The Ocean-Going Oil Mega-Tanker & Medical Inventions

Medical Patents Broker Inc.
By Kenneth Pearce, President

The cargo in a single tanker is a drop in the bucket compared to the world’s petroleum reserves. Yet, when it comes to medical inventions, that quantity of petroleum can keep us alive a little longer.

What are some of the things we can do with that tanker’s oil?

🧬 1. Medical Plastics & Polymers (Biocompatible Resins)

Specialized petroleum-derived plastics can be engineered to be sterile, durable, and completely inert inside or against the human body.

• Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC): Used for blood bags, IV tubes, and flexible oxygen masks.
• Polypropylene: Used to manufacture disposable syringes, test tubes, petri dishes, and durable surgical instruments.
• Polyethylene: High-density versions are used to manufacture artificial hip joints, knee replacements, and prosthetic components.
• Polystyrene: The clear, rigid plastic used for diagnostic equipment housings and lab trays.

Plastic IV bags are much easier to manage than the old glass IVs. Disposable syringes appear to be safer than the old autoclave. For the new artificial hips, patients can go home on the day of surgery. Along with the patient, new diagnostic housings are bumped, hit, tossed, and thrown.

💊 2. Pharmaceuticals & Synthetic Organic Compounds

Modern pharmaceuticals use many petroleum-based chemical building blocks (feedstocks) for synthetic manufacturing.

• Starting Materials: Benzene, toluene, and xylene (all derived from refining oil) are used as precursors to synthesize complex chemical structures.
• Common Medications: Active ingredients in over-the-counter pain relievers (like aspirin and acetaminophen), antihistamines, antibiotics, and local anesthetics are synthesized using petroleum derivatives.

Ask a medical laboratory technician what it would be like without benzene, toluene, and xylene. How could organic tablets and capsules exist without petroleum?

🧤 3. Protective Equipment & Sterilization Supplies

Sterile medical environments require vast quantities of single-use, flexible materials.

• Synthetic Rubbers (Nitrile): Medical gloves are predominantly made from nitrile rubber, a synthetic petroleum polymer that replaced allergy-prone latex.
• Non-Woven Fabrics (Polyurethane & Polyester): Surgical gowns, drapes, face masks, and surgical tape are made from spun plastic fibers designed to repel fluids and bacteria.

Does an OR really want to return to the “good old days” of cotton fabrics? Without disposable synthetic gloves, there is a greater infection risk to the patient.

🧴 4. Ointments, Emollients, & Solvents

Petroleum derivatives are commonly used topicals and cleaning agents.

• Mineral Oil & Petrolatum (Petroleum Jelly): Used as the moisture-locking base for antibiotic ointments, burn creams, and skin protectants.
• Isopropyl Alcohol & Acetone: Crucial solvents derived from petroleum processing used for sanitizing medical equipment and preparing skin surfaces for injections.

Almost every person residing in the United States has used petroleum jelly. It’s safe and effective and has been with us for decades. What would nurseries do without that jelly?

Anyone who has serviced patients in any healthcare setting or any medical laboratory technician would be in dire straits without access to isopropyl alcohol and acetone. Pre-Covid, hospitals did not have germ cleaners in every nook and cranny. Post-Covid, hand sanitizers are conspicuously displayed for public access. The sanitizer containers are generally derived from petroleum.

🎽 The President’s Viewpoint

Some people believe petroleum is killing us. Others believe that petroleum is improving our existence. Eventually, science will likely reveal that both could be true.

When it comes to gasoline, I do like the fact that a trip that would take a day and a half in the 1820s can be accomplished in a few minutes today.

One of my first jobs as a kid was pumping gas—that’s right, full service: pump the gas, clean the windshield, and check the oil. Regular was 21 cents a gallon. With my earnings, I purchased the stock of an oil company. If I had known then what I know now, I would have invested in a pharmaceutical company and let the dividends reinvest for sixty years.

In this business, we usually find out when it drops into our lap!