/oss/taxonomy/term/726/all en /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/macropanic-over-nanoplastics <p>I keep teasing my analytical chemist colleagues that they are responsible for the anxiety that so many people have about chemicals invading their lives. Hardly a day goes by without some report of phthalates, perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pesticides, dioxins, bisphenol A, or a host of other mischievous “toxins” being detected in our food and water. That detective work is carried out by analytical chemists who continue to devise better and better means to uncover smaller and smaller amounts of contaminants.</p> Thu, 11 Jan 2024 19:48:05 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9800 at /oss /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking-history/dmso-not-cure-all-fdas-panic-over-it-birthed-myth <p>Imagine a drug so powerful, your government didn’t want you to have it. Now, add the claim that this drug is all natural (it’s not) and that people report it cured them of any ailment you can think of, and you have the recipe for a good old-fashioned conspiracy theory.</p> Fri, 17 Nov 2023 15:37:28 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9731 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition/they-are-abbreviated-pfas-are-they-destined-abbreviate-our-lives <p>“Not everything that can be counted, counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” That quote is commonly attributed to Einstein although there is no evidence he ever said it. Even if he did, he certainly didn’t have toxicology in mind. But the concept is very relevant to toxicology, especially these days when substances can be detected at the part per trillion level. How small is a part per trillion? That would be 1 cent in 10 million dollars or one second in 32,000 years, which is longer than human civilization.</p> Wed, 01 Mar 2023 21:22:38 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9418 at /oss /oss/article/history-general-science/end-gilders-palsy <p>Physicians today are unlikely to encounter “Gilder’s palsy.” But prior to the 19th century this ailment had to be considered when a patient presented with tremors, irritability, increased salivation and fatigue. The culprit was mercury. And the patient may very well have been a “gilder.”</p> Fri, 24 Feb 2023 11:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9414 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/you-dont-need-binder-your-detox-kit-and-you-dont-need-detox-kit <p>“You don’t even know what a binder is when you’re doing a parasite cleanse. I came from Western medicine and I didn’t know what a binder was! We didn’t use those!” So says Kim Rogers, who proclaims herself a “worm queen,” to <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@mrsrogershood/video/7170453152649465131">her nearly half a million followers on TikTok</a>.</p> Fri, 13 Jan 2023 11:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9358 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition/concerns-about-cookware-chemistry <p>Like most chemists, I like to cook.  After all, what is cooking but the appropriate mixing of chemicals?  In the lab we use flasks and beakers, but how do we equip our kitchen?  Tiffany's in New York offers a silver frying pan for thousands of dollars, specialty stores sell gleaming copper pots for a couple of hundred while a thin aluminum pot can be had almost anywhere for a few bucks.  What's the difference? </p> Fri, 21 Jan 2022 19:45:13 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9001 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/why-covid-19-prompting-questions-about-proposition-65 <p>The tentacles of COVID-19 reach into every area of life. I’ve been getting a flurry of calls about vacuum cleaners, air filters, and cordless hair clippers. Sales of these items have increased because of concerns about the coronavirus with people wanting to reduce any possible transmission by dust or air. People have even resorted to cutting hair at home instead of venturing to the hairdresser. But the calls I have been getting about these items have nothing to do with the virus. Not the coronavirus anyway.</p> Wed, 19 Aug 2020 15:56:47 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8366 at /oss /oss/article/health-general-science-you-asked/what-hormesis <p>Just about every textbook of toxicology pays homage to Paracelsus, the sixteenth century alchemist. Why? Because he introduced the idea that “only the dose makes the poison.” It makes no sense to talk about the toxicity of a substance, Paracelsus said, without talking about the extent of exposure. A high dose can be lethal, but minute amounts of the same substance may be perfectly safe. This really is the approach authorities take today to determine the toxicity of substances to which we are likely to be exposed.</p> Sat, 25 Jan 2020 00:21:22 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8092 at /oss /oss/article/health/dental-floss-toxic <p>A recently published paper in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology managed to create a great deal of public angst about using some types of dental floss. “This is the first study to show that using dental floss containing PFAS is associated with a higher body burden of these toxic chemicals,” opined lead author Katie Boronow of the non-profit Silent Spring Institute in Massachusetts.</p> Fri, 18 Jan 2019 17:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7542 at /oss /oss/article/health/what-difference-between-organic-and-inorganic-arsenic <p>Atoms of arsenic can combine with atoms of other elements to form a variety of compounds. These can be divided into two categories, “inorganic” and “organic.” In this case, the term “organic” is used in its proper chemical sense, referring to molecules that have a framework of carbon atoms. In an “organic” arsenic compound, the arsenic atom is attached to a carbon that may, for example, be part of a sugar molecule such as ribose. This "organic" variety is more complicated in structure, but it is harmless.