by Nataliya TARASOVA, RAS Corresponding Member, Director of the Institute of Chemistry and Problems of Sustained Development, Mendeleev Russian Chemico-Technological University

The year 2013 is declared a year of environmental protection in Russia as the country's sustained development is impossible without a consistent national ecological policy. One of its most important constituents is an application of technologies minimizing industrial impacts on the environment and human health. Nataliya Tarasova, Deputy Chairman of the National Committee of Russian Chemists and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) told our correspondent Yevgeniya Sidorova about the related responsibility of chemical scientists.

- Within the framework of the scientific "Green Chemistry" project launched in the 1990s, specialists of different countries are working out processes of substance transformation providing maximum reduction of ecological risks (for example, rejection of technologies connected with strong acids and dangerous solvents). To what extent is today such approach typical of national applied studies in chemistry?

- Chemists always competed in obtaining of new substances and discovered unknown molecules like German engineer Hans von Pechmann, who obtained polyethylene for the first time in 1899,-such is the nature of our science. But in late 20th century such problems were brought to the forefront: how to control growing flows of chemicals, who will control their behavior in the environment, and how to protect the mankind from their negative actions. Just then were the Green Chemistry principles specified, and the first of them was "better to prevent a discharge of contaminants than to get rid of them later". Now we change consciously the search direction: specialists focus not only on a synthesis process of the original compound (for example, the active substance of a new medicine), but also on consequences of its use by people.

Environmental protection priorities have a real effect on classical fundamental research. For example, specialists of the Institute of Thermal Physics of the RAS Siberian Branch study chemical processes in such media as water or carbon dioxide in a supercritical state*, and, in doing so, they take into account not only ability of these substances to perform functions of oxidizing agent (water) or solvent for synthesis (carbonic acid gas), not

* Supercritical state is a state of substance, in which difference between phases disappears. Substances in such state can be used as a substitute for organic solvents in laboratory and industrial processes.-Ed.

Risks connected with chemical substances in different category products.

characteristic of them under ordinary conditions, but also absolute ecological safety. However, in practice such approach becomes popular slowly. And this is not a purely Russian but a common problem as the number of "green" patents is kept at a low level in all countries. In 2012 in Rio de Janeiro the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustained Development was held, and its summary declaration noted a failure of the Green Chemistry goals globally.

Meanwhile, the latest data of national and foreign statistics prove that the world chemical industry shows exponential growth, while Russia ranks 9th by the volume of production of this industry. It is not without reason that now our country has 5 votes out of 6 maximum (USA and China have 6 votes each) in voting at meetings of the IUPAC General Assembly.

According to the data of the Federal Service of State Statistics, the export of products of the national chemical industry (with the leading oil products and mineral fertilizers) today is behind an import of goods required for the country. According to the data of the Russian Union of Chemists only 1.65 percent of the gross domestic product fell on the chemical industry in 2012, while it employed a great number of people. But the production output increased by 107.1 percent as compared with 2011, and this tendency agrees with a strategic target of the country's economic development. The Russian Ministry of Power Engineering (which supervises oil refineries) has planned, in particular, increased volumes of such important basic reagents of the chemical industry, recovered in petroleum feedstock pyrolysis as ethylene and other olefins used in production of different polymers including elastomers (polymers with high elastic properties) and others. There are chemical complexes practically in all regions of our country. However, it should be noted that according to the last report of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, more than 140 of our cities are referred to the highpollution category, and above 40 cities have the atmosphere pollution index exceeding 7, an extremely dangerous level for human health.

- Can the last fact stimulate the national chemical companies to improve their technologies in line with the Green Chemistry concept?

- At present the social structure really brings forth barriers providing significant influence on development of the chemical industry. Among them there are high ecological requirements for technologies employed by producers of polymers, mineral fertilizers, petrochemistry products and other chemical products in the member-countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 2012, Russia also joined WTO, and we have to adjust our legislation now, in particular, to update our domestic registers of potentially dangerous chemical substances*. At present the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade is compiling a list of chemicals, which present the highest concern of world public for a number of parameters. This list will include, for example, specific detergents.

Specialists have to solve a number of problems for appraisal of ecological risks connected with the use of chemicals. First of all, elaboration of measures for reduction of negative environmental impact of the produced substances can be only possible on the basis of their classification by toxicity (nature and level of their effects on living organisms). However, experts' findings related to the danger of a particular compound change

* Substance is considered potentially dangerous if under conditions of production, application, transportation, processing or everyday life it affects adversely human health and the environment. Such substances are subject to registration in all countries of the world, and Russia follows it since 1993.-Ed.

radically depending on methods of analysis. A simple case in point is copper sulphate. The competent national institutions (from the Federal Agency for Technical Control and Metrology to the Russian Ministry of Transport) include it in different groups of substances, from totally nontoxic to toxic, which require special measures of handling.

