.

The award is given in recognition of significant contributions in any, or all, of the areas of theory, practice, and education. Sponsored by the department of chemical and materials engineering, University of Alberta, Suncor Energy Foundation, and Shell Canada Limited.

Award: A framed scroll, a cash prize and travel expenses.

The Process Safety Management Award is presented to a person who has made an outstanding contribution in Canada to the Process Safety Management (PSM) Division of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering, recognizing excellence in the leadership and dedication of individuals who have led Canada in the field of process safety and loss management (PSLM). Sponsored

by AON Reed Stenhouse Inc. Award: A framed scroll and a cash prize.

The R. S. Jane Memorial Award is presented to an individual who has made new significant contributions to chemical engineering or industrial chemistry in Canada. Sponsored by the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering.

Award: A framed scroll, a cash prize and registration fee to the CSChE Conference.

The Syncrude Canada Innovation Award is presented to a resident of Canada who has made a distinguished contribution to the field of chemical engineering while working in Canada.

Nominees for this award shall not have reached the age of 40 years by January of the year in which the nomination becomes effective. Sponsored by Syncrude Canada Ltd. Award: A framed scroll and a cash prize.

Deadline

The deadline for all CSChE awards is December 1, 2009 for the 2010 selection.

Nomination Procedure Submit your nominations to: Awards Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering 130 Slater Street, Suite 550 Ottawa, ON K1P 6E2 Tel.: 613-232-6252, ext. 223 Fax: 613-232-5862 awards@cheminst.ca

Nomination forms and the full terms of reference for these awards are available at www.chemeng.ca/awards

Chemical News Actualité chimique

International Wire

By mimicking the skin of a long-finned pilot whale American scientists are designing a method to keep ships’ hulls free of barnacles and other drag-inducing marine life. The method involves exuding a biosafe chemical through a wire mesh covering the front part of the ship. The slimy chemical, which becomes more viscous on contact with sea water, would regularly slough off, taking any hitchhiking critters with it. The two chemicals being tested are both used on oil rigs, one to thicken seawater to force open rock formations and the other to condense acid used to dissolve rocks. The idea is inspired by the network of slime-excreting nano-scale canals that keeps the skin of pilot whales barnacle-free.

Gold snowflakes on sheets of graphene were a promising discovery this fall for chemical engineers at Kansas State University. They embedded graphene oxide sheets with gold by placing them in a gold ion solution with a growth catalyst. The graphene, which is a carbon material just one atom in thickness, stabilized the gold allowing it to form snowflake-shaped islands on the surface. The golden snowflakes are being applied to electronic and biological devices such as DNA sensors.

Graphene was also making news this fall out of Rutgers in New Jersey where physicists discovered novel electronic properties in the two-dimensional material. They found that electrons in graphene interact strongly with each other. This correlated behaviour had yet to be observed in graphene despite several efforts. The interaction is marked by the flow of electric current with no resistance, as well as other unusual properties which could prove useful. The findings make graphene an attractive material to eventually replace today’s silicon-based semiconductors.

Carbon paired with a couple of oxygens is bad news for the atmosphere, but it’s when carbon keeps company with a harem of fluorine atoms that things really heat up. So say NASA researchers who have found that molecules containing fluorine atoms are especially effective at trapping heat particularly when several of them bond with a single carbon atom, such as in fluorocarbons. The heat-absorbing properties of the molecules is attributed to the electrical properties of the carbon-fluorine bond. When there are several of these bonds, the effect is compounded, such as in tetrafluoromethane. With four fluorine atoms bonded to a single carbon atom, it is one of the most potent greenhouse gases.

Scientists in the UK are reacting with concern to reports that the government has plans to use DNA and isotope analyses to evaluate the claims of asylum seekers. By analysing the isotopes in hair and nail samples, authorities hope to determine a person’s “true country of origin.” Mouth swabs for mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome testing and analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphisms are expected to identify individuals from particular ethnic groups or geographical regions. The concerns arise from the many exceptions to the rule. For example, families could have migrated from somewhere else — either recently, or in the distant past — to the country from which they are seeking asylum.

Ten years ago a group of Russian scientists claimed to have produced superheavy element 114. Their results had never been replicated, but in September researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley Lab created two individual nuclei, each a different isotope (286114 and 287114) of the element removing any lingering doubt of the Russian claim. Scientists have long theorized that, although elements heavier than uranium typically decay within a few seconds or fractions of a second, certain superheavy elements would be relatively stable and that their lifetimes could be measured in minutes or days. Early models suggested element 114 could be such a stable element. Both isotopes observed at the Berkeley lab decayed in fractions of a second. ACCN

Canadian Society for Chemistry

The CSC Chemistry Legacy Fund: Transforming Tomorrow

The CSC is proud to introduce the legacy giving program, through which CSC members can now easily continue their engagement and support to chemistry.

For more details, visit www.cheminst. ca/legacy.

NOvember/december 2009 Canadian Chemical News 11

Chemical News Actualité chimique

Hot Rocks In Alberta’s oil sands deposits, separating the oil from the sand requires hot water, which is conventionally heated using some one billion cubic feet of natural gas each day. But a new international research partnership could find a way to use geothermally-heated rocks in the earth in northeastern Alberta to preheat the deposits. The University of Alberta is working

Healthy RNA: A Red Flag Vegetables Will Give You Gas! Ever wonder what happens to all the derelict­ fruits and vegetables in the grocery store bins? If you live in some parts of Ontario, those bruised tomatoes you left behind at the Loblaws checkout could soon be powering your home. StormFisher Biogas landed their biggest partnership this fall with the grocerystore giant who plans to divert 15,000 tonnes of produce waste from stores in southwestern Ontario to StormFisher's processing plant near London. Once it opens, the facility will generate 2.8 megawatts of continuous power.

JD

Can we monitor a breast cancer patient’s response to chemotherapy during treatment and possibly predict her treatment outcome based on this response?

It’s a question Laurentian University professor Amadeo Parissenti and his research colleagues have been pondering. The answer appears to be yes.

The method they have discovered involves an important class of molecules produced

by DNA called ribonucleic acid or RNA. In a study recently conducted by Parissenti and his colleagues, small samples at the center of tumours were removed from locally advanced breast cancer patients pre-, mid-, and post-chemotherapy as part of a national clinical trial. Parissenti's lab in Sudbury then measured the quality of RNA in the various tumour samples and found that tumour RNA quality fell substantially in about half of

with the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, the largest scientific organization in Germany, to develop this idea as well as other issues related to emissions from the oil sands. It could take up to five years before the technical and political obstacles to the idea of using geothermal energy in place of natural gas in the oil sands is overcome.

JD

patients when they were given chemotherapy.

In other patients, the RNA quality remained high during chemotherapy, suggesting the treatment was not working in these patients.

The study also showed that the fall in tumour RNA quality was highest for patients given high drug dose levels, and every patient whose tumour was eliminated post-treatment had exhibited a drop in tumour RNA quality mid-treatment.

