NATURE'S GIFTS COME RISK-WRAPPED
SYNTHETIC CHEMICALS ARE SAFER THAN WE THINK
Misconceptions about the safety of synthetic chemicals are driving more and more people towards natural options that are not clinically tried and tested. These are probably more unsafe, Britain’s leading chemists have warned. In a report titled Making Sense of Chemical Stories, published earlier this year, the chemists have highlighted people’s misconceptions about chemicals used in everyday life. Synthetic chemicals are often much safer for human health than so-called natural materials whose effects on human health are yet to be proved, chemists and toxicologists argue.
They say that even a bad concoction of all synthetic chemicals may do less harm than some of the expensive and less effective natural
detoxification cures, including dietary supplements and body wraps. They also cite a few examples like certain artificial tattoos that
can cause skin allergies as some natural hair dyes and eyeliners that contain toxic lead compounds to drive home their point. Clearly,
nature’s gifts can do wonders, but their effects have to be proved in clinical and laboratory trials over sufficiently long periods
of time.
