Another shout out for Dr. Joe on chemophobia

Posted on April 14, 2014 by admin  - This Appeared Here....

The incomparable Dr. Joe Schwarcz, Director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society in Montreal, and ACSH friend, has published a very informative (and humorous) blog on HuffPost called “A Treatment for Chemophobia.”

He covers many of the same misconceptions that we routinely discuss here at ACSH, but does so in his own unique style. Here are a few quotes from Joe’s piece. “[S]omehow ‘chemical’ has become a dirty word, synonymous with ‘toxin,’ and ‘chemical-free’ is now a popular, albeit nonsensical, advertising slogan.”  “And what exactly does one food producer’s promise to use only ‘real ingredients’ in its pizzas mean? Were they using imaginary ingredients before?” (ACSH comment: this is hilarious).  “Chemical absurdity has even made it into the courtroom. The prosecutor in a gang fight trial in California described “a situation very much like nitrogen meeting glycerin; it was guaranteed that there would be an explosion of violence.” (ACSH comment: Oy)

ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom says, if there is anyone better than Joe at writing about this subject, I haven’t met him or her yet. I highly recommend that you read his entire piece, which can be found here.”