A team of scientists, from the University of Bath's Department of Chemistry and Institute for Sustainability have found a way to create two of the world's most common painkillers, paracetamol and ibuprofen, out of a compound found in pine trees, one which is also a waste product from the paper industry.
  •  outstanding_bond   ( @outstanding_bond@mander.xyz ) English
    3•1 year ago

    They successfully converted β-pinene into two everyday painkillers, paracetamol and ibuprofen, which are produced on ~100,000 ton scales annually.

    At first I couldn’t believe that we make 100,000 TONS of paracetamol (acetaminophen) a year.

    1E5 tons per year / 6E9 people on earth = 17 grams per person per year

    My tylenol pills are 500mg, and ~34 pills per year seems about right.

    Wow. At a density of 1.3 g/cm^3 that’s about half an olympic swimming pool of acetaminophen a year.