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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...

Toxic Chemicals in the Environment

20 Mar 2017

Virtually no day goes by without an alert from the media about some chemical in the environment that is suspected of harming our health. It may do this by disrupting our hormones, triggering cancer...

Electronic Waste

20 Mar 2017

Some people are concerned about radiation from cell phones possibly causing brain tumours. Others worry about exposure to wi-fi causing cancer. And now I’m getting questions about whether cell...

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...

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