Natural Vs Chemical Debate : Who's trying to fool Mother Nature?

[Guest guest]

of chemistry. Their assertion that “synthetic chemicals are often much safer

for human health than so-called ‘natural' ones” is backed up only by the most

simplistic arguments, without giving references from published scientific

literature. The first obvious problem is that the processes of synthesizing

chemicals usually do not result in 100% pure substances. There are often

impurities that do not exist in similar, natural chemicals in food or in the

unpolluted, natural environment that our human bodies have evolved to deal with

for hundreds of generations. So we are frequently dealing with not just a

synthetic chemical, but the impurities that are wed to it. And not just one

‘foreign molecule', as the scientific community used to call such chemicals,

but unstudied mixtures of tens of thousands of such foreign chemicals that are

now present in our food and the environment. Yet the SAS report astonishingly

claims that lab-made chemicals can eliminate “some of the impurities and toxic

effects that are present in natural sources”, as if the food matrix that

natural chemicals are found in are considered a problem. Certainly man-made

chemicals are the main source of persistent toxins in the environment. The

report also ignores the hormone disrupting effects of many classes of man-made

chemicals. The US Environmental Protection Agency finds ‘compelling evidence'

of these effects: “In recent years, some scientists have proposed that

certain chemicals might be disrupting the endocrine system of humans and

wildlife. A variety of chemicals have been found to disrupt the endocrine

systems of animals in laboratory studies, and compelling evidence shows that

endocrine systems of certain fish and wildlife have been affected by chemical

contaminants, resulting in developmental and reproductive problems. Based on

this and other evidence, Congress

passed the Food Quality Protection Act in 1996, requiring that EPA initiate EDSP

to screen pesticide chemicals and environmental contaminants for their potential

to affect the endocrine systems of humans and wildlife.” The EPA issues a

Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) report of hundreds of chemicals known to be

toxic, stating that: “The chemicals that are reported under TRI can have

significant adverse effects on human health and the environment. They include

carcinogens -- chemicals that cause cancer, such as dichloroethane and benzene

– and mutagens – chemicals that can cause changes in human cells, such as

ethylene di-bromide as well as chemicals that cause reproductive and

developmental effects.” It is not accurate for the SAS report to state that:

“Although synthetic products may contain substances known to be harmful in

large quantities, the amounts contained in consumer products are so negligible

that they would not even have an effect

when all products are considered.” Who is even investigating these millions of

potential multiple chemical interactions? Adding minute doses of various

chemicals together may not reveal the true body burden to an individual. If

chemicals are difficult to detoxify and a person has a diminished capacity to

do so due to inflammation, illness or nutrient deficiencies, the cumulative

toxic effects could be dramatic. The government of the UK has acknowledged

the problem inherent in large amounts of chemicals in the environment. The

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has reported: “There are,

however, concerns about the risks to the environment and to human health which

might be present from some of the chemicals we use, as was set out in the

Government's Chemicals Strategy "Sustainable production and use of chemicals":