“This suggests that tumour RNA quality may represent an important new tool for measuring the success of chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. If our observations are further validated in additional groups of breast cancer patients, mid-treatment tumour RNA quality assessments could be used by breast oncologists to decide whether to continue chemotherapy or proceed to other treatment options such as alternative drugs, surgery, or radiation therapy,” said Parissenti.

Laurentian University

NOvember/december 2009 Canadian Chemical News 13

Ichikizaki Fund for Young Chemists The Ichikizaki Fund for Young Chemists provides financial assistance to young chemists who show unique achievements­ in basic research by facilitating their participation in international conferences or symposia.

Eligibility: • • • •

be a member of the Canadian Society for Chemistry or the Chemical Society of Japan; not have passed his/her 34th birthday as of December 31 of the year in which the application is submitted; have a research specialty in synthetic organic chemistry; be scheduled to attend, within one year, an international conference or symposium directly related to synthetic organic­ chemistry. Conferences taking place in January to March of each year should be applied for a year in advance­in order to receive funding in time for the conference.

Deadline: December For more details:

31, 2009

www.chemistry.ca/awards

Chemical News Actualité chimique



Ground Breakings New scientific facilities are opening their doors all the time. Here are three new centres attracting attention lately: What is it called?: The Advanced Microanalysis Centre.

Where is it?: At the Saskatchewan Research Council in Saskatoon.

What is there?: An electron microprobe that uses test samples measured in grains to identify and analyze the chemical composition of solid materials. It will be the only ISO-certified electron microprobe facility in Canada and the only national, commercially-licensed facility that can safely prepare and test thin sections of radioactive materials.

What is it for?: To provide a one-stop-shop for mineral processing and analysis to the mining industry.

When is it opening?: Funding to establish the facility was announced in early October.

What is it called?: The Electron Beam Nanolithography Facility.

Where is it?: At the University of Toronto in the basement of the Wallberg building.

What is there?: An electron beam lithography system that can define features as small as 10 nanometres, or about 10,000 times smaller than the width of the human hair.

What is it for?: To create next-generation devices that could significantly impact healthcare, information technology, clean technologies, digital media and the automotive industry.

When did it open?: It officially opened in September.

What is it called?: Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Canada Strategic Research Network.

Where is it?: The University of Calgary is the hub for the network.

What is it for?: It is a collaboration of over 60 network university researchers as well as scientists in government and industry focusing on advancing madein-Canada solid oxide fuel cells for use in power generation.

When did it start?: Its launch was announced in September. ACCN

‘“Usually most of the management people or the politicians haven’t got the foggiest idea of what science is all about.”

What is needed is “an appreciation for the free will, free spirit of scientists. Give them a chance to do the things they want to do.” ’ Willard Boyle, 2009 recipient of the Nobel Prize for physics, speaking to the Chronicle Herald in Halifax in October. Boyle was born in Nova Scotia and educated in Quebec, but made the award-winning discovery — the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor — at the Bell Laboratories in New Jersey.

What do you think of Boyle’s comments?

Write to us at editorial@accn.ca ACCN

Industrial Briefs Finance Canada announced in October its intention to eliminate Canadian Most-Favoured-Nation tariffs on several manufacturing inputs including organic and inorganic chemicals that are not already duty-free, certain dyes, pigments, colouring materials and synthetic resins as well as iron, steel, aluminum, copper, lead and other base metals. The goal is to allow inputs to be imported from any country duty-free thus lowering input costs for manufacturers. Public consultations on the proposal run until November 6.

Suncor Energy will continue the expansion of its Sarnia ethanol plant, which is expected to be completed in late 2010 or early 2011. The expansion was put on hold in January but is resuming as a result of an improving economy and better commodity prices.

Enerkem GreenField Alberta Biofuels has begun construction on a waste to biofuels facility in Edmonton.

The plant will include a research project focusing on converting industrial and municipal waste to green fuels and chemicals as well as a commercial production facility which will produce 36 million litres of ethanol each year.

Based in Montréal, Enerkem has developed gasification, sequential gas conditioning and catalysis technology to use a mixed feedstock of municipal solid waste, forest biomass and agricultural residues.

R.M. Ferguson acquired Industrial Colours and Chemicals Ltd. (ICC). The companies deal in rubber, graphic arts, coatings, plastics, adhesives and specialty care. Headquarters for the newly formed company will be at ICC’s chemical distribution facility in Brampton, Ont. Tekna Plasma Systems Inc. is one of the beneficiaries of Canada’s Economic Action Plan and the recipient of $1,000,000 in repayable funding to complete the building of a second plant to manufacture nanopowders.

Tekna specializes in induction plasma and has clients in the electronic, biomedical and energy sectors. Its headquarters are in Sherbrooke, Que. ACCN

ACCN

Send the latest

news to editorial@accn.ca Compiled by Jodi Di Menna

NOvember/december 2009 Canadian Chemical News 15

Ancient Greeks popularize alcohol with mead, created naturally from the fermentation of honey and water.

The opium poppy is first cultivated in lower Mesopotamia. Sumerians refer to it as the hul gil, meaning plant of joy. Opium is believed to be the world’s first antidepressant.

Arab alchemists distill alcohol. The distillation purifies wine giving us brandy (from the Dutch word brandewijn meaning “burnt wine”).

Greek historian Herodotus describes the burning of cannabis: “… as it burns, it smokes like incense and the smell of it makes them drunk.”

modern-day Iran. This is the first written account of rum.

1300s Marco Polo writes “very good wine of sugar” about a beverage that was offered to him in what is now

700s

450 bc

it is accidentally discovered that as a harvested grain starts to germinate, its sugar content increases.

If germination­ is stopped by drying, the grain will contain sugar and enzymes ready for fermentation.

1500 bc Beer is produced from malt. In more northern latitudes, where grapes and sweet fruits do not readily grow,

2000 bc

4000 bc

alcohol. Society gets its first taste of wine.

6000 bc A warm Mediterranean climate and natural yeast in the atmosphere converts sugar in grape juice into ethyl

Drugs and alcohol have been a vice for people since Neolithic times. The advent of agriculture­bred the discovery of the effects of wine, beer and psychoactive drugs.

Most of the early discoveries were by accident but chemistry did catch up and we now know why and how our early ancestors came about their chemical buzz.

By Anne Campbell

A History of Human Inebriation

Feature: History

Dutch scientist Franciscus Sylvius invents gin by distilling grains and flavouring with juniper oil. He intends it to be a medicine for kidney disorders.

German chemist Friedrich Ferdinand Runge first isolates trimethylxanthine, better known as caffeine, from coffee beans.

American organic chemist Roger Adams produces moderately pure cannabidiol and cannabinol from Minnesotan wild hemp using a petroleum ether extraction process. He is credited with the first isolation of true cannabinoids, the active components of cannabis.

Japanese chemist Akira Ogata crystallizes methamphetamine creating crystal meth from the reduction of ephedrine using red phosphorus­ and iodine. The notorious drug climbs the ranks of drug use because of its solubility in water.

Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is patented by the German chemical company Merck with the intention of marketing it as a diet pill. MDMA, better known as ecstasy, stimulates the release of serotonin to generate elation and emotion.

binoid receptor system in humans. These receptors currently known as CB1 and CB2 are protein membrane receptors which are activated by the lipid compounds cannabinoids. The CB1 receptor is expressed mainly in the brain, central nervous system, and the CB2 receptor in the immune system. ACCN

1990 Miles Herkenham and his team at the National Institute of Mental Health in the US map locations of a canna-

tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive substance found in the cannabis plant. THC is an aromatic terpenoid with low water solubility but good organic solvent solubility. In its pure form, it is a glassy solid when cold and becomes viscous and sticky at higher temperatures.

1964 Raphael Mechoulam, Yechiel Gaoni and Habib Edery from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel isolate

1939

1919

1913

pylamine derived from the ephedrine plant. Original synthesis is with no known pharmacological use, but we now know that amphetamine increases concentrations­ of dopamine, the “reward neurotransmitter,” and serotonin­. The effect is hyperactivity and euphoria giving the drug the street name “speed.”

1887 Amphetamine is first synthesized in Germany by chemist Lazăr Edeleanu as the compound phenylisopro-

1819

active ingredient in opium. He names it morphium after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. Morphine and other opiates, including heroin which is synthesized from morphine, are chemically similar to the naturally produced compounds endorphins and enkephalins. The opiate molecules engage many nerve-receptor sites in the brain to mimic intense euphoria from high levels of endorphins.

1805 German pharmacist Friedrich W. Serturner isolates and describes an alkaloid that is the main and powerful

1650

refining sugar, ferments into alcohol. They distill it to remove impurities and begin the long and storied history of rum in the Caribbean.

1600s Sugarcane plantation slaves distill rum in the Caribbean. They discover that molasses, as a by-product of

Q&A: Health

QA &

Q & A with

Andrew Potter

Flu fighters

P

eople have been fending off deadly diseases with the use of vaccines since the late eighteenth century. These immunityboosters are at once viewed by many as life-saving miracles, and frightening foreign substances society obligates us to introduce into our bodies. They are at the same time taken for granted and subjected to suspicion sometimes out of proportion to any threat they pose. The bewilderment surrounding the H1N1 vaccine, which at the time of publication had just been approved by the federal government, has been a case study in how the public’s acceptance of vaccines may lag behind science’s ability to create them. ACCN spoke with Andrew Potter, the director and CEO of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease

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Are vaccines safe?

Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan, and an internationally recognized authority on vaccine development to get to the bottom of the question on many peoples’ minds this flu season: Are vaccines safe?

ACCN: Are scientists getting better at creating vaccines?

A.P.: Yes, if you look at where we are today versus where we were 10 or 20 years ago, there’s a lot of new, exciting technologies available, so the options are much greater. We’re also getting better at working

together and I think that is just as important.

Vaccines aren’t developed by individuals.

They’re usually developed by groups of people and I think we’re learning, especially within Canada, how to better form networks to deal with these issues.

ACCN: Tell me about some of those new technologies.

A.P.: A lot of it has to do with the vaccine formulation. The infectious agent is only one part of a vaccine, whether it’s influenza or something else. Really it’s the adjuvant portion or the immunomodulatory portion of the vaccine that is really critical, because that directs the body how you want it to respond.

That, in my view, is the rate limiting step in seeing increases in vaccine efficacy over the last 20 years. If you look at the vaccines we have today, and that would include the seasonal flu vaccine that we have every year in Canada, conceptually, it’s not a lot different than vaccines that were made 100 years ago.

That is really sad. Molecular biology has given us all sorts of technologies to make the antigen component of the vaccine but the other side of it has been ignored. That has changed over the last five years or so. If you look at flu, for example, the question came up this year of whether we should use the adjuvanted vaccine or the unadjuvanted version. I think just asking those questions is absolutely great.

ACCN: What happened to make it change?

A.P.: I think the matter of necessity. If you need a vaccine that is going to work with a single dose, you want to give it all of the power it can possibly have and to do that, you need adjuvants. It’s as plain and simple as that. Just the timing this year gave it that additional stimulus to start asking questions about how we actually formulate the vaccines.

ACCN: What is an adjuvant?

A.P.: An adjuvant is simply something that increases the immune response to a component in a vaccine. It can do that in a variety of ways. It can do it by extending the half life of the compound, it can do it by actually stimulating the immune response independently of the rest of the vaccine. That’s typically how most of the modern adjuvants work.

ACCN: What are some common adjuvants?

A.P.: Historically, aluminum salts. Aluminum hydroxide in particular has been the most commonly used, probably in about 80 per cent of the vaccines given today. Up until two years ago, we didn’t know how it worked, we just knew it worked. Since that time there has been a variety of others. This has been fuelled primarily by research in the genomics field.

We now know the triggers for the immune system and it’s easier to actually screen for compounds that will do that triggering.

ACCN: Is all that to say that vaccines have gotten safer or more effective or both?

A.P.: I think vaccines have always been remarkably safe. We lose track of the fact of what life was like in Canada in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s when infectious diseases played a major role in our life. Vaccines are incredibly­safe relative to the alternative and the alternative is people dying of things like polio and diseases that vaccines have essentially got rid of. So, in terms of safety, I think they have always been safe. Have they got safer? Yes, I think so.

ACCN: Do you detect an undercurrent of mistrust?

A.P.: I detect certainly a lot of questioning going on and I think that is very healthy. I think people should question. Vaccination, when you cut right down to it, is a medical procedure. Somebody is sticking something in your body and, as such, everybody has the right to ask what is going in and what’s it going to do to me. So the questions are very healthy. I think where it gets unhealthy is the amount of disinformation out there. And there is a phenomenal amount of disinformation which is usually grabbed upon immediately by the media and propagated. A great example is the human papillomavirus vaccine, and the case in the United Kingdom fairly recently where a school girl who was immunized died after the immunization and they blamed it on the vaccine. It turned out that it was a totally unrelated medical condition, but that didn’t stop the fact that this made headlines all over the world. So I don’t think that’s a healthy thing at all.

ACCN: Do you think attitudes are changing?

A.P.: Yes I do.

ACCN: Why do you think that is?

A.P.: I think it’s because you’re dealing with a generation of people today that don’t know what infectious diseases can do. They have no concept of what it’s like to grow up on a street where one or two families have an individual suffering from polio or where people die from smallpox. When I was a youngster, I had mumps, I had measles, I had whooping cough, I had every disease there was to have and I made it through all of those okay, but a lot of people didn’t. My kids have no concept of what it was like to live in that sort of age, which wasn’t all that long ago.

ACCN: Maybe we’re spoiled.

A.P.: I think we are. I think if you look at the cold, hard facts and what the risk is in getting a vaccine, the risk is there, but it’s very, very small relative to the alternative.

ACCN: We’re told that vaccines are safe. But if we have the ability, scientifically, to come up with a new vaccine in the face of every new virus, is there a tipping point where too many vaccines become dangerous?

