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Chain Reaction by ACS

It’s a Watery World: The Chemistry of Pollution, Episode 2

4/30/202638 min

We live in a watery world; 71% of Earth is covered in water. But humans have polluted Earth’s water for decades with pollutants like plastic, oil, and drugs. Marine chemist Chris Reddy guides us through what happens to the ocean during human-caused spills – from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to the X-Press Pearl plastic spill – and how the ocean recovers. 

But our oceans aren’t the only waters at risk of human-caused pollution. Analytical chemist Carrie McDonough transports us to the water in our taps and the ‘forever chemicals’ lurking in them. She demystifies PFAS chemicals, explaining where they come from, where they end up, and the dangers they pose to our environment and human health. This episode is a whirling adventure through the world of water, including the analytical tools chemists use to study it and the looming public health threat of polluted water. 

Transcripts and episode sources at acs.org/chainreaction

Clips

Showing 10 of 11
Gulf 'dead for decades'? No.
Burnt nurdles, thousandfold toxicity
PFAS: no safe level
Half of taps? Likely more
Destroying forever chemicals
iPhones to mass specs
PFAS found by burning blood
By the time we looked
'We don't know' in science
Design better, not a license

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Margot Wall· Host0:00

    [intro music] This is Chain Reaction, a podcast from the American Chemical Society, where we link chemistry's past to its future. I'm your host, Margot Wall.

  2. Sam Jones· Co-host0:14

    And I'm Sam Jones.

  3. Margot Wall· Host0:15

    Sam, I've been working on my ukulele skills recently. Can I play you part of a song?

  4. Sam Jones· Co-host0:25

    Yes.

  5. Margot Wall· Host0:26

    Okay, well, I'll not regale you with the whole song, but here's a bit of it. [singing and playing ukulele] Cleveland, even now I can remember 'cause the Cuyahoga River goes smoking through my dreams. Burn on, big river, burn on. Burn on, big river, burn on.

  6. Sam Jones· Co-host1:01

    Margot, that was so good. I love it. I think you need to create a full version and release it as bonus content.

  7. Margot Wall· Host1:12

    Hmm. Ah, I don't know about that. [laughs] So that's a Randy Newman song from 1972 called "Burn On," and it was released three years after the Cuyahoga River, which weaves through Cleveland, caught fire. Sparks from a rail bridge likely ignited oil that floated on

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