What Really Makes You Ill?: Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Disease Is Wrong

It is widely recognised that many thousands of chemicals have never been tested for their safety, or their health effects. However, many of the chemicals that have been tested and shown to induce adverse health effects nevertheless remain in use.

The human body is composed of organic matter; it is for this reason that exposure to chlorine gas is so hazardous for humans. The discussion about ‘1918 Flu’ in chapter four referred to the health damage caused by the deployment of chlorine gas as a chemical weapon on the battlefields during WWI. Joe Thornton aptly refers to chlorine in its element

In its elemental form, chlorine is a highly reactive gas, but it does not occur in nature in this elemental form. In nature, chlorine is always found in compounds, the best-known of which is sodium chloride, or salt. In this form, it is stable, but when chlorine gas is released from this, or any other compound its nature changes dramatically, as Jo

One of the chemical discoveries of the 18th century was chlorine, which was first extracted from hydrochloric acid in 1774. Further experiments with chlorine resulted in the discovery that it could bleach textiles far more rapidly than existing methods; a discovery that led to the development of chlorine-based powders for use within the textile ind

It is clear that the use of toxic natural substances has a long history that preceded the birth of the chemical industry by many centuries if not millennia. However, non-toxic materials also have a long history of use for various processes prior to the Industrial Revolution; textile dyes for example were often sourced from plants.

The existence of synergistic effects means that the EPA’s claim that they can ‘safeguard’ the food supply by setting maximum residue limits for individual pesticides is unfounded.

This point is further emphasised by a 2004 article entitled Synergy: The Big Unknowns of Pesticide Exposure on the website of Beyond Pesticides that states, “Synergistic effects between multiple pesticides and/or other chemicals represent one of the greatest gaps in EPA’s ability to protect the public from the adverse health effects associated with

Rachel Carson eloquently articulates in Silent Spring, “The whole problem of pesticide poisoning is enormously complicated by the fact that a human being, unlike a laboratory animal living under rigidly controlled conditions, is never exposed to one chemical alone.”

The OCSPP also implements certain aspects of FIFRA as well as FFDCA (Federal Food Drug and Cosmetics Act), section 408 of which, “...authorizes EPA to set tolerances, or maximum residue limits for pesticide residues on foods.” The idea that a level of pesticide residue can be regarded as acceptable, clearly relies heavily on the Paracelsus fallacy