W
hen people – not everyone, mind you, but
many – who are not involved in science,
industry,
cosmetics,
pharmaceuticals,
agro-industry or other similar fields hear or see the
word 'chemicals' they often have a 'knee-jerk' reaction
along the lines of, 'chemicals are bad' or 'chemicals
should be avoided'.
But, of course, this is a preconceived response,
built on the idea that has emerged in the second half
of the 20th century and since, that the many thousands
of new compounds and complex chemical substances
developed by industrial and post-industrial chemists are
generally 'poisonous', 'bad' or 'to be avoided'.
While many of these chemicals may be potentially
toxic, depending on how and where they are used,
by no means are they all so. A significant number are
fairly innocuous, while on the other end of the spectrum
others clearly require special handling and care since
they are indeed potentially dangerous.
However, the key perceptual and acceptability
difficulty for concerned parties tends to lie less in
efficacy or safe use of such compounds than in the fact
that many are either new or &R