Forum Standing Committee Working Groups
Substitution and Alternatives
Case studies - Examples
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Like Sugar for Poison: Glucose as a Substitute for Benzene
Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 103, Number 6, June 1995
Glucose, the body's main fuel, is found in certain foods and also formed by the breakdown of sugars and starches. It may one day be a replacement for benzene, a highly regulated compound that is ubiquitous in the chemical industry (12 billion pounds were produced in the United States in 1993). Benzene helps make jeans blue--it's the feedstock for indigo dye--and ice cream vanilla flavored--it's the source of vanillin. It's also the starting point for a number of important industrial chemicals including hydroquinone, used in film developing, phenol, used to make solvents, and adipic acid, which is used to make nylon. Benzene is also a potent carcinogen.