Plastics are used everyday, from soda bottles to garbage bags and coat hangers to carpets. The more we understand polymers and how they react to each other the better plastics we can produce.
Knowledge of polymers also leads chemical engineers to work on advancements in recycling. Right now a serious problem with plastic waste contributes to the landfill problem and a toxic pollution problem when they degrade. However, with engineers working on the problem we can try to solve this problem. In fact, through recycling plastics we can use the petroleum that they produce to lessen our dependence on petroleum.
Learn more about plastics by reading the following articles.
- Brief Plastics History
- PETE and his number and triangle friends – why do they hang out on plastic bottles?
- Building Body Parts - Plastics in Medicine
- DVDs to TVs to MP3s - Plastics in Electronics
- T-shirts and Tennies - Plastics in Apparel
- Gymnastics and Helmets - Plastics in Sports
Building Body Parts - Plastics in Medicine
"From birth to old age, plastics have become increasingly important to our healthcare. Plastics are now inextricably linked to the well-being of millions of people."1 Some things that engineers have designed with the help of plastics are:
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Artificial hearts
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Replacement limbs (prostheses)
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Safe, tamper-proof packaging for drugs
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Medical equipment – syringes, blood bags, gloves, and dressings
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Eyewear – lenses, frames, contact lenses
Why plastics? "Hygienic, strong, light, inert, protective, disposable, versatile and flexible, plastics have proved vital in producing medical equipment and instruments."2
Plastics are used in the medical community to provide solutions for highly advanced, demanding applications and to help rebuild the human body.
"Prosthetic devices have revolutionized the medical field: modern plastics engineering has given people an increased mobility and artificial limbs with an astonishingly life like appearance." New York Yankee pitcher Jimmy Key helped clinch Game 6 of the 1996 World Series. The miracle is that 15 months earlier Key underwent surgery for a torn left rotator cuff. "Doctors inserted state-of-the art plastic stitch anchors into the shoulder bone, together with Key’s determination allowed him to make a complete recovery and return to baseball at the top of his game."3
"Innovative plastics-based devices have become an essential part of the medical field. From heart valves, bone cements, blood lines and feeding tubes, to tooth substitutes, and pacemakers, these devices rely on several different kinds of engineering plastics."4 For example, in the 1990’s the introduction of the artificial heart was a marvel. Today it is composed of plastics and metal weighing 0.68g. In the future it will weigh a fraction of that "making the surgical process easier and more comfortable for the patient."5
"In recent years, the advent of home monitoring devices and tests are taking the medical field by storm... Plastic’s design versatility, resistance to breakage, and sterility has allowed these products to become available to the average consumer at low cost. From measuring blood sugar levels to low-cost digital thermometers, plastics-based products are dominating this market."6
Read a profile on Surya Mallapragada, chemical engineer, doing research on polymeric materials for medical applications. This profile is on the EngineerGirl website - www.engineergirl.org. Click on Women Engineers, then Engineers List, then click on M.