FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | June 04, 2012

New look and focus for American Chemical Society Pressroom Blog

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2012 — The American Chemical Society’s (ACS’) Pressroom Blog has undergone a major overhaul to showcase the latest chemistry advances in health and medicine, food, energy and the environment, as well as to provide a glimpse behind the pressroom curtain.

Launched in the new format today, the ACS Pressroom blog now features four bloggers from the Science Communications group in the ACS Office of Public Affairs who are writing posts on various aspects of science. Here are the four new categories featured in the blog:

  • The Medical Bond, by Katie Cottingham, Ph.D., is a category devoted to medical applications of chemical research. Just as bonds bring atoms together, interest in health and wellness is a common bond among humans.
  • The Food Court, by Michael Bernstein, focuses on food and nutrition. These posts take the reader on a journey through nature's food court and discuss the latest advances.
  • Flowers & Power, by Sam Lemonick, covers environmental science and energy. Posts showcase innovations in chemistry that may help us overcome some of the biggest challenges in these areas that the world faces today.
  • Pressroom Perspectives, by Michael Woods, discuss the topic of communicating science to the public. These posts provide background and context for Science Communications activities at ACS, the world's largest scientific society.

The first entry was posted today. The post, which is in The Medical Bond category, explains that traditional mud stoves or open-cook fires generate lots of soot, and these particles can be inhaled deeply into the lungs and have been linked to health problems similar to those associated with cigarette smoking. In addition, black soot is a major factor in global warming. Thus, so-called improved cookstoves (ICs) that supposedly do not emit as much soot could improve people’s health and the health of the environment.

However, researchers found that some of these ICs may at times emit more soot particles than traditional mud stoves or open-cook fires. The report raises concerns about ICs, which are the leading hope as a clean cooking technology in the developing world.

The ACS Pressroom blog features new posts from one of the four categories every Monday.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society contact newsroom@acs.org.

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Media Contact

Michael Bernstein
202-872-6042
m_bernstein@acs.org

Michael Woods
202-872-6293
m_woods@acs.org