</p> Thu, 30 Aug 2018 19:31:39 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7325 at /oss /oss/article/environment/chlorpyrifos-controversy <p>“Science not silence,” screamed the signs carried by many of the marchers in a number of American cities last Earth Day.</p> Wed, 07 Jun 2017 16:35:54 +0000 Cassandra Lee, OSS Intern 2536 at /oss /oss/article/food-health-history-news-quirky-science-toxicity/beer-foam-and-artificial-hips <p>Forty eight years ago there was an epidemic of heart failure in Quebec City. The clue was that the thirty men affected were all beer drinkers. In a round about way, the culprit was the introduction of a new dish washing detergent that left a residue on glasses. Detergent is the enemy of foam on beer and brewers countered the problem by adding a foam boosting agent, cobalt sulphate, to their product. It seems the potential toxicity of the cobalt compound was not considered. It should have been because cobalt affects the heart and causes heart failure.</p> Wed, 05 Mar 2014 11:04:57 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2108 at /oss /oss/article/cosmetics-health-history-quirky-science-toxicity-you-asked/cave-paintings-mms <p>Studies have shown that red is the colour that attracts attention. Its uses are timeless and endless. Since ancient times, the colour red has been involved in fashion, art, food and cosmetics. But how was the colour red extracted or manufactured? Interestingly, throughout the ages, humans have resorted to different minerals and chemicals to successfully produce various shades of red.</p> Fri, 22 Nov 2013 00:21:45 +0000 Alexandra Pires-Ménard, OSS Intern 2035 at /oss /oss/article/environment-health-news-toxicity/are-chemists-suffering-chemophobiaphobia <p>Most chemistry conferences these days feature a session on the “public understanding of chemistry.” Usually speakers express frustration about equating the term “chemical” with “toxin” or “poison,” about consumers looking for “chemical-free” products, and about the extent of scientific illiteracy. There tends to be a collective bemoaning of the lack of appreciation of the contributions that chemistry has made to life and of the eyebrows raised when a chemist reveals his profession in some social setting.</p> Sun, 27 Dec 2015 21:23:59 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2300 at /oss /oss/article/controversial-science-health-toxicity/precautionary-principle <p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/?p=6697"><img alt="principle" height="150" src="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/files/2014/06/principle-150x150.jpg" width="150" /></a>“When there is substantial, credible evidence of danger to human or environmental health, protective action should be taken despite continuing scientific uncertainty.” That’s the “Precautionary Principle” stated in its simplest format. Sounds like motherhood and apple pie. How can there even be a discussion about its application? But there is. That’s because “substantial, credible evidence” is open to interpretation and different countries approach the issue in different ways. Europe has introduced REACH, which stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals, a program that requires manufacturers to submit toxicity data to the European Chemical Agency before a chemical can be approved.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">In the U.S., chemicals are governed by the Toxic Substances Control Act which is now under revision but historically has required proof of harm before acting on controlling a chemical. In Canada, chemicals are subject to the Chemicals Management Plan which is not quite as stringent as Europe’s REACH, but caters less to industry than U.S. regulations. The basic problem with all these regulations is that when it comes to the population being exposed to small amounts of chemicals, the data is very difficult to interpret. Occupational exposure, animal experiments and laboratory studies can provide clues but how relevant these data are to everyday human exposure is unclear. The most reasonable approach would be to weigh the need to use a certain chemical against toxicity data.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">Consider food dyes as an example. While the data are not particularly compelling, there is some evidence that synthetics such as Red Dye No. 40, Yellow Dyes No. 5 and 6 may cause behavioural problems in some children and animal data suggest possible carcinogenicity. But different countries come to different conclusions about what to do. The U.K. Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark and France do not allow Red Dye No. 40, while Canada and the U.S. do. Here is a case where the precautionary principle should prevail. Food dyes are unnecessary, do not add anything in terms of nutrition and often make nutritionally poor foods more appealing. We don’t need them.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">Bromates are another interesting case. When added to flour potassium bromate improves the baking qualities but is a suspected carcinogen. Bromates are not allowed in Europe or Canada but can be used in the U.S. because FDA says that they are destroyed during baking and only trace amounts remain. But if the rest of the world can get by quite nicely without adding bromates to flour, why can’t the U.S.? Because bromates make for the soft white texture and white colour that Americans have been goaded into preferring. Here too one can apply the precautionary principle. Remove bromates from flour.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">However, when it comes to chemicals like preservatives, decisions become more difficult because these have obvious benefits. Theoretical risks for something like butylated hydroxyl toluene (BHT) or sodium nitrite have to be weighed against their demonstrated effects at keeping fat from going rancid or preventing botulism. The precautionary principle should also ne applied to using the precautionary principle.</p> <p style="text-align:justify"> </p> <p><a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/2014/06/27/the-precautionary-principle">Read more</a></p> Fri, 27 Jun 2014 14:37:06 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2160 at /oss