'Rust', by Jonathan Waldman

Δημοσιεύθηκε: 3 Απριλίου 2015 - 20:23

Cod, Salt, Gulp, Dust . . . and now Rust. The non-fiction genre in which authors pick a three- or four-letter word denoting something mundane and then weave an engaging story around it is clearly still going strong.

This first book by American science journalist Jonathan Waldman is the latest example. Rust is constantly eating away at the metallic structure of modern civilisation (costing the US $400bn a year, Waldman tells us) but the battle against it receives little attention, unless it causes a spectacular failure such as a bridge collapse or an oil pipeline burst.

Waldman makes up for the - let's face it - intrinsically boring nature of rust by focusing on characters. The book is a loosely linked collection of chapters about people who allow Waldman to follow them around as they fight corrosion, exploit it or both.

One who revels in rust is the photographer Alyssha Eve Csuk, whose career is based on a decade of unauthorised entry to the "rustiest place in America": the vast Bethlehem Steel works in Pennsylvania, which closed down 20 years ago but has not yet been fully dismantled. Csuk's trespassing through the abandoned blast furnaces has yielded 30,000 photos of the extraordinary shapes and patterns wrought by the elements. A modest example of her work decorates the cover of Rust.

Everyone else in the book is trying to prevent or detect rust and other forms of metal corrosion. Technically the term "rusting" applies only to the oxidation of iron and steel in the presence of moisture but Waldman adopts a wider definition that enables him to attend "Can School" in Colorado. This event is put on by Ball Corporation, which makes more than 65bn aluminium and steel cans a year to hold food and drinks.

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As an intrusive journalist at an event held to teach beverage company executives about the technology Ball uses to stop their products corroding the packaging, Waldman surprisingly survives the first three-day phase of Can School in the face of efforts by the company's media team to exclude him. In the process he learns about the interior coatings that prevent cans leaking, exploding or developing nasty flavours. There are 15,000 coatings to choose from, depending on the contents. Some substances are particularly challenging; rhubarb "requires three layers of lacquer and even with that much protection, [it] still boasts a shorter shelf-life than its peers".

Waldman is concerned about the chemical ingredients of epoxy can coatings, especially bisphenol-A (BPA), which may leak into the drink or food contents. Its impact on health is controversial - some authorities maintain that it can disrupt human hormones and increase the risk of cancer and other disease, others insist that it is harmless in the concentrations likely to be absorbed even by a dedicated drinker of canned beverages. Unsurprisingly, Waldman's suspicious questions about BPA did not make him popular at Can School.

Waldman writes in a sassy style laced with humour, with some particularly comic moments coming when he observes the interplay between Dan Dunmire, "rust czar" at the US Department of Defense, and the actor LeVar Burton, aka Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge, chosen by the Star Trek-mad Dunmire to star in his educational videos. Rust may not provide a deep lesson about the chemistry of corrosion but there is plenty to enjoy in its rich cast of rust-busting characters.

Rust: The Longest War, by Jonathan Waldman, Simon & Schuster, RRP£16.99/$26.95, 288 pages

Clive Cookson is the FT's science editor

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