Chemically mundane: Water, the greatest chemical constituent of the human body.
Credit: iStockphoto
SYDNEY: Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is attempting to set the public straight on the exact meaning of the word 'chemical'.
The London-based organisation claims that the marketing and advertising industries have "misappropriated and maligned" their raison d'être to mean any kind of poison.
When "the truth, as any right-minded person will say, is that everything we eat, drink, drive, play with and live in is made of chemicals - both natural and synthetic chemicals are essential for life as we know it."
Last straw
The final straw came, the society said in a statement, when the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) recently defended an advert which "perpetuated the myth" that natural and organic products are devoid of chemicals.
The manufacturers of the product in question – a type of organic compost called Miracle Gro – claimed in a TV advert that it was "100 per cent chemical-free" (watch a video of the advert here).
This fantastic claim is repeated in other forms of advertising and on the product's packaging – despite the fact that the list of ingredients includes 'phosphorus pentoxide' and 'potassium oxide' among the extensive list of non-manufactured chemicals found in compost.
Despite the fact that viewers complained to the ASA, that body defended the advert, claiming: "when there is a colloquial understanding of a word, we can take this into account when reaching our decision."
"Tear up the textbooks"
In response, the RSC said that if the British public really believe materials can be chemical-free, then they soon expect to be inundated with calls from people hoping to get their hands on the UK£1 million (A$2.3 million) bounty they are offering.
"I'd be happy to give a million pounds to the first member of the public who could place in my hands any material I consider 100 per cent chemical free," said Neville Reed a director of the RSC.
"Should anyone do this, we will see thousands of years' worth of knowledge evaporate before our eyes. We would have to tear up the textbooks, burn the degree certificates and retrain the teachers."
It's All Natural
This is a bit like "All natural foods" must be good for you. How about an oleander leaf salad with curare dressing?
Eat it then!
Let the people who worry eat this first then, its got the most poisonous substances ever known. Lets see the people who claim synthetic substances are dangerous eat this along with some nightshade berries on top of it. Eat it then and tell me how you felt if you survive.
Some obvious limits
It seems to me that by "material" they are limiting themselves to what we consider matter, thus invalidating things like magnetic bottles and the infamous sci-fi force fields. :)
Chemical-free
My God - it's chemical-free!