A.P.: If you look at a vaccine as simply something that stimulates the immune system to give you protection against future infection, we are vaccinated on a daily basis. We’re vaccinated naturally in what we eat, what we breath and everything else. So I don’t think that the vaccines that we create and are licensed are going to push us over the edge in terms of too much. Our bodies can handle a tremendous amount.

ACCN: So when can vaccines become toxic?

A.P.: It’s a difficult question to answer because every vaccine is a unique entity unto itself. It’s not like you give six of them and it’s okay and the seventh one just puts you over the edge.

We do give a lot of vaccinations and that is a concern to everyone. I think there are 18 odd

NOvember/december 2009 Canadian Chemical News 19



Chemical Institute of Canada

20 L’Actualité chimique canadienne

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Q&A: Health shots that our children are getting during their younger years and that is an awful lot.

One of the ways that one gets around this is that you simply combine many of them. The toxic component, if there was one, by and large is probably going to be the adjuvant. So by combining them, you’re not increasing the amount of adjuvant that is given.

ACCN: What is the normal procedure for testing the safety of a vaccine?

A.P.: It starts off in the laboratory doing cell culture work to show that it doesn’t kill cells.

From there it would go into animal models which would typically be rodents. Then it will go into a phase one clinical trial, which is a limited number of people given the vaccine under very close medical supervision. If it passes that, it would then go through phase two and phase three clinical trials where you essentially start building up the numbers of people involved. So that eventually, by the time you’ve done a phase three trial you have vaccinated thousands of people and you have got a good idea of exactly what the adverse effects might be. Typically they involve things like swelling and soreness and fever — the typical things you would see when you mount an immune response, so not at all unexpected. Once you’ve done that, then the vaccine is licensed and then there’s continual monitoring of the vaccine in the population. Safety testing is an ongoing thing, it’s not like you start here and finish here.

It’s something that goes on essentially forever.

ACCN: H1N1 is the vaccination news of the day. Have there been any short cuts taken?

A.P.: It has been accelerated, no question and that’s simply a question of timing. You’ve got to balance off what is the risk of somebody dying from the actual disease versus the vaccine and I think quite wisely governments around the world have made the decision that the disease potentially is much more harmful than a vaccine would ever be. Influenza is a special case because we make these vaccines every year, so the actual process for making them and the composition of the vaccine isn’t really any different than your seasonal flu vaccine. That doesn’t get any press and yet we have new viruses put in there every year. This is just another virus.

ACCN: H1N1 has been a global issue. How have Canadian labs measured up?

A.P.: I think we’ve done a credible job. If I had one concern about it, it would be that it hasn’t been a coordinated effort.

ACCN: Meaning?

A.P.: Meaning we’re all over the map. We’re all over the map in the research that we’re doing. We’re all over the map in how we plan on putting immunization programs into place.

Because health is a provincial responsibility, every province can do it differently and I don’t think when one is looking at a pandemic that that is necessarily a wise decision.

ACCN: There was a rush to create a vaccine for H1N1. Will there be the same kind of scramble every time a new virus emerges?

A.P.: Yes, there likely will be and it’s unfortunately a part of society being reactive in nature, rather than proactive. It’s a concern, but I think every time something new comes along there’s going to be this panic. Probably the first big one in Canada was SARS which should have scared us to death and led us to do something, but unfortunately we forgot about it real quick.

ACCN: Is there a way to avoid that scramble?

A.P.: There’s no way that either I or anybody else can predict what the next infectious agent of concern is going to be. All that I think everyone can agree upon is that there is going to be another one and it’s not going to be in the too distant future. What can we do about it? We can ensure that we have the infrastructure in place to react to these things in a timely fashion. We can make sure that we have the appropriate technologies in place to develop vaccines in an accelerated fashion. I think these are things that we need to address and we need to address very quickly.

ACCN: What is VIDO working on?

A.P.: First and foremost, if you look at SARS and influenza and virtually any other emerging

disease, one thing that sets these apart is that they require a higher level of biological containment. They are rated as containment level three pathogens, and an enclosed air-tight facility is required to conduct research and testing on these types of diseases. Presently very few facilities in the world meet the safety and security requirements for that kind of work, and right now the government lab in Winnipeg is the only large facility for this type of work in Canada. That’s why VIDO is working with the University of Saskatchewan to build the new International Vaccine Centre (InterVac) adjacent to the VIDO facility. When construction is completed in late 2010, InterVac will be Canada’s largest containment level three facility for vaccine research, and one of the largest facilities of its kind in North America.

This is a key piece of VIDO’s future research work. InterVac will be an international calibre facility that welcomes researchers from around the world to come in here and do work. VIDO also does a lot of work on specific diseases.

We work on flu, we work on hepatitis C and a variety of other things. We also work on platform technologies that can be used with any vaccine at all and these include adjuvants, immunomodulators, delivery systems, that type of thing. Those are extremely important because as an infectious agent comes along, if you can develop the vaccine formulation quickly, that accelerates the whole process. Not only does it accelerate the process of vaccine development, we actually have methods and technologies to reduce the amount of vaccine needed. So, for example, if Canada has 50 million doses of H1N1 vaccine and we find out we need 100 million doses, we have technologies to make that happen.

ACCN: Anything to add?

A.P.: H1N1 has been a really interesting thing to follow and hopefully something that has been a wake-up call not only to the public and the questions that they ask, but as well to governments and how we react to emerging infectious diseases like this. There’s going to be something else that comes along. Four or five years ago, it was H5N1 influenza, the avian flu that we were worried about, now it’s H1N1. What’s it going to be next year? I don’t know, but we’ve got to have some plans in place. ACCN

Want to share your thoughts on this article? Write to us at editorial@accn.ca

NOvember/december 2009 Canadian Chemical News 21

feature: Environment

Borne in the Blood American writer David Ewing Duncan offers himself up as a guinea pig to see how our toxic world could impact our health In the book “Experimental Man,” published in 2009, author David Ewing Duncan voluntarily subjects himself to a series of blood tests, brain scans, genetic probes and computer models in the hopes of learning everything medical technologies can tell us about how our bodies and our environment determine our health. Here ACCN has excerpted the chapter on polybrominated diphenyl ethers, a chemical found in everything from computers to upholstery, and in recent years, in newspaper headlines.

I

n a light Swedish accent, the scientist on the phone is asking me, “Are you sitting down?” Yes, I say, sipping a cup of coffee in a crowded food court in San Francisco International Airport, where I’m waiting for a flight.

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By David Ewing Duncan

Åke Bergman, a chemist at Stockholm University, pauses for an uncomfortable beat or two. I had asked him to help me with what would become the next phase of the Experimental Man project: how the environment outside of our bodies affects us, as opposed to our internal genetic programming. Several weeks earlier, a lab had tested levels of environmental chemicals inside my body — 320 chemicals that I might have picked up from food and drink, the air I breathe, and the products that touch my skin. It was my own secret stash of compounds acquired by merely living. The list included older chemicals that I might have been exposed to decades ago, such as DDT and PCBs; industrial pollutants like lead, mercury, and dioxins; newer pesticides and plastic additives; and the near-miraculous compounds that lurk just beneath

the surface of modern life, making shampoos fragrant, pans nonstick, and plastics flexible, light, and cheap.

