Queer & Khmer

Over the past week, I got asked by Sense About Science, a UK-based charitable organisation dedicated to preventing scientific misinformation, to make some graphics for their new, free guide, “Making Sense of Chemical Stories”. In it, they attempt to dispel some of the common misconceptions about chemicals. These are the two graphics I made to support the guide’s content. You can read more about the graphics here. You can view & download Sense About Science’s excellent guide right here.

Preach

cool little chart.

I have thought that aspartame was linked (significantly) to cancer? and other health problems? I could be wrong. I’ll need to look that up.

or perhaps this graph does not allow for defining that specifically enough?

Worth reblogging to address this. Aspartame has previously been flagged as being linked to cancer. However, the most recent reviews of research have very much played down this link. This 2013 paper concludes that ‘aspartame has no significant carcinogenic effect in rodents’.  Additionally, another paper from 2013 contains the following conclusion: “Evidence on low-calorie sweeteners – and specifically aspartame – does not support the existence of a consistent association with hematopoietic neoplasms, brain cancer, digestive sites, breast, prostate and several other neoplasms.” Hope that makes it a bit clearer! The graphic does just consider the median lethal dose values for each of the chemicals - so, the dose required to kill 50% of a test population. That said, for the non-toxic selections, I’ve also tried to pick compounds that aren’t even considered carcinogenic. MSG is another that gets a bad reputation, but is perfectly safe. It does actually occur naturally in small quantities in some fruits and vegetables, but I’ve included it under the synthetic column, due to the fact that MSG supplements in food will usually be synthetically created. There is some debate over endocrine (hormone system) disrupting chemicals, and whether they may disobey the 'dose makes the poison’ rule of toxicology; this is still very much a developing area of research, about which you can read more in this brief article by C&EN magazine.