Chemophobes and alarmists led by the Food Babe would like to hush hush all the evidence disproving their emotionally-charged assertions. It is by now irrefutable that the dose makes the poison. Everything is composed of chemicals, and certain ones can be poisonous at high concentrations but highly beneficial at low. Some people believe natural chemicals are safe and synthetic ones harmful. Nothing could be further from the truth:
“At the
heart of chemophobia is the fallacy of ‘appeal to nature’. This appeal makes
the assumption that anything ‘natural’ is good and anything ‘unnatural’ is bad.
As anyone with a knowledge of chemistry will know, the line between natural and
unnatural chemicals is a blurred one, or even totally non-existent.
Furthermore, there are many natural compounds which are very toxic (such as
botulinum toxin, strychnine, lead acetate, asbestos, snake and spider venom,
cardiac glycosides, cyanide, aristolochic acid, hexavalent chromium
compounds…). The line between safe and unsafe is also not always so clear (due
to e.g., individual allergies or risk-benefit analysis), but generally the dose
makes the poison, whether natural or synthetic.”
19 Examples - The Dose Makes the
Poison
1) Caffeine is found naturally in chocolate, coffee, tea
and is added to sodas. Trichloroethylene is a corrosive solvent used in grease
cutters and paint removers. Which is more toxic? Caffeine! If a person ingests
50 times the safe dosage of caffeine in a short time, start making the funeral
arrangements. Trichloroethylene is not harmless, but ingesting the same amount
of this seemingly more dangerous substance is actually less harmful than
caffeine!
2) Every cup of coffee contains a huge number of
chemicals, with over 1000 aroma compounds. Some of those chemicals are
dangerous, even deadly, in high doses. The millions of cups safely consumed
every hour globally attests to the simple fact that the dose makes the poison:
“For
example, coffee contains 4-methylimidazole, which the US National Toxicology
Program (NTP) has identified as a carcinogen. The compound is used to
manufacture many products, from dyes to agricultural chemicals and rubber.
But it can also form through the Maillard reaction in foods and drinks,
particularly those with a caramel flavour such as Cola. The levels of 4-methylimidazole
in cola drinks are similar to those in coffees, says Takayuki Shibamoto, at the
Department of Environmental Toxicology at the University of California, Davis,
US.”
3) Water can kill you if you gulp in too much too fast.
This is named “water intoxication” and will swell brain
cells. A few sips pose no risk, but the risk increases as the “dose” increases.
4) Drinking too much alcohol can lead to fatal alcohol
poisoning. Smaller, managed amounts, on the other hand, allow the liver to
break it down and prevent a harmful build up. This is true for most people, but
like any chemical, some people are more vulnerable or resistant than others.
5) Taking Vitamin D pills is beneficial, but taking even
moderately more than the recommended amount causes high blood pressure, kidney
stones and possible death.
6) Toothpaste contains sodium fluoride, which is toxic
in large amounts. The average person would have to ingest 33 tubes of
toothpaste to receive the toxic effect.
7) Anti-vaxxers like to point to the formaldehyde
content in vaccines and deem this harmful. What they don’t know, and their
movement will never tell them, is that a regular pear contains 12,000 units of
formaldehyde, while the average vaccine only contains 100 units!
8) Cooking or burning foods creates a chemical named heterocyclicamine,
which can cause cancer in large amounts. The miniscule amount ingested in
people’s regular diets is safe.
9) Aflatoxins are found in milk and most cereals. They
have caused cancer in monkeys, mice, rats, hamsters, rainbow trout and ducks.
Breakfast eaters would need to consume a bathtub full of their favorite cereal
to get any harmful effect.
10) The chemical acetaldehyde is naturally found in
broccoli, apples, onions, oranges, strawberries, lemons and mushrooms. This is
a known carcinogen that many plants naturally produce for protection from
predators. Luckily for humans we don’t eat our fruits and veggies like a pig
feasting in a bottomless trough. The limited amount we eat daily keeps us from
harm.
11) Nitrates are present in celery, lettuce, kale and
rhubarb. They are known carcinogens but not even vegans can consume enough to
make them ill.
12) The aromas from floor wax, paint, PVC plastic, nail
polish and the substance that emits the mysterious new car smell all contain potential
cancer-causing substances. Most people aren’t rich enough to buy a new car
every week, so there is no danger to the down-and-out average working stiff.
13) Some wine-lovers were alarmed when word got out that
all California wines contain trace levels of the harmful substance glyphosate.
One spokeswoman complained: “It has to stop now. It is poisoning America and
destroying future of this great country. If we don’t face up to the overall
contamination from glyphosate, we can’t change it.” The counterargument from a
scientific, evidence-based spokeswoman: “You would have to drink 2,500 glasses
of wine a day for 70 years to reach the EPA’s level of concern. We are talking
about minuscule, trace amounts.” The Environmental Protection Agency enforces a
safety buffer of 10 times the dose that could harm. Recommendation: A single glass of wine during
a quiet, reflective evening helps soothe away unfounded anxieties and
suspicions.
14) All peppers, tomatoes, eggplants and a few other
veggies naturally contain nicotine. The nicotine is in tiny doses and the
veggies are healthy. Tobacco also naturally contains nicotine in higher amounts
and it will kill.
15) If the dosage does NOT make the poison – please stay
away from all potatoes:
“A greened potato indicates the presence of a toxin that can cause
gastrointestinal distress, induce coma or even death within 24 hours of
consumption. Most people can easily cope
with the solanine in the average
portion of potato and show no symptoms of poisoning because the body can break
it down and rapidly and excrete the products in the urine. But if the level of solanine is as high as 40 mg per 100 g
of potato, symptoms include diarrhea…even coma.”