Bergman is a world expert on polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), a class of fire retardants that I have also been tested for. Until recently, PBDEs were added for safety to just about any product that can burn. Found in mattresses, carpets, clothing, the plastic casings of televisions and computers, electronic circuit boards, and automobiles, these chemicals have been mixed into products in order to raise the temperature at which they would otherwise ignite, which makes them harder to burn. They save hundreds of lives a year from death by fire, but they also have a tendency to break loose as gas and particles, released into the air when televisions or computers heat up and when microscopic flecks of textiles break off and products degrade.

I expected to have normal levels of PBDEs, but this pregnant Swedish pause is making me nervous. I already knew these chemicals were where I would prefer them not to be: inside my body. I also knew how much was there. What I didn’t know was what this meant.

But I am about to find out.

The data I sent to Bergman comes from the relatively new science of “biomonitoring,” which measures and detects even tiny levels of chemicals in people and animals. “In the past, we tended to measure chemicals in the air, food, or water, or in animals,” says James Pirkle, the deputy director for science at the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Environmental Health. “Now we are getting real human data.” Since 2001, CDC’s Environmental Health Laboratory periodically tests thousands of Americans in biomonitoring studies that are intended to establish for the first time national reference levels for hundreds of common chemicals, ranging from pesticides and dioxins to heavy metals, with more studies coming all the time. Based on blood and urine specimens collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), these reports also parse out data on chemical levels based on age, sex, and ethnicity, providing researchers, public health officials, and certain science writers with baselines to measure exposures of various individuals and populations.

Until recently, scientists lacked the technology to detect the minuscule traces of chemicals inside people. Typically, these are present in parts per billion (ppb), a standard toxicological measurement. One part

per billion is like putting half a teaspoon (2 millilitres) of red dye into an Olympic-size swimming pool and then looking for traces of colour. Figuring out the impact of these tiny amounts is even trickier.

In large doses, some of the toxins — such as mercury, PCBs, and dioxins — have caused horrific damage to people who were accidentally exposed to huge doses. In Bhopal, India, in 1984, a Union Carbide plant making pesticides released forty tons of the poisonous gas methyl isocyanate into the air, killing at least three thousand people within days and eventually killing a total of perhaps five thousand.

Bhopal and Minamata Bay and are probably nothing to worry about. “In toxicology, dose is everything,” says Karl Rozman, a toxicologist at the University of Kansas Medical Center, “and these doses are too low to be dangerous.” What’s more, some of the most feared substances, [such as mercury], dissipate within days or weeks — or they would, if we weren’t constantly reexposed.

Still, a few illnesses are mysteriously increasing in number of cases as chemical levels rise in the environment. From 1987 through 2002, autism increased tenfold. From the early 1970s through the mid-1990s, one type of

Another incident happened in Minamata, Japan, where the Chisso Corporation, a chemical company, released high levels of mercury into the Minamata Bay between 1932 and 1968. This highly toxic metal accumulated in shellfish and fish eaten by locals, who suffered severe mercury poisoning.

Their symptoms included numbness, muscle weakness, vision problems, and impaired hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma and death followed within weeks of the onset of symptoms.

Fetuses were also exposed in the womb, resulting in severe birth defects. More than three thousand people were officially affected, and these and thousands more have been paid compensation by Chisso.

Many toxicologists, however, insist that the parts per billion inside most of us are nowhere near the levels of those living in

leukemia was up 62 per cent, and male birth defects have doubled. These diseases buck the general trend toward a levelling-off or a decrease for many forms of cancer and other diseases.

Some experts suspect a link between these increases and the human-made chemicals that pervade our food, water, and air. Pediatrician and mercury expert Leo Trasande of Mount Sinai in New York City has called the release of thousands of industrial chemicals into the environment “an uncontrolled experiment on six billion people.” Little firm evidence exists, however, to either implicate or show clear links between trace chemicals and diseases.

Over the years, however, one chemical after another that was thought to be harmless has turned out otherwise once the facts were in.

The classic example is lead. In 1971, the U.S. Surgeon General declared that lead levels of 40 micrograms per decilitre or less of blood

NOvember/december 2009 Canadian Chemical News 23

feature: Environment were safe. It’s now known that any detectable amount of lead can cause neurological damage in children, shaving off IQ points. From lead to DDT and PCBs, the chemical industry has released compounds first and discovered damaging health effects later.

On the phone, Bergman finally speaks, saying that he has reviewed the results I sent him of a chemical analysis of my blood, which measured levels of PBDEs deposited inside my arteries and veins. In mice and rats, high doses of PBDEs interfere with thyroid and liver function and have hampered neurological development in fetuses and newborns. In 2001,

says. My blood level of one particularly toxic PBDE, which is found primarily in U.S.-made products, is 249 ppb — that’s twelve times the mean level found in a recent Centers for Disease Control study that tested thousands of Americans. It’s more than a hundred times the average found in Swedes, says Bergman. The news about another PBDE variant, also toxic to animals, is nearly as bad.

My levels would be even higher if I were a worker in a factory making the stuff, Bergman says. Primarily, PBDEs that are used in manufacturing come in three versions, called “Penta,” “Octa,” and “Deca.” These Latin nicknames

investigators in Sweden fed young mice a PBDE mixture similar to one used in furniture and found that they did poorly on tests of learning, memory, and behaviour — research that was confirmed in a recent study conducted in Maine. In 2005, scientists in Berlin reported that pregnant female rats with PBDE levels no higher than mine gave birth to male pups with impaired reproductive capability.

Little is known about the impact of PBDEs on human health. Yet another expert on PBDEs and toxicology, Linda Birnbaum of the Environmental Protection Agency, told me that when a chemical such as PBDE is toxic to a wide range of animals — besides rats and mice, this one has been tested on everything from zebrafish to mussels — it is likely to have roughly similar effects on humans.

“I hope you are not nervous, but your concentration is very high,” Bergman finally

refer to the number of bromides that predominate in each chemical mixture — Penta, of course, is five, Octa is eight, and Deca is ten.

Pentas have been used in foam, mattresses, and furniture; Octas in electrical equipment; and Decas in hard plastics on electrical equipment and commercial textile backings. Decas tend to be expelled from the body in two or three weeks; Pentas and Octas stick around in our bodies for years. Decas have been shown to cause developmental neurotoxicity in mice and rats and may affect the immune and reproductive systems. Based on animal studies, they also are a possible human carcinogen.

Scientists have found PBDEs planet-wide, in polar bears in the Arctic, cormorants in England, and killer whales in the Pacific. In 1999, Bergman and his colleagues were the first to call attention to their accumulation in people when they reported an alarming

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increase in PBDEs in human breast milk, from none in milk preserved from 1972 to trace amounts in 1997. Since then, levels in people around the world have been tested, mostly in small studies, with a range of mean results, from a mere 1.5 ppb of Pentas in Japan to 11 ppb in Australia.

