[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2218-E2219]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               IN RECOGNITION OF NATIONAL CHEMISTRY WEEK

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TIM ROEMER

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, November 7, 1997

  Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, November 2 to 8, 1997 is the 10th 
celebration of National Chemistry Week. I rise, today, in recognition 
of the members of the American Chemical Society who are volunteering 
their time this week to increase the public's understanding about the 
important role chemistry plays in the success of this Nation and in our 
everyday lives. Through hands-on activities, chemical demonstration 
programs, and a variety of other events, kids of all ages will learn 
and do chemistry.
  The feature activity of the week is a national effort to test water 
hardness in local neighborhoods. Children are receiving copies of a 
Planet Chemistry activities booklet through their schools that allows 
them to be part of the national effort. They then go out and get a 
water sample from their local stream, lake, or well and use the test 
strip included in the booklet to determine the hardness of the water, 
and report their results through the ACS site on the Web. The test 
strips were produced by a company in my district, Environmental Test 
Systems of Elkhardt, IN. I am proud to tell you that 2.6 million of 
these strips distributed in 650,000 copies of the booklet allowed this 
project to get children all over the country involved.
  Volunteer chemists and chemical engineers of the ACS St. Joseph 
Valley Section in my home district also scheduled events, such as panel 
discussions and hand-on educational demonstrations, to highlight 
chemistry for their

[[Page E2219]]

neighbors. Efforts like these are planned in almost every congressional 
district throughout the Nation.
  Our ability to improve the living standards of citizens in America 
and around the globe depends upon our understanding of sciences like 
chemistry. Our food, clothing, houses, cars, medicines, defense--all 
the things we can see, taste, touch, or smell--depend on modern 
chemistry. Additionally, those involved in the chemistry field 
represent the type of skilled, high quality workers that are essential 
to this Nation's competitiveness.
  So please join me, and the 152,000 chemists and chemical engineers of 
the American Chemical Society, in highlighting the fact that every 
single thing in our lives is in some way a result of chemistry in 
action.

                          ____________________