The words ‘chemical’ and ‘poison’ have become interchangeable in the popular consciousness. As a result the whole subject of chemistry has become tainted with unpleasant connotations.
Some of us have learned to recognize the hazards of living with an overabundance of food and have started to change our diets. But, did you know that news is to the mind what sugar is to the body? The media feeds us small bites of trivial matter, tidbits that don’t really concern our lives and don’t require thinking. That’s why we experience almost no saturation. Unlike things that require thinking like reading books and long magazine articles, we can swallow limitless quantities of news flashes, which are bright-colored candies for the mind. Today, we have reached the same point in relation to information that we faced 20 years ago in regard to food. We are beginning to recognize how toxic news can be.
By the 1920s and 30s children had access to substances which would raise eyebrows in today’s more safety-conscious times.
When you talk to people of a certain age about chemistry sets, a nostalgic glaze comes over their eyes. The first chemistry sets for children included dangerous substances like uranium dust and sodium cyanide, but all that has changed.
In yet another alarming glimpse at the long-term effects of the BP disaster, the preliminary findings of two new studies show that the nearly two million gallons of toxic dispersants applied to the more than 200 million gallons of oil that gushed from its exploded rig may have been more damaging to the ecosystem as a whole than the oil alone…
US authorities issued a recall Friday for a brand of Pakistan-made candy called Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge Chew Bars because it turns out the sweets actually are toxic.