16) If you believe the alarmists, it should follow that
you will avoid Vitamin A to save your life:
“Vitamin A
is essential for proper functioning of the human body. But too much can cause
liver damage, as well as other problems. In fact, the material safety data
sheets for various forms of vitamin A look pretty scary, and (with their
descriptions of animal carcinogenity, skin irritation, etc.) make them sound
like things you'd want to keep away from your body at all costs. If you didn't
know beforehand what the chemicals in question were, you'd think they were
hazardous poisons (and, indeed, they are, like oxalic acid, described as
hazardous). If the dose did not make the poison, you'd have to stay away from
pretty much every food ever.”
17) Local
governments placing fluoride in drinking water has caused concern for some.
Once again, the exposure levels are so low the risks are non-existent:
“The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set a maximum amount
of fluoride allowable in drinking water of 4.0 mg/L. Long-term exposure to
levels higher than this can cause a condition called skeletal fluorosis,
in which fluoride builds up in the bones. This can eventually result in joint
stiffness and pain, and can also lead to weak bones or fractures in older
adults.”
18) Alarmist groups are far from being honest in
reporting their “scientific” findings. Carcinogens are harmful only at elevated
doses:
“Many times, activists will call for bans or
hype risks about products that contain trace amounts of chemicals that are
‘classified carcinogens.’ Government and scientific bodies around the world
have developed such classification systems to indicate that at some exposure level and under some circumstance a chemical might increase
cancer risk. Such listings do not mean that the chemicals cause cancer to
humans exposed to trace amounts found in consumer products. In some cases, these
assessments list chemicals as ‘carcinogens’ because they are associated with
cancer among workers exposed to very high amounts over decades. These studies are
of limited relevance to workers today who employ safety measures, and even less
relevant to consumer exposures. A large number of chemicals end up on cancer
lists simply because they cause tumors in rodents exposed to massive amounts,
which also has little relevance to human exposures.
“The Environmental Working Group (EWG), for
example, recently applauded McDonald’s for eliminating coffee Styrofoam cups,
which are made with the chemical styrene, because EWG notes, ‘The International
Agency for Research on Cancer classifies styrene as a known carcinogen.’ Similarly,
a group called to California Clean Water Action warns: ‘The International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that styrene is a known lab-animal
carcinogen and a possible human carcinogen, particularly in the occupational
setting, with the strongest evidence coming from reinforced plastics workers.’
“If you are alarmed about those claims, you
should stop eating pickles on your burgers and drinking coffee because both
pickles and coffee are also IARC-listed ‘possible human carcinogens.’ In fact,
the ‘possible’ category indicates a very low risk. It is akin to saying, ‘There
isn’t much evidence of harm, but we cannot prove otherwise.’ In fact, IARC could
not find significant risk even among workers exposed to relatively high levels
of styrene.”
19) Various alarmist groups like
SaferChemicals.org attempt to ban supposedly “hazardous” products. It notes on
its website:
“The Hazardous 100+ List of Chemicals of High
Concern represents a small subset
of all inherently
hazardous chemicals of concern to which humans and the environment may
be exposed in certain consumer products. Scientists have established links
between exposures to many of these chemicals and chronic diseases and health
conditions, including cancer, infertility, learning and developmental
disabilities, behavioral problems, obesity, diabetes, and asthma.”
Trace levels and decades of research
undermine their conclusions:
“Here green groups condemn chemicals for
their hazardous profiles and potential ‘links’ to myriad health problems—no studies
needed. They developed their list of 100 ‘hazardous’ chemicals based on
government ‘chemicals of concern’ lists, which are developed not by
comprehensive scientific risk review processes, but by politicians and
regulators responding largely to media hype generated by environmental
activists. The lists include such substances as formaldehyde (which the human
body itself produces through respiration), bisphenol A, styrene, and more. All
the chemicals listed are approved as safe at the trace levels found in consumer
products by various government agencies around the globe. Many of these
chemicals have been used for decades without any evidence of health
problems.”
Additional Resources
Kids + Chemical Safety Mission Statement: Kids +
Chemical Safety strives to provide up-to-date health information on chemical
hazards and safe use of chemicals around children. http://www.kidschemicalsafety.org/
Use
TOXNET to find:
-Specific
chemicals, mixtures, and products
-Chemical
nomenclature
-Chemicals
that may be associated with a disease, condition or symptom
-Chemicals
associated with consumer products, occupations, hobbies, and more
-Special
toxic effects of chemicals in humans and/or animals
-Citations
from the scientific literature
Search and
databases list, includes breast feeding and household product safety: https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/
Photo: https://theweeklyscience.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/chemophobia.jpg
Jerry De Luca is a Christian freelance writer who loves perusing dozens of interesting and informative publications. When he finds any useful info he summarizes it, taking the main points, and creates a (hopefully) helpful blog post.
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Interesting article. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteAnother great article! I was just wondering about point 7. I know the amount of formaldehyde in vaccines is safe, but couldn’t a possible (maybe false) argument be in the differing systems of ingestion? The vaccine is injected I.M. So the formaldehyde goes more-or-less straight to the bloodstream, whereas the pear is digested in the stomach, so the formaldehyde is excreted. What would you say to that?
ReplyDeleteThat question is way way over my pay grade. Someone with more expertise can be found at these Best Vaccine Websites ..... https://vaxopedia.org/2017/09/23/best-vaccine-websites/
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