"Chemicals are bad!"

[10levan]

www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/10/chemophobia

I'm writing this to highlight a personal pet peeve of mine; the public's perception of chemistry and its use in products and everyday life. It is human nature to fear things we don't understand, and chemistry has received a pretty bad reputation from the 70's on. When companies advertise their products as "chemical-free" or "all-natural", they play on the public's fear. Possibly due to all the environmental problems caused by harmful chemicals in the 70's-90's, such as CFCs, DDT in pesticides, and others, society has put the connotation of "dangerous and man-made" to the word "chemical". This kind of problem is not only unique to chemistry; but to things such as "antibacterial" in many different products, where advertisement plays on the ignorance of the public. What are your opinions on the misconceptions and falsities that plague the common knowledge of the general public?

[6mkaira]

I definitely think there is a misconception about the word "chemical" in general, because its original definition of "a compound or substance" has essentially been lost. However, I don't think that the public fear of these so called chemicals is totally without reason. CFC's and DDT may be banned, but the concept of things being chemically-modified is not. For example - Monsanto, the world's largest producer of genetically modified seeds. The company also formerly manufactured controversial products such as the insecticide DDT, PCBs, Agent Orange, and recombinant bovine somatotropin (a.k.a. bovine growth hormone). Despite decades of promises that genetically engineered crops would “feed the world” with “more nutrients,” drought resistance, or yield, the company has hardly done that. Monsanto's role in agricultural changes, biotechnology products, lobbying of government agencies, and history as a chemical company have made the company controversial. Thus, with companies such as this still existing today, I really don't think it's so crazy that people still fear "chemicals".