In Nicaragua, children living in a dump registered alarming levels up to 639 ppb. In Oakland, across the bay from me, two small children tested by the Oakland Tribune for a story had blood levels significantly higher than mine: 490 ppb in a five-year-old girl, and 838 ppb in an eighteen-month-old boy.

In 2004, Penta and Octa manufacturers voluntarily halted production in the United States after being slated for banning in states such as California and Washington, although Decas have continued to be made at the rate of about fifty million pounds a year, mostly for television and computer casings. In 2004, the European Union banned Pentas and Octas; in 2008, they also banned Decas. Manufacturers are developing alternatives that seem less dangerous, such as chlorine-based inorganics and safer bromides. Birnbaum says it is also possible to use nonchemical fire barriers, such as metal, in computer casings.

This is all very interesting, I’m thinking, but how did these chemicals get in me?

Bergman says that the main source of exposure comes from breathing dust. PBDEs attach to dust in one’s house, office, and car. This may explain the high levels in the Oakland children. Presumably, they inhale and ingest PBDE-laden dust while crawling on the floor.

Once inside the body, the Pentas and the Octas accumulate in fat and, in women, in breast milk. Another source of exposure is by eating animal fats, although Birnbaum thinks the main source is dust.

But I am not an infant crawling on the floor, I point out to Bergman.

He launches into a series of questions to find out why I apparently have enough flame retardants in my body to slow a small fire, should I ignite.

Have I recently bought new furniture or rugs? No. Do I spend a lot of time around computer monitors? Yes, but my current computer, I’m told, is PBDE-free. Do I live near a factory that makes flame retardants?

Nope, the closest one is more than a thousand miles away. One curious possibility could be my proximity to the World Trade Center disaster just after September 11, 2001. I was not in New York

City on the day of the attack but was there a few days afterward, staying within a mile of ground zero when the air was still acrid with chemical fumes from the destroyed buildings. PBDEs from materials in the buildings were measured at high levels in this noxious cloud, which contained numerous compounds that have caused longterm damage to workers and rescuers and to residents of lower Manhattan. But it’s unclear whether my few days of exposure could have caused my high levels.

Then I come up with another idea.

“What about airplanes?” I ask.

“Do you fly a lot?” Bergman says.

“I fly about two hundred thousand miles a year,” I say.

“Interesting,” Bergman says, telling me that he has long been curious about PBDE exposure inside airplanes, where plastic and fabric interiors are drenched in flame retardants to meet safety standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration and its counterparts overseas.

Since 2004, Boeing and other plane manufacturers say, they have been phasing out PBDEs in new airplanes, but these chemicals remain on some older planes.

At the time of the call, Bergman was hoping to run tests of PBDE concentrations in airplane air and inside frequent fliers’ bodies — a project he since has implemented, publishing the results in a paper in the fall of 2008. To find out the exposure levels of people on airplanes, his high-flying experiment studied nine test subjects who took long flights of nine to eleven hours. These passengers took air samples on their flights and had the levels of PBDEs tested in their blood before and after the flights. The scientists found that the air on board was thick with PBDEs at high levels. The “after” levels in the passengers’ blood also showed significant increases, although they were far less than mine. “The findings from this pilot study call for investigations of occupational exposures to PBDEs in cabin and cockpit crews, ” wrote Bergman and his team in their study.

This leaves me with an intriguing hypothesis, although it will take further study to clear up the mystery of where I picked up this substance that I had not even heard of until I began working on this project.

So I’m left with the question: How worried should I be about PBDEs? “I wouldn’t be panicked about it,” says Linda Birnbaum. “Animal data from rats, mice, fish and other organisms suggest that the main

concern is reproductive. I’d be much more concerned if you were a woman.” Bergman agrees that my white maleness reduces the risk, adding a guess that “Any level above a hundred parts per billion is probably a risk to newborns.”

This makes me feel a little better, but what about my daughter and the other three billion women on the planet?

Birnbaum can’t say for sure, though any dangers to humans, male or female, from tiny levels would not show up for years if at all. “This compound is not highly toxic in an obvious way, like mercury,” she tells me.

from automobiles to bedspreads, remains on Earth. They will be used for years to come.

This may be why levels of bromides have been increasing exponentially in people and animals, with the levels doubling every three to five years. Bergman’s breast-milk study in Sweden suggests that PBDE levels have been doubling in people approximately every five years. These upward ticks may slow with the bans but not anytime soon.

As I hang up with Åke Bergman, my flight is announced. I find myself strolling onto the plane eyeing the familiar sleek plastic bins, seat covers, and carpet as if they are

“The effects are more subtle.” In animals, detrimental effects such as thyroid and endocrine disruptions and developmental issues manifest later, perhaps in a lower sperm count or in reduced ovarian function. “We don’t know exactly how this would work,” she says.

“It’s hard to tell doctors, ‘Here is what to look for in your patients. ’ ” Can I do anything?

Birnbaum says to eat foods that are low in animal fats because this is one source of PBDEs. “People should keep their homes and offices as clean and as dust-free as possible,” she says. We can also buy goods from companies that claim to no longer use PBDEs. These include Dell, Canon, Hewlett-Packard, Ericsson, Mitsubishi, and Sony.

Still, even with the bans and the phaseouts, an enormous mass of products using PBDEs,

something­outlandish and possibly dangerous.

I look at dust on people’s shoes and feel the low vibration of the floor as the engines idle, waiting to take me across the world on a journey where I’ll breathe recirculating air that on my last flight I hadn’t given a thought to. ACCN Excerpted with permission of the publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc., from Experimental Man: What One Man’s Body Reveals about His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World. Copyright 2009 by David Ewing Duncan. This book is available at all bookstores, online booksellers and from the Wiley website at www.wiley.com, or call 1-800-225-5945.

©

Want to share your thoughts on this article? Write to us at editorial@accn.ca

NOvember/december 2009 Canadian Chemical News 25

Society News Nouvelles des sociétés National Office Happenings

It’s Your Year, Chemistry!

In December 2008, the United Nations adopted a resolution proclaiming 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Marie Curie’s Nobel Prize win. As well as serving as an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of women to science, the goals are to increase the public appreciation of chemistry in meeting world needs, to encourage interest in chemistry among young people, and to generate enthusiasm for the creative future of chemistry. UNESCO and IUPAC are at the helm of the event.

The Chemical Institute of Canada is taking the lead to develop national and regional activities in Canada to celebrate the achievements of chemistry and give the public a behind-the-scenes understanding of its contributions to the well-being of humanity. The organizing committee (listed below) is exploring possibilities like public experiments, scientific cafés and inspiring talks by Nobel Prize recipients, to name a few. As well, under IUPAC’s leadership on the international level, the CIC is looking at participating in global experiments involving children collecting data around the world.

