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Oh, Those Micro and Nanoplastics!

23 Oct 2025

I sometimes have a Babybel cheese as a snack and I used to feel that the little cheese did not want to be eaten. It seemed to defy attempts to open the plastic in which it had sought refuge. But no...

Macropanic Over Nanoplastics?

11 Jan 2024

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...

Phthalate Fears

23 Mar 2022

I don’t think Einstein had chemical anxiety or the amount of chemicals in our urine in mind when he famously stated that “not everything that counts can be measured and not everything that can be...

Of Rats, People and Bisphenol A

4 Nov 2021

Bisphenol A (BPA) first hit the headlines in 2008 when Canada banned polycarbonate baby bottles because of possible leaching of the chemical from the plastic into the contents. Concern had been...

Coming from the Earth doesn't Make Something Safe

20 Mar 2017

You may have heard of propylene glycol in several contexts. It is used as a safer alternative to ethylene glycol in antifreeze, as a preservative in foods and cosmetics, as a solvent in some...

Phthalates and microwave ovens

20 Mar 2017

It always pays to read the study! It really does, because popular accounts often misinterpret what researchers actually found and end up raising undue alarm. Of course it is raising the red flag of...

A Holistic Nutritional Rockstar's Rocky Science

20 Mar 2017

Sometimes you can evaluate a person’s scientific acumen by a single comment they utter. This is the case with Catherine Sugrue who labels herself a “holistic nutritionist rockstar.” Of course...

Metal in the Micro

20 Mar 2017

Because I take the odd shot at Dr. Oz (he is after all such an inviting target) people send me reports of some of his antics. Apparently he, or one of his guests, muttered something about using...

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