Chemistry is everywhere – even in those natural products

Here’s a thought – what of natural products came with a list of ingredients in the same way processed food does?

James Kennedy, an Australian chemistry teacher, has put together some images to illustrate what this would be like. And the article What if natural products came with a list of ingredients? reproduces the detailed infographics which show even the simplest of foods are anything but.

Kennedy said:

“I want to erode the fear that many people have of ‘chemicals’,’ and demonstrate that nature evolves compounds, mechanisms and structures far more complicated and unpredictable than anything we can produce in the lab.”

He added:

“With these graphics, I wanted to show that Chemistry is everywhere.”

 

Mind you – this won’t stop me reading the lists on packets of manufactured food. But it does show that one should not be automatically frightened by such lists. It is important to understand each component. A chemical is not dangerous, or unnatural, just because it is a chemical.

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Don’t expect to see chemical safety data sheets in restaurants

I keep coming across this very naive form of chemophobic scare-mongering – the use of safety data sheets to frighten consumers about trace chemicals in their environment, food and drink.

Here is an example anti-fluoridation propagandists continually use – safety data sheets for fluoridation chemicals like fluorosilicic acid. Often these people simply reproduce the image without comment – thinking this somehow proves their argument!

I have discussed this issue for water treatment chemicals before (see Water treatment chemicals – why pick on fluoride?).

First, we need to be clear – Safety Data Sheets (or Material Safety Data Sheets) are not relevant to the chemicals we come across in our food drink – at the concentration they exist in these foods or drink. The safety data sheets are there for the use of those workers who must handle, transport  and dispose of concentrated chemicals. As Wikipedia explains:

“A SDS [Safety Data Sheet] for a substance is not primarily intended for use by the general consumer, focusing instead on the hazards of working with the material in an occupational setting.”

In the article I link to above I give information, including that from safety data sheets, for the range of chemicals used in water treatment. Chemicals like Aluminium sulphate or alum, used as a flocculation and coagulation agent and chlorine which is used as a disinfection agent (here is the safety data sheet for chlorine).

The safety data sheets for these chemicals can be just as scary as for fluorosilicic acid. Even scarier for chlorine, which was used as a chemical weapon in the first world war. And the information is important for the people handling the concentrated chemicals, manufacturing them, transporting them and disposing of them to waste where necessary.

Safety data sheets are important for people transporting concentrated chemicals.

But these sheets are completely irrelevant to people interested in the safety and nutritional value of their food which do not contain such concentrated chemicals (except for water, of course).

Safety data sheets are irrelevant to consumers of food and drink –  don’t expect your waiting staff to provide them in a restaurant.

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Those evil chemicals

Looks like community water fluoridation has become an issue in the upcoming by-election for the New Plymouth City Council. All the usual arguments are being promoted but the one I find most grating is the rejection of fluoride because “it is a chemical.”

So I loved this comment:

“I vote that anyone who doesn’t want the chemicals added to their water has all the chemicals removed from their bodies… they can keep what’s left.”