Thursday, April 17, 2014

Its Sandy (Not Melissa) : Para-xylene Gets a Bad Rep



As a tree-hugging environmentalist at heart, I try to do my part in saving the earth as we know it. While researching new ideas to reduce my foot print on earth, I came across this Environmental Chemical article about para-xylene producing chemical plant and all the bad publicity it is getting in China. As a result of lack of education, people in China protested violently against the production of para-xylene. Para-xylene is used as a precursor in making polyester, a textile that is very important to China’s economy. There was mass confusion about the safety of para-xylene. Due to a change in the entry of the Chinese version of Wikipedia, citizens thought that para-xylene was harmful and highly toxic. Even after research was done, and the correction was made to low toxicity, violent riots and protests were still common in the streets. Unfortunately, the industry that is most effected from this bad reputation is the textiles.

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