The Pros And Cons Of Career Paths In Chemistry

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Chemistry has many different career paths and chemists specialise in a diverse range of different areas. Chemistry is a science that deals with the properties, composition, structure of elements and compounds, thereby; chemists use this information to develop new materials and substances. There are a number of career paths in chemistry such as biochemistry, industrial chemistry, electrochemistry, polymer chemistry and much more. While all the other field names speak for themselves, industrial chemistry deals with the large-scale processing of chemicals and chemical products for industrial and consumer uses. Industrial chemistry plays a vital role as an applied science in areas that influence today’s society and environment both positively and …show more content…
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), they employees earned a median salary of US$ 94, 450 in 2012. Boredom is also very rare in the life of an industrial chemist as their work is almost always challenging and intellectually stimulating. Solving a problem is going to take creative thinking, research and a lot of hard work, a delight for scientific professionals. Although, there are also some disadvantages to being an industrial chemist. They are at times exposed to extremely hazardous work place conditions. Despite significant safety precautions, accidents are not uncommon in mining facilities, manufacturing plants and chemical processing operations. Industrial chemists also have relatively poor future job prospects. Manufacturing has been on the decline and in the U.S. alone, the BLS is only projecting a six percent job growth for industrial chemists from 2010 to 2020. This is less than half the 14% job growth projected across all occupations. However, overall, industrial chemists make society a better place by creating and more efficient and effective products such as petroleum, fertilizers, strong plastics and more. These creations make this world a better developed place with good sanitation, electricity, fuel efficiency and clean …show more content…
A chemical process is a method of changing one or more chemicals or chemical compounds into another, usually by a chemical reaction. These processes are used by industries and have had an impact on environment by altering how it operates or by reducing damage to the surroundings. For example, Ralph Yang a professor from the University of Michigan has had success in chemical separation technologies that minimize the formation of harmful pollutants. His work on the development of desulfurization sorbents that carry out selective adsorption of sulphur from diesel fuels and of zeolites that remove nitrogen from transportation fuels has been ground-breaking. However, there are other processes that are quite harmful to the environment such as lead ore processing. Once lead is extracted from its ore by reduction with carbon, the waste often has traces of lead even after filtration that poisons water systems once dumped. This causes plants to die and causes animals and humans to get sick or even die. Yet even though there are positives, the negatives have much more a significant impact that comes with great consequences; therefore it is recommended that only environmentally-friendly chemical processes be carried

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