IYC2011 Committee David Dolphin, FCIC, chair, CIC Michael Bourque, vice president of public affairs, Canadian Chemical Producers’ Association (CCPA) Bryan Henry, FCIC, past president, IUPAC Peter Mahaffey, FCIC, professor of chemistry, Kings University College, and chair of the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education Dwayne Miller, professor of chemistry, University of Toronto Amy Parsons, Stakeholders and Communications Department, Canada’s Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D) Joe Schwarz, MCIC, director, Office for Science and Society, McGill University Bernard West, MCIC, president, Westworks Roland Andersson, MCIC, executive director, CIC Lucie Frigon, communications manager, CIC ACCN

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Society News Nouvelles des sociétés The Boards

CIC Board of Directors Nominations/ Nominations pour le Conseil de direction de l’ICC (2010–2011) The Nominating Committee, appointed under the terms of CIC By-Law Article X, Section 1, has proposed these candidates to serve as the Institute officers for 2010–2011. Further nominations are solicited from the membership for the position of vice-chair. They must be submitted in writing, must have the written and signed consent of the nominee to serve if elected, and must be signed by no fewer than 25 members in good standing of the Institute (CIC By-Law Article X, Section 3 (d)). The deadline for receipt of any additional nominations is Monday, January 25, 2010. If any

elections are required, ballots will be mailed in April. Those elected-whether by ballot or acclamation-will take office following the annual general meeting of the Institute on May 31, 2010, in Toronto, ON. En vertu de l’article X, section 1, du règlement de l’ICC, le Comité des candidatures propose la candidature des personnes ci-dessous aux postes d’administrateur pour 2010–2011. Les membres sont invités à soumettre d’autres candidatures pour le poste de vice-président. Celles-ci doivent être

Hadi Mahabadi, FCIC Chair 2010–2011 Vice-president and centre manager Xerox Research Centre of Canada

Hadi Mahabadi, FCIC, is vice-president of Xerox and director of the Xerox Research Centre of Canada (XRCC) for Xerox Corporation. He joined Xerox in 1981 and has held a variety of managerial positions and is currently responsible for managing Xerox materials and ink jet research and technology development. He has been instrumental in the development and delivery of breakthrough materials technologies such as novel toners, inks, photoactive materials that have been introduced into the market since 1990. Mahabadi has been involved in various aspects of managing innovation and commercialization in Canada and serves on a few national and provincial committees/task forces. He has served on several advisory boards and is currently a member of the Board of Directors at the Ontario Centre of Excellence and the Board of Governors of the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD).

Mahabadi has received many awards including two of Xerox’s highest awards: the Xerox President’s Award, the corporation’s highest honour for individual achievement and Xerox’s Chester F. Carlson Award for the highest number of U.S. patents. He has also received several national and international awards including University of Waterloo’s 2008 Alumni Achievement Medal and was ranked first among PrintAction magazine’s 50 most influential Canadians in graphic art communications for 2008.

Mahabadi received his PhD in the field of polymer engineering from the University of Waterloo in 1976 and held various academic positions before joining Xerox. He published over 100 scientific articles and received over 70 U.S. patents. Mahabadi is a member of several scientific societies. He was elected as a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada

présentées par écrit, être accompagnées du consentement écrit et signé par le candidat à remplir la charge s’il est élu, et doivent être signées par au moins 25 membres en règle de l’Institut (article X, section 3 (d) du règlement de l’ICC). La date limite pour soumettre d’autres candidatures est le 25 janvier 2010.

Advenant qu’un scrutin soit nécessaire, les bulletins seront postés en avril. Les personnes élues par scrutin ou par acclamation entreront en fonction après l’assemblée générale annuelle de l’Institut, qui aura lieu le 31 mai 2010, à Toronto (Ontario).

and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and served as secretary and chair of the CIC Macromolecular Science and Engineering Division. He is the CIC vice-chair (2009–2010).

Maja Veljkovic, FCIC Vice-chair 2010–2011 Director general Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation National Research Centre Canada

Maja Veljkovic, FCIC, is director general of the National Research Council of Canada Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation (NRC-IFCI), and the lead for the National H2FC Program, a Vancouver-based, federal research and development institute specializing in fuel cell and hydrogen technology.

At NRC-IFCI, she leads a national effort to support the fuel cell and hydrogen industry through research leadership, state-of-the-art facilities and cluster development activities. An internationally recognized research institute, NRC-IFCI is Canada’s flagship in fuel cell research.

Prior to joining NRC-IFCI in 2001, Veljkovic served as senior engineer and R&D manager at Syncrude Canada, where she was responsible for major R&D and engineering projects. Most recently, she was Syncrude’s senior advisor, Upgrading Research Program.

Veljkovic’s academic training began at the University of Belgrade in Yugoslavia, where in 1972 she obtained her bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering. In 1976, she received her masters of science in chemical engineering from The University of British Columbia.

Veljkovic’s professional achievements have been recognized by election to many prestigious professional societies, including the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) where she presided as president from 2004–2006, working on the Vision for Canadian Engineers initiative and organizing of the Climate Change Technology Conference 2006. In the past, she has served as president­ NOvember/december 2009 Canadian Chemical News 27

Society News Nouvelles des sociétés The Boards

Recognition

of the CSChE and chair of the Upgrading Technical Planning Group of the Canadian Oil Sands Network for R&D (CONRAD).

She has also received a number of awards recognizing her professional contributions, including the 1997 YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Science and Technology and is a recipient of CIC and EIC fellowships. Recently she served on the panel of the “Meeting of the Mines” event that framed a message to the next U.S. president regarding sustainable transportation strategy.

Stanley R. Brown, FCIC, Richard Oakley, FCIC, K.W. Michael Siu, FCIC and David Wilkinson, FCIC, were all elected fellows of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) last September.

The RSC recognizes excellence in the arts, humanities and sciences and is Canada’s most prestigious scholarly organization.

Cathy Cardy, MCIC, has been named a 2009 Alumni of Distinction by the Mohawk College Alumni Association. Cardy is the Quality Assurance Laboratory manager at Imperial Oil in Sarnia, Ont. Mohawk College is in Hamilton, Ont.

Veljkovic’s statement of policy is as follows: In coming years, the imperative of sustainability and the reality of climate change will continue to fuel increased demand for clean and alternative energy technologies worldwide. Yet, despite the demand for this kind of innovation, there remain many fundamental knowledge and technical gaps that must be overcome in order to facilitate the successful deployment of an array of clean and alternative clean energy technologies in commercial markets.

A key element in the development of clean and alternative energy technologies, chemistry and chemical engineering both play a key role in developing the knowledge necessary to further the goals of individual research institutions, academia, and SMEs alike. The CIC and its constituent societies are well-positioned to contribute to advancing Canada’s clean energy advantage by encouraging chemical research that aligns with, and shares in the goals of SMEs to bring promising new technologies and energy alternatives to bear in commercial markets worldwide.

