The reality is that chemicals have helped people around the world live healthier, wealthier and longer lives. In contrast, anti-chemical fearmongering has accomplished little, if anything.
4 thoughts on “NYTimes sows chemophobia: Asserts almost 85,000 chemicals not proven safe; Babies born ‘pre-polluted’; Wants mandatory expensive testing”
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Actually that inchoate fear of all things new long predates communism.
Still, a nice rant at a worthy target…
ivi: Brilliant analysis. Brief, too. Love it.
This reminds me of all the 1950s movies where “Radiation” causes giant ants, giant spiders, mutations, morphs… and every other problem we had or could have had to be blamed on the thing no one understands.
And before that,… it was witchcraft! And before that, the Gods!
Its the same thing, over and over and over again, the fear of whatever it was that could not be easily understood, became the Evil responsible for EVERYTHING!
Enter, Stage Left, 1960: The Hippies and a return to paganism; ALL things modern must be reacted against. Science, Politics, History, Christianity, Nuclear Power, Weapons, and….. Chemistry.
Its the same reactionary-ism that pops up during the change from agrarian civilization to the Industrialization civilization, we call it (now) Communism.
I’m guessing “natural chemicals” are exempt from this. Perhaps if the companies just stopped using the technical chemical names and came up with a common name like the “natural” products do, this could all be avoided.
Plus, you can’t test on animals, so your darling self or offspring are the test subjects. Sure, they may “experiment” using computer models, but unless your child or you are made of zeros and ones, something could be missed. But the bunnies will be spared.