Chemophobia

Jessica Alba has a billion dollar baby supply enterprise called The Honest Company, and it is based on the idea that the products people use should be safe and non-toxic (surprisingly, many companies don't!). Sounds nice, who could argue with that? ACSH friend Julie Gunlock, that s who. Gunlock, of the Independent Women s Forum and the Culture of Alarmism, has a fascinating opinion piece in today s New York Post that pulled back the curtain on Alba s enterprise and her assessment: Alba s product is not baby supplies; it s fear.
Talk about a big job. Writing for the Canadian Press, Jack Dini s new piece, Chemicals Don t Trouble Oneself With the Facts, goes way past the title.
Fear of chemicals (chemophobia): superstitious, baseless, energy- and resources-draining. Thankfully, an occasional voice of tranquility amidst hysteria appears. Thanks, Dr. Joe (and Boo, Sen. Feinstein!).
Dr. Gilbert Ross in Science 2.0 The baseless, superstitious fear of chemicals has certainly gripped our supposedly advanced population in a haze of inchoate panic akin to the residents of 17th century Salem, or Europeans of the Dark Ages
It s Monday morning. No one is in a particularly good mood. This didn't help. We have been discussing BPA a component of polycarbonate and polyether plastics forever. This should be #1000 on your list of things to worry about (#999 is being hit by a giraffe that fell off a skyscraper.)
Maybe the name Yvette d'Entremont doesn t a ring a bell to you, or maybe you know her by her internet persona: The SciBabe. Whatever your familiarity level is with her you need to dial it way up. Start following and listening to her because she is bringing the heat. Last
A supposedly scientific body in the EU has called for stringent restrictions and bans on neonicotinoid (neonics) pesticides, based on...who knows what? Sustainability? Biodiversity? Whatever: the evidence on bee colony effects didn t work, so let s try these.
Yawn. It s that time of year again. Perhaps for the lack of anything better to do, Ken Cook and his Environmental Working Group (EWG) merry men (and women) are celebrating World Let s Promote Ignorance Day, thanks to their annual Dirty Dozen list.
A report from the Harvard School of Public Health is hitting the headlines hard today. The conclusion: Men who eat produce with pesticide residue have poorer sperm quality than those who don t.
There must be something in the water in Montgomery County, Maryland. But what s in there is more likely to be LSD, rather than the chemicals that they are trying to ban. A series of disjointed regulations that are worthy of The Three Stooges is on the table. If the folks in charge there weren't serious, this would be nothing short of hilarious. Which it really is anyhow.