Getting to grips with the emotive language of chemicals:

how words are misused

Chemical is a word that has taken on many unfavourable associations. ‘Insidious’ and ‘industrial’ chemicals are ‘dangerous’, ‘nasty’, ‘hazardous’ and ‘harmful’; they ‘contaminate’, bombard’, ‘invade’, ‘pollute’, and we and our children are ‘pumped’ full of them.

“Language is a large part of the problem. Science makes everything sound scary, and so we are scared. Even that neutral word ‘chemical’ has been tainted by the company it keeps, as if it were somehow the antithesis of ‘natural’.” Richard Gerling, The Sunday Times, 4th July 2004

Cocktail – a ‘cocktail of chemicals’ is often used to suggest that the effect of the combined substances is more potent than the sum of the parts. Chemically speaking, such ‘synergistic’ effects are rare and scientifically well-understood. However, what is occurring in a ‘cocktail’ is the cumulative effect of having more than one dose of the same active ingredient, which is why we are warned not to drink hot lemon cold and flu remedies and take paracetamol as both contain paracetamol, or to drink alcohol and take valium as both are depressants.

Contamination is frequently used to imply harmful effects. However, just because a substance is found somewhere it does not normally occur, this does not necessarily mean it is having a detrimental effect.

Endocrine disruptors are often referred to as ‘gender-bending’ chemicals. They have the potential to affect hormone activity and can disrupt the development of reproductive systems, but not usually in the concentrations at which we typically encounter them in the environment.

Industrial chemicals are usually thought of as dangerous, whereas a chemical is a chemical, whatever its source, and some chemicals are more toxic than others.

Natural is often used to imply ‘healthier’ and ‘safer’. This is misleading because many natural substances are neither healthy nor safe (e.g. nicotine or arsenic). Chemical scientists use ‘natural’ to describe substances that are derived from nature.

Persistent chemicals are those that take a long time to break down. They are not necessarily man-made or harmful. Dioxins, for example, are created in forest fires and reside naturally in soils and mounds of fallen leaves. At these concentrations they are harmless.

“Ironically, we sometimes need to ensure that certain artefacts will not break down. If paper and parchment were not persistent we wouldn’t have found the Dead Sea Scrolls or be able to read a first folio of Shakespeare. Similarly, if paint and pigments were not persistent the Mona Lisa would no longer exist.” David Taylor, environmental chemist

Significant is sometimes used as a synonym for important. However, it does not mean this: it is a statistical term that refers to the likelihood that a research finding did not occur by chance.

Synthetic is sometimes used to mean ‘unpleasant’ or ‘dangerous’. Synthetic simply means ‘made’. ‘Artificial’ implies, in addition, that a chemical does not occur naturally, whereas ‘synthetic’ may refer to naturally occurring chemicals that are copied.

Time-bomb is used to imply that the effects of chemical exposure may not be known for a long time, but will probably be bad. Time-bomb claims are only meaningful if there is evidence to support them.

Toxic is typically used in a way that implies that a chemical causes harm. However, we don’t know whether a chemical is toxic to particular organisms unless we know the dose.

Toxin is often used to describe any toxic chemical, but strictly speaking, toxins are only produced by living organisms, such as bacteria.