I am a chemist. When I tell someone that, they usually say one of two things: "Wow you must be smart," or, more likely, "I hated taking chemistry in high school/college."

The truth is, I am no smarter than anyone else. My wife can verify that. I just had this strange attraction to the subject, enjoyed all the classes I took and was somehow able to get good grades without pulling all-nighters at college.

As a professional chemist, it seems to me that most people are absolutely ignorant of how chemistry and chemicals play a part in their daily lives. If this comes across as "high fallutin," it is not. I realize that most people do not think much about chemistry either while attending school or afterward.

For most people, chemistry was a course they suffered through as a science requirement. This lack of knowledge is terribly troubling, since chemistry is so vital to modern living, and in so many ways is misunderstood.

I think of the chemical sciences as a triad: chemists doing chemistry using chemicals. From the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep, from the top of our head to the tips of our toes, we are intimately dependent on the products that chemists (and other scientists) have developed.

These products keep us healthy (pharmaceuticals), clean (soaps and shampoos) and, to top it off, great smelling (deodorants and fragrances). They keep our water safe to drink (chlorine and other disinfectants), our food safe to eat (preservatives) and keep insects, with their associated diseases, off of us and out of our houses, gardens and farms (pesticides and insecticides). Years ago, many people died of cholera, dysentery and other terrible diseases due to lack of clean water and proper sanitation. Today, we take clean water as a given. Even the paper you are reading right now (chemical bleaching), as well as the ink used to print it are dependent on chemistry. Think about it: What product from this very abbreviated list would you not like to live without?

When organ transplants were first attempted, most patients died shortly after the operation due to rejection of the transplanted organ. The great advances in organ transplantation could not have taken place without the creation of anti-rejection medicines. How are these medicines made? You guessed it -- a team of chemists and chemical engineers thought up, tested and developed the best way to synthesize these materials safely on a large scale. Speaking of surgery, here's a fun thing to try -- how about major surgery without the anesthetic? Up to a few hundred years ago, that was your only option. Surgical suites were isolated from the rest of the hospital so the screams of people undergoing operations could be minimized. With chemists synthesizing anesthetics -- yes, made from those pesky chemicals once again -- we don't have to begin to think about the agony that patients once had to endure.

I could go on and on with examples of how the discoveries chemists have made have enhanced our everyday living. When people say they want "chemical free" food, or want to eliminate chemicals in their school or workplace, I just chuckle to myself. There is no chemical-free place in the world.

LARRY FERTEL lives in Orchard Park.