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100 Chemical Myths Lajos Kovács • Dezső Csupor Gábor Lente • Tamás Gunda 100 Chemical Myths Misconceptions, Misunderstandings, Explanations 1 3 Lajos Kovács Gábor Lente Department of Medicinal Chemistry Department of Inorganic and Analytical niversity of Szeged Chemistry Szeged niversity of Debrecen Hungary Debrecen Hungary Dezső Csupor Department of Pharmacognosy Tamás Gunda niversity of Szeged Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry Szeged niversity of Debrecen Hungary Debrecen Hungary ISBN 978-3-319-08418-3 ISBN 978-3-319-08419-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-08419-0 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2014947530 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recita- tion, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or infor- mation storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar meth- odology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplica- tion of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. iolations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publica- tion does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publica- tion, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Cover illustration: kindly provided by Tamás Gunda Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Original title: Száz kémiai mítosz. Tévhitek, félreértések, magyarázatok. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary, 2011 Translated from Hungarian by Gábor Lente and Katalin Ӧsz, niversity of Debrecen, Hungary Subject reader: Zoltán Tóth, niversity of Debrecen, Hungary Language advisor: Louis Mattia Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood Marie Curie Foreword My early years were spent in Hungary so it should come as no surprise that my first venture into the world of chemistry involved paprika. Bread smeared with goose fat was a popular childhood delight, always topped with a sprinkling of paprika. No worries about cholesterol back then! One day, however, I got a spicy surprise as I bit into my snack. The paprika practically set my mouth on fire! My mother, it seems, had bought hot paprika instead of the usual sweet. I was only about seven years old at the time, but it set me thinking. The hot stuff looked exactly the same as the sweet. What was the difference, I wondered? I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was actually dipping my toes into the deep pool of chem- istry. Many times since I have thought about how that paprika incident sparked my chemical curiosity which eventually would burst into a flame. That flame burned brightly through the sixties as I became more and more en- thralled by the wonders of chemistry. I remember visiting the DuPont pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in 1964 and being thrilled by a Broadway style musical entitled the “Wonderful World of Chemistry.” What a great show it was. Everything in the DuPont theatre was made of some newly-invented material. Doors featured alkyd resin paint and polyacetal doorknobs, the ceiling was made of polyvinyl fluo- ride, floors were carpeted with nylon and seats covered with polyvinyl chloride. The polyester curtain went up to reveal dancers in colorful spandex costumes, tapping their polyurethane shoes on an acrylic-glossed stage. Next to the DuPont pavilion was a NASA display of rockets and an exhibit that featured the planned trip to the Moon, including samples of the special fabrics and plastics that chemists had designed for the fledgling space program. Chemistry was flying high! Nobody took issue with DuPont’s slogan of “Better Things for Better Living Through Chemistry.” The word “chemical” was not seen to be synonymous with “poison” or “toxin” and when you were introduced as a student studying chem- istry, you were not looked upon as someone who was destined destroy people’s health with a plethora of untested toxins and wreak havoc with the environment. By the time I graduated with my chemistry degree in the seventies, the winds of change were beginning to blow. Chemistry went from being a heroic science that furnished us with new medicines, fibers and plastics, to one associated with napalm, Agent Orange and pollution. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring called attention to the misuse of pesticides and before long “chemical” became a dirty word, with some chemists even suggesting that when communicating with the public it be replaced ix x Foreword by the term “substance.” Somehow “substance” was seen to be more benign than “chemical.” By 1982 the image of chemistry had been so tainted that DuPont felt the need to drop the “through chemistry” phrase from its slogan. While some of the criticism aimed at the chemical industry’s insufