Some years ago the Monitor reported that Congress mandated a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study on the possible toxicity of flame retardant chemicals that might be used to treat upholstered furniture fabrics.

The NAS study concluded that most of the proposed chemicals could be used safely and reserved judgment on others pending more study.

Among such chemicals widely used today are the brominated flame-retardants. Today, those chemicals are under attack by environmental extremists such as the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The group recently released a new study in which it claims it has found high levels of flame retardant (FR) chemicals in mother's breast milk.

EWG claims theirs is the first nationwide test for the presence of the chemicals in humans. The FR chemicals are also used to help make computers, televisions, and other products flame resistant.
The National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) once claimed that computer equipment was unsafe because the outer plastic housing of inkjet printers could be ignited by exposure to a small open flame such as a candle. The NASFM strongly advocated the use of flame-retardants in the composition of the housing to reduce flammability.

The Monitor covered the story at the time, noting that even then, environmentalists were working to ban the chemicals in Europe. (6)

In September, 2001, the European Parliament approved a European Commission proposal to ban penta-BDE, octa-BDE, and deca-BDE. The Parliament acted on the claim that the FR chemicals were hazardous to health. In 1999, a Swedish Government Commission issued a study that asserted that the brominated flame-retardants are "persistent, bio-accumulative, and toxic in the aquatic environment. They show effects above all on the liver but also on thyroid hormone and affect the behavior of mice. They occur widely in the environment, in human blood and in mother's milk." (7)

What do a hairdresser, an exterminator, and a medical researcher have in common?

Styling hair, killing bugs, and curing cancer are very different activities. But to do them, people need to know about the solutions that color and perm hair, or the agents that kill insects or cancer cells. And that means they all use chemistry in their jobs.

Chemistry--and chemicals--are all around us. Chemistry is the study of "stuff"--its properties, structure, and reactions with other matter.

Just think about it. "A chef who knows how long to simmer tomato sauce is carrying out the chemical reactions that release the flavorful lycopene compounds from a tomato's cells. A cosmetologist who gives you a perm is carrying out chemical reactions that join together in new ways the protein molecules that make up your hair. We're all chemists at some time or another," says Mark Michalovic at the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry.
"Today we know much more than we did even 50 years ago," says Brian Coppola, professor of chemistry at the University of Michigan. "We have to make lots of decisions about health, nutrition, medicine, and the environment." These are basically questions about chemicals and chemistry. They affect us on a daily basis as we buy products, choose what to put into our bodies, decide what to throw out, and so forth.

In chemistry class you'll learn about the scientific method. That's the process scientists use to study things. Once you grasp the scientific method, you'll know what questions to ask to determine whether something is valid or not. Who did the research? What did it say? Did the conclusions grow out of the research?

"Once you know how claims must be tested by rigorous experimentation, you'll develop a healthy sense of skepticism," Michalovic says. "This will help you avoid being taken in by the claims of scam artists. Oxygenated waters, ozone therapy, and healing magnets are of dubious value. Knowing a little bit of chemistry can stop you from wasting your money on them. And medicine is just one area where scam artists prey on people who don't understand chemistry;"