Unlike some of the other members of the Chicago Seven, Froines's background was not in social causes, but in chemistry! He spent most of his career, before and after the trial, working in the chemistry field, teaching at Goddard College in Vermont, then as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Director of Toxic Substances. For decades, he was the chair of the California Scientific Review Panel on Toxic Air Contaminants, and in 2011, he retired from UCLA's School of Public Health.