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The green chemistry movement that emerged among academic and applied chemists during the 1990s has grown into a significant international force for change within the field of chemistry. Green chemistry innovations are emerging in green reagents, alternative solvents, low-waste reactions, aqueous processing, biocatalysts, energy-conserving processes, safer chemical products, chemicals from renewable feedstocks, and chemicals modelled on natural systems. However, the chemical industry has been slow to embrace this new approach to chemistry and there has been little movement on the basic platform chemicals of the industry.

In this chapter the authors explore the role that the dominant discourse of risk has played in the processes of institutional change that have taken place in the field of chemistry as a result of the emergence and expansion of “green” chemistry. The aim of green chemistry is to replace hazardous substances with benign ones so as to eliminate chemical risks to human health and the environment. They show how significant institutional changes have occurred through two forms of “risk translation” that have changed the discursive landscape by constructing new kinds of “knowing subjects” who are able to act on different “known” objects.

The successful shift away from chemicals of concern requires the development of new and safer alternatives. This involves the synthesis of new chemicals and chemical processes. Nanotechnology and synthetic biology both offer novel routes to such alternatives if they are effectively guided by a drive for safety and ecological compatibility. Green engineering and nonchemical alternatives also offer safer substitutes. These innovations require a clear definition of the term “safer” and tools for assisting in such searches. However, there is now a growing market of safer chemical and nonchemical alternatives that could use either government of private investment assistance to get to the scale and competitive prices that are needed for effective market conversions.

This chapter presents three case studies of chemical risks to examine regulatory riskwork in three different risk scenarios. The first risk scenario concerns ‘established’ risks, which stem from hazards that are widely recognized and which have been causally linked to particular practices or products, usually through significant and mainly uncontroversial scientific study. The second scenario involves ‘emerging’ risks, which stem from hazards that are perceived to be novel or unfamiliar, and which are only starting to be recognized by some, but not all, members of scientific and other communities. The third scenario involves ‘eliminating’ risks altogether, by substituting practices or products understood as being hazardous with alternatives believed to be non-hazardous. For each scenario, the chapter identifies the riskworkers, the nature of riskwork and discursive work in which they engage, the implications of their work for how risk objects are conceptualized, and the likely effects of their riskwork.

Our economy is based on thousands of chemicals many of which have hazardous properties. For over 40 years the United States has relied on federal chemical control laws to manage the risks of these chemicals, however, many of these substances today show up as pollutants in our homes, workplaces and bodies. A growing movement among consumer and environmental organizations, product manufacturers, retailers, and governments is working to eliminate the use of many of these chemicals. This book documents that movement and offers a series of proposals on how to broaden the movement and make it more effective.

Developing a truly effective chemical management approach in the United States requires changing the way that the chemicals problem has been framed. Instead of controlling a few hundred truly dangerous chemicals, we should be focusing on all the chemicals on the market today and progressively shifting towards safer chemicals and non-chemical alternatives. This will require understanding chemicals as products of a massive chemical production, consumption and disposal system that needs to be restructured. A new safer chemical policy framework is needed and a comprehensive chemical conversion strategy that involves three strategic fronts; converting the chemical market, transforming the chemical industry and designing greener chemicals.