To capitalize on this opportunity, the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) must: 1. continue to support sustained private, academic and government funding for basic and applied chemical research, with emphasis rapidly expanding areas of clean and alternative energy; 2. promote and encourage the development and training of new chemists and chemical engineers in these new and upcoming markets; and 3. encourage increased dialogue between research institutions, academia and industry towards the identification of key barriers to the commercialization of innovative new technologies.

Through informed approach to aligned basic and applied research, CIC can help build the foundation for a competitive and sustainable Canada. ACCN

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Josephine Hill, MCIC, was awarded the Minerva Mentoring Award by the Alberta Women’s Science Network. Hill is an associate professor and the Zandmer/Canada Research Chair in Hydrogen and Catalysis at the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary. ACCN

Upcoming Events

Canada

Conferences and Awards March 25, 2010. Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) Canada Annual Awards Ceremony and Dinner, Toronto May 9–12, 2010. 21st Canadian Symposium on Catalysis, Banff, Alta., www.21csc2010.ca May 29–June 2, 2010. 93rd Canadian Chemistry­Conference­and Exhibition­, Toronto, Ont., www.csc2010.ca August 4–6, 2010. Fundamentals and Applications­, Ottawa, Ont., www.international­-aset.com (click on “Conferences­”) August 15–19, 2010. 3rd International IUPAC Conference on Green Chemistry, Ottawa, Ont., www.icgc2010.ca October 24–27, 2010. 60th Canadian Chemical­Engineering Conference, Saskatoon, Sask., www.csche2010.ca

U.S. and Overseas

Saviez-vous Toutes les éditions d’ACCN parues avant 2009 peuvent être lues gratuitement sur le Web à www.accn.ca?

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Conferences

November 8–11, 2009. Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioenergy, Honolulu­, Hawaii, www.bio.org/pacrim December 15–20, 2010. Pacifichem 2010, Honolulu, Hawaii, www.pacifichem.org ACCN

Society News Nouvelles des sociétés Scholar’s Scoop

Local Heroes

Phillip Choi, MCIC and Rohan Jacob

Phillip Choi, MCIC and Maria Dabrowski

The 2009 recipients of the CSChE local section scholarships are Rohan Jacob and Maria Dabrowski, both of McMaster University. They were presented with their scholarships at the WCCE8 student banquet on August 25 by Phillip Choi, MCIC, chair of the Edmonton CSChE Local Section.

Jacob is now in his fifth year of the chemical engineering and bioengineering program. Dabrowski is also working towards a degree in the same program. These scholarships are sponsored by the Edmonton CSChE, London CIC and Sarnia CIC Local Sections. ACCN

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Chemfusion Joe Schwarcz

Toxin Tug of War

W

hat was it that Alexander Pope said? “A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow thoughts intoxicate the brain; And drinking largely sobers us again.” But the poet never had to think about drinking that spring water out of a polycarbonate bottle.

Today, such thoughts cannot be avoided.

Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that can leach out of polycarbonate bottles or out of the resins that line cans, is clearly the toxin du jour.

Environmental organizations label it as a clear threat to our health, while the plastics industry maintains that the scare is exaggerated. So who is right? Neither side. BPA is not a major threat to health but neither can its possible effects be dismissed out of hand.

The oft-repeated tenet of toxicology is that only the dose makes the poison. We know

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that two aspirin tablets are safe, but swallowing a whole bottle of pills can be lethal.

A blood sugar reading of four millimoles per litre causes no concern, but 10 millimoles per litre raises a red flag. However, in the complex world of toxicology, the interpretation of numbers is rarely that simple, with some researchers even challenging the notion that risk is proportional to increasing dose. Very tiny amounts, they claim, may have different consequences than larger doses, especially when it comes to chemicals with estrogen-like effects. Welcome to the world of “environmental endocrine disruptors.” Welcome to the world of BPA. The media coverage of BPA has made people reach for the panic button. And hope that the button isn’t made of polycarbonate, a plastic that can release trace amounts of bisphenol A into the environment. Polycarbonate plastics are ubiquitous. Compact discs, DVDs, hockey helmets, eyeglasses, water pipes, automobile headlights, bullet-proof shields, dental sealants, cell phones and laptops all benefit from the virtually unbreakable properties of polycarbonates. Bisphenol A is one of the components used to make polycarbonates as well as epoxy resins and can indeed be released in trace amounts from these materials over time.

Refillable water bottles, baby bottles and foodprocessor bowls made of polycarbonate can all leach BPA into their contents as can protective linings inside food cans. Bisphenol A is also used as an antioxidant additive in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics such as garden hoses and in industrial food wraps.

Environmental estrogens raise eyebrows because they can mimic the activity of the body’s own estrogen. Unfortunately, our ability to detect trace amounts of such chemicals in our bodies has surpassed our ability to interpret what the numbers mean.

Producers of polycarbonate plastics maintain that the amounts to which we are exposed are inconsequential, while some researchers claim that BPA even at levels of parts per trillion, as found in our bodies, is potentially harmful. Accusations, sometimes with venomous overtones, fly back and forth.

Supporters of the “bisphenol A is a health hazard” side accuse industry of distorting the numbers, while industry spokespeople are quick to drill holes in the research that damns BPA. It is quickly broken down in the body, they point out, and it is not BPA, but one of its breakdown products that is actually measured

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in the urine. This compound, they maintain, does not have estrogenic properties and is not an indication of the body load of BPA. The question remains: Should we be terrified of our water bottles and canned foods?

Remember the joke about the drunk who was walking back and forth below a street lamp?

“What did you lose?,” he was asked “My keys,” came the reply. “Did you drop them here?” “No,” he answered, “but this is the only place where there is light!” Right now, the light is being cast on bisphenol A, while numerous hormone-like substances lurk in the darkness.

Milk, for example, represents a far greater estrogenic exposure than we experience from BPA. Our average daily intake of estrogens through milk is about 370 nanograms which is roughly what would be found in 50 millilitres of water from a polycarbonate bottle.

Nobody is suggesting the banning of milk even though it contains a good dose of estrogenic compounds. And neither should they.

This does not mean that we should be cavalier about hormone-like substances in the environment. Even though there is no evidence that BPA presents a risk to humans at the levels encountered, we can’t rule out the possibility that babies may not excrete BPA as efficiently as adults, or that the chemical may have a synergistic effect when combined with other endocrine disrupting substances. Keep in mind, though, that we are exposed to thousands of natural and synthetic compounds every day in our food, water, air, cosmetics, cleaning agents and drugs, many of which have hormone-like effects and, if scrutinized with the same vigor as bisphenol A, would raise similar concerns.

Health is an extremely complex business, with genetics, nutrition and a myriad of environmental factors playing a role. Focusing on one specific chemical presents an unrealistic picture and creates an aura of importance that is out of proportion to the actual risk.

The accumulating scientific evidence justifies a careful look at how bisphenol A enters the environment, but certainly does not justify the current wave of hysteria. It seems we do need a sobering drink from that Pierian spring. ACCN Joe Schwarcz, MCIC, is the director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society.

He hosts the Dr. Joe Show on Montréal’s radio station CJAD and Toronto’s CFRB. The broadcast is available at www.CJAD.com.

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