"In recent years

there has been growing concern about the possible effects of man-made chemicals

on human health through environmental exposure. Some confidence can be gained

from the fact that many chemicals have been used regularly over time without

causing gross effects. However, in some cases effects are subtle and damage to

the environment or to human health has only been discovered after large

quantities of chemicals have been released." (p14, 1.5. 1999)” The authors of

Making sense of chemical stories also seem to be unfamiliar (perhaps

unsympathetic) with the science of multiple chemical sensitivity. This is the

science relating to the concept that at some point the total toxic load upon

the body, which is mainly processed by the liver, may overwhelm the body's

ability to detoxify and safely excrete excess chemicals, whether natural or

synthetic. The use of certain nutrients to be utilized in these processes –

notably antioxidants, minerals and

amino acids - are ‘limiting factors' affecting an individual's detoxification

capacity and chemical clearance rates. Detoxification is far more than just

drinking tap water, contrary to the SAS claim. 1-30 Many synthetic chemicals

are inherently toxic “by nature”, so to speak, so that their safety profiles

are typically worse than natural products. Controlled substances are regulated

so tightly precisely because of their potential for causing bodily harm. While

natural products may occasionally have this potential, as a general rule

experience shows that they are less toxic than drugs, which are typically made

from synthesized chemicals. 31 This safety for natural products is borne out by

statistics from the American Association of Poison Control Centers. 32 The

Sense About Science authors ignore the persistence of man-made chemicals in the

environment, including people's bodies. The European Environment Agency has

released a report called Europe's environment: the third assessment (2003) that

makes a couple of relevant points on this topic: Although hexachlorobenzene

(HCB) emissions have decreased throughout Europe, the rate of decrease has

slowed markedly since 1990. HCB remains widely dispersed throughout the region

due to long-range atmospheric transport processes and local ‘hot spots' that

reflect high levels of local use or contamination. There is concern over the

dispersion of polybrominated flame retardants in the environment.

Concentrations have risen steeply in Swedish human milk since the 1970s,

despite these substances never having been manufactured in that country.

Although concentrations are now declining, they remain many times higher than

those in the 1970s. In one part of its report, the SAS lists a number of

chemical compounds that are in green tea by their long chemical names. The

point is that we

shouldn't fear chemicals just because they have unfamiliar, scary names. Fair

enough, but why shouldn't we fear man-made chemicals that have not been used

safely for thousands of years as components of common foods? This is the kind

of misleading argument that the report repeatedly resorts to, exploiting the

ignorance of the intended audiences: the media and the public. I don't see

green tea on the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory report, but I do see chemicals

that the SAS report seem to be positioning as safer than food, in some cases.

In the case of St. John's wort, the authors are mistaken in saying (in a

pre-release interview) that, since we do not know what its active ingredient

is, you cannot assess its dosage. Quite the contrary, there is a therapeutic

monograph on the use of this herb on www.herbalgram.org, as well as a good body

of science. 33-36 The identification of an

active component has never been the sole determinant of the use of herbs, even

at the point when herbs were the predominant therapeutics listed in medical

reference works prior to World War II. The search for an active component is a

mindset that's more pharmaceutical than nutraceutical, betraying an

institutional bias against unpatentable natural substances. Valuing the native

genius of nature means realizing that a whole herb may be gentler and more

balanced than is a constituent molecule with a specific drug-like action. Think

aspirin versus white willow bark: the herb does not commonly cause stomach

bleeding, as the isolated drug –even as the acetylated form – usually does.

The fact that St. John's wort may interact with some drugs should not be

considered a serious flaw, as the SAS people implied. A commonly used warning

statement on the label of St. John's wort products gives adequate

cautions about possible interactions. 37 Common foods and spices like ginger,

garlic and grapefruit also can interact with drugs, yet where are the

scientists complaining about these products? For an article coming from a

non-profit group that purportedly exists to promote evidence-based science, I

find their arguments to be unconvincing and unrepresentative of the whole body

of facts. The presence of nutrients and other compounds, including trace

elements, in food and food supplements is crucial to the process of

detoxification. The role of natural nutrients to help reduce the total toxic

load is essential to our understanding of the body's detoxification capacity

and processes. I believe that ‘natural is better', because nature has a

wisdom in producing chemicals and our bodies have adapted to their presence.

Many of these are essential to life. I have seen many, many examples

of this in the published scientific literature. Nothing in the SAS report

convinces me that I should prefer being exposed to the not-quite-identical

man-made versions of naturally occurring chemicals or totally synthetic,

environmentally persistent, man-made chemicals. The SAS promises to use

scientific evidence in its reporting, but my review of the research convinces

me that this promise was inadequately kept regarding its report titled ‘Making

sense of chemical stories'. Neil E. Levin Certified Clinical Nutritionist

Diplomate in Advanced Nutritional Laboratory Assessment Bloomingdale, IL USA

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your health care professional prior to use. posted by Sepp Hasslberger on

Saturday January 28 2006 "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws

from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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