Such problems are encountered not only in Russia but also in other countries. Mercury as a thoroughly studied toxicant is a striking example (its vapors cause severe poisoning). In the European Economic Community, Japan and Great Britain the goods containing this substance have different code marks, which disorients consumers. Thus, it is necessary to unify the system of assessment of chemicals toxicity, and specialists are working on this problem. For example, in late January of 2013 in Geneva the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Conciliation Commission on Preparation of Legally Binding Global Agreement on Reduction of Mercury Emissions adopted the Minamata Convention providing a partial solution of this problem. This document was named after the Japanese settlement where for the first time contamination of the environment by mercury compounds caused mass poisoning of people.

Application or, professionally speaking, handling of potentially dangerous substances should be accompanied by control of toxicologists and physicians. However, today not all dangerous substances are covered by compulsory registration. For example, heavy-metal compounds and aromatic hydrocarbons produced by crude oil refining are "outsiders". Joining WTO compels Russia to turn attention to this problem.

The Russian Union of Chemists is taking steps in order to increase competitiveness of national producers in the domestic and foreign markets under new conditions. In particular, around 20 of our enterprises participate in the Responsible Care International Program aimed at expansion of the best chemical technologies developed abroad (for example, those connected with production waste processing) and used in practice in the countries of the Green Economy*. The principle of this program is continuous improvement and openness of companies, which enables them to increase a corporate culture level.

- In European countries the attention of company's management to environmental problems has a profound

* Green Economy is a new field in economic science based on a provision that economy is a dependent component of the natural environment within which it exists.-Ed.

impact on its image. What steps are necessary to turn this into reality also at our enterprises, where ecological cleanness of products is not yet among priorities?

- Of course, the situation will not change suddenly. Introduction of the "green" national patents should be preceded by changes in the legislation, education and science. Only then can we expect changes in the psychology of people. The Institute of Chemistry and Problems of Sustained Development together with the RF Ministry of Industry and Trade drew up a special inquiry form for Russian enterprises, which makes it possible to determine their requirements for environmentally oriented innovations and their vision of development trends. The inquiry findings are rather interesting. The so-called "Green Map" is already being worked out for industry, government, academic and other professional associations and public societies.

There are Western companies, which are really concerned about their image and therefore are keen to lower environmental risks. Besides, their decisions are based not only on the necessity to prevent pollutants emissions, but also on the need for maximum utilization of all basic materials, strict accounting of power consumption and all other principles of the Green Chemistry. Of course, it required deep scientific studies.

For example, the British-Dutch company Unilever, one of the world leaders in the market of foodstuffs and household chemistry products, succeeded in 50 percent reduction of negative impact of the latter on the environment. The German chemical concern LANXESS*, which produces, in particular, high-quality synthetic rubber tires, made use of technologies, which allowed practically to reject fossil energy sources (petroleum hydrocarbons) and 50 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. The well-known American producer of clothes and footwear Levi Strauss & Co. analyzed, under the pressure of public opinion, the life cycle of its products starting from the basic materials (cotton, dyestuff, etc.) to utilization of the worked out clothes and found out that when producing a pair of jeans about 32 kg of CO₂ is discharged into the atmosphere and above 3,000 liters of water and 400 mJ of energy are consumed. However, the said ecological costs emerge not in the course of product making but in the process of getting initial materials and also in the period of using goods by buyers, who irrationally consume natural resources (for example, water and energy during washing of clothes).

* See: S. Aldoshin, "Our Know-How: Time of Hope", Science in Russia, No. 2, 2013.-Ed.

Planetary boundaries for the life of a human society.

As a result, Levi Strauss & Co. worked out a special three-year program for producers of mass consumer goods directed to minimization of environmental risks and, in perspective, to consumer costs cutting. What is the main point of this program? According to managers of Levi Strauss & Co. and its follower German industrial concern Adidas AG producing clothes, footwear and sports equipment, as well as of other major foreign companies, by 2020 chemists should develop such technologies, at the expense of which discharges of toxic compounds into the environment will go down to zero. This is also in line with the so-called 20/20/20 targets of a new climate policy of the EU, stipulating measures for 20 percent cutting of cumulative greenhouse gas emissions in the European countries by 2020 as compared with 1990. Obviously, national scientists will also participate in this program.

- You have mentioned a need of changes in the education sector as a basis for the chemical industry advance. Many professional associations developed codes of ethics enabling their members to take adequate decisions. Hence the question is: Can the Green Chemistry principles play a similar role in the life of future chemists?

- Perhaps we can trace an analogy in this case. Scientists have proved long ago that the environment and human society are inseparable, so they have to develop in harmony with each other, and therefore we should seek an alternative to unrestrained economic growth. In 1972, the Club of Rome ordered to publish a famous report by the American ecologist Donella Meadows, the mathematician Dennis Meadows, Norwegian biophysi-cist Jorgen Randers and American engineer William Behrens, in which they presented the results of modeling human population growth and depletion of resources. The factual data accumulated for the past 40 years confirm an exponential increase in carbonic acid gas concentration in the atmosphere, the number of population on the Earth and also destruction of animal and plant species. Today the planetary boundaries, within which the life of a human society takes place, are well defined by availability of potable water, acidification parameters of the World Ocean, the ozone layer stability and other factors. The spread of "green" technologies can slow down the mankind's approach to these boundaries.

If in the 20th century all major discoveries were directed to increase utilization of material resources, at present scientists and chemists face another challenge, i.e. preservation of natural resources.