A recent guide by Sense about Science highlights the more serious misconceptions that exist around chemicals and suggests straightforward ways to evaluate them. According to the guide, the biggest misconceptions are: 1) You can lead a chemical-free life, 2) Man-made chemicals are inherently dangerous, 3) Synthetic chemicals are causing many cancers and other diseases, 4) Our exposure to a cocktail of chemicals is a ticking time bomb, 5) It is beneficial to avoid man-made chemicals and 6) We are subjects in an unregulated, uncontrolled experiment.
Misconception No. 1: The chemical reality is you cannot lead a chemical-free life because everything is made of chemicals. Chemicals are substances and chemistry is the science of substances — their structure, properties and the reactions that change them into other substances. Claims that products are “chemical free” are untrue. There are no alternatives to chemicals, just choices about which chemicals to use and how they are made.
Misconception No. 2: Whether a sub-stance is entirely new, copied or extracted from nature, it tells us nothing about its intrinsic safety. Likewise, the terms industrial, synthetic, artificial and man-made by no means mean damaging, and natural does not necessarily mean better. For example, the dye Henna can cause allergic reactions, untreated water can kill and poor food hygiene can result in toxins that make people very ill, yet these are all natural.
Misconception No. 3: Nature can be harsh in the case of the human body, too. Even our own bodies produce chemicals that in excess can poison us, such as histamine, which can lead to severe allergic responses or gastric acid, which can lead to ulcers. Paradoxically, man-made medicines are then required to treat such conditions. Moreover, without modern pharmaceuticals to treat opportunistic bacterial, fungal and viral infections, such diseases would rapidly increase with devastating effect. Likewise, chemical products such as disinfectants and sprays are commonplace in our homes to protect us from naturally occurring bugs. The use of highly active synthetic medicines and chemicals in ways like this has contributed to improved life expectancy.
Misconception No. 4: Many of the claims about chemicals being linked to dis-eases simply tell us a chemical was present when an effect occurred, rather than show-ing the chemical causes the effect. Caution is needed in reporting apparent correlations; it is in the nature of scientific experiments that many disappear when a further test is done or they turn out to be explained in other ways. Although the language of “cocktails” and “time bombs” is alarming, neither the presence of chemicals nor the bioaccumulation of them, in themselves, mean harm is being done. We have always been exposed to many different substances because nature is a cocktail of chemicals. Modern technology enables us to detect minuscule amounts of substances, but the presence of such a small amount of a specific substance does not mean it is having any discernible effect on us or on future generations.
Misconception No. 5: Insofar as there is a need for anything, synthesized and man-made chemicals have given societies choices beyond measure about what they are exposed to and the problems they can solve. As a society, we rarely acknowledge the dependency of modern life on understanding and innovating chemicals. Sanitation, medication, materials and food technology are clearly entwined with social progress and increased life expectancy. But chemicals are essential to the manufacture of all things including products we don’t directly associate with them such as computers.
Misconception No. 6: The chemical reality is there is an extensive regulatory system that strictly controls what chemicals can be introduced — what experiments can take place, what can be used for which purpose and how they should be transported, used and disposed of.
For more information, visit www.senseaboutscience.org or call +44 (0)20 7490 9590.
