AAAS NEWS


SCIENCE POLICY Inquisition on science CATH O’DRISCOLL


Former US president Kennedy’s call for researchers to put a man on the moon inspired a generation of young people to study science – including AAAS president Susan Hockfield, she told the 2018 annual meeting in Austin, Texas, in February 2018. Today - rather than being inspired by


science – the current lack of US political and public support for science ‘risks losing a whole generation’ of new scientists, said former US vice president Joe Biden, referencing Hockfield’s comments during his plenary address.


‘What has made America great is a belief in possibilities,’ Biden said. ‘That if we work together there’s virtually nothing that we can’t eventually solve.’ Over the past 30 years, however, Biden


pointed out that the share of US federal funding for basic science research for these


AIR QUALITY High VOCs from household chemicals CATH O’DRISCOLL


Consumer products from body sprays to paints and nail varnish now rank equally with cars and other road vehicles as the leading source of air pollution in towns and cities, say researchers. Volatile chemical products (VCPs) – also including household cleaners, pesticides and perfumes – emit around the same level of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as transportation, according to the team of US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)-led scientists reporting their findings at the AAAS meeting in Austin, Texas, in February 2018. Not only that, but they also


lead to the generation of twice as many fine particles that can damage the lungs and are among the most hazardous pollutants in air for human health. ‘In our study, we propose that


VOCs are ventilated from the indoor to outdoor environment, and in the presence of sunlight, the VOCs undergo a cascade of chemical reactions,’ said Brian


McDonald, lead study author at the University of Colorado at Boulder and NOAA. ‘The VOCs are transformed in the atmosphere where they can either form new tiny particles, or they can stick to existing particles present in the atmosphere.’ Fine particles are also formed


when VOCs react with nitrogen oxide emissions from car exhausts. Until now, many of the chemicals in VCPs were difficult to measure outdoors. However, the team made their findings after carrying out a study to chemically fingerprint the air quality both indoors and outdoors in Los Angeles, by using a ‘souped up’ or ‘ruggedised’ version of


conventional GC/MS. Analogous to a musical chord, a chemical fingerprint represents a collection of different compounds in air, explained NOAA atmospheric scientist Jessica Gilman. While around 15 times more oil and natural gas is used as fuel rather than to make chemical products in the US, she said the solvents found in VCPs are ‘literally designed to evaporate’. In some ways, the researchers


say the study results are ‘good news’ because it shows how successful air quality regulations have been at controlling emissions from vehicles. ‘As transportation gets cleaner, those other sources become more and more important,’ said McDonald.


However, ‘another implication, is that the link between VOC emissions from VCPs and the formation of fine particles has been under-recognised. Much of the regulatory attention on VCPs has been on ground-level ozone and air toxics, with less attention paid to the formation of fine particles.’ The researchers also looked at chemical statistics on air pollution sources compiled by US industries and regulatory agencies. In the US, the amount of VOCs emitted by consumer and industrial products is two or three times higher than estimated by current air pollution inventories, they found. While European emission


inventories already show large relative contributions of VOCs from VCPs, the researchers say the study is the first to confirm this in urban air. Many of the VCPs currently on the marketplace in the US and EU are already regulated to reduce VOCs, they point out, adding that for now, the advice is: ‘to use as little product as possible to get the job done’.


big projects has fallen from 70% to 50%. With so many grand global challenges facing the world, ‘now is not the time to back down,’ he argued, calling for a doubling or even tripling of federal science funding to tackle global challenges from threats to national defence to climate change and famine. More than a year after President Trump


took office, Biden also said that ‘it’s unacceptable’ that still no scientist has been appointed as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. ‘We can’t keep our position as science leader if we ban scientific research on climate change and pollution, if we cancel Earth observation studies, if we continue cuts in science agencies,’ he said. ‘If entire agencies aren’t allowed to use the words “evidence based” or “science based” it reminds me of the inquisition writ small.’ Speaking to climate scientists recently,


Biden recalled that he told them they ‘must know how Galileo felt’.


‘If science loses its place in guiding America, [America] loses its place in the world,’ he said.


Scientists themselves weren’t off the hook either. They need to work harder to inspire new generations to follow them, Biden said, and to challenge the status quo and deliver meaningful results faster. ‘You people are not good at sharing,’ Biden told scientists in the audience. As head of the Obama administration’s Cancer Moonshot project, to double the rate of progress on cancer treatments, Biden said he has seen for himself how such attitudes impede progress. The bill was renamed after Biden’s son Beau, who tragically died from brain cancer at the age of 46. But, as Biden concluded: ‘We can’t double the rate of progress against cancer or any other problems if we don’t support you [scientists] in this hour of need and explain to people how incredibly important you are.’


6 02 | 2018


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