One of the questions I'm asked most frequently
is, what exactly is chemophobia?
Chemophobia is really an umbrella term for
a whole bunch of other afflictions wwhich
involce the fear of certain chemical compounds.
They're usually synthetic or added by somebody
else and they can be anything from the gluten
in muffins to the azodicarbonamide that might
be used in fast food croissants. It could
be the pesticides in non-organic fruits and
vegetables, it could be the SLS that's the
active ingredient in shampoo products. It
could be the fluoride that's found in tap
water, it could be the aluminium that used
in vaccines, high fructose corn syrup, corn
syrup, fructose as a whole, sugars as a whole,
all carbohydrates sometimes. It could be saturated
fats, trans fats, all fats, anything really
that might cause a fear response in people
and it's usually amplified and peddled by
fitness bloggers with books to sell and blogs
to promote and usually some affiliate links
to products where they make a little bit of
profit.
It's a growing problem in recent years where
people will spread fear of a certain ingredient
then offer their own solution to it. It's
essentially the fitness version of Alex Jones
and Infowars. You make these fake fears, these
fake consipiracies about certain ingredients
around you causing mass harm, usually deliberately
done by corporations in pursuit of greedy
profits and then you offer a solution. It's
an old trick but it's happening to the chemical
industry - who has improved our lives so dramatically
in the last few decades especially - and the
ones who lose are the consumers: the people
who are coerced into spending five times as
much for a baby product because it's organic
rather than one that simply works.
So in this series, we'll be exploring different
chemicals and what they do in our lives, why
companies put so much effort and time and
resources into getting those ingredients in
the products stably and in the right doses
and we'll get to know some compounds and maybe
some chemists as well. Hopefully, together,
we'll reduce the fear of chemicals.
