Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry, calls for more attention to the links between environment and cancer.

World markets want safe materials. Green chemistry will be able to provide them, but only if it gets the resources it needs to flourish. Other countries, including Germany, India, and, China, are investing far more in green chemistry than the United States does. As demand grows for safer materials because of the compelling science that show how chemicals in wide use today are undermining our health, America’s chemical industry needs to become the leader.

What’s holding us back? Lack of financial support for green chemistry research and innovation. But just turning on the funding spigot won’t be enough. We also need to reinvent how chemistry is taught in US colleges and universities.

Her co-authors are Terry Collins is a professor of green chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University and John Warner, president of the Warner-Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, located just north of Boston.

The Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry is dedicated to the development of non-toxic, environmentally benign, and sustainable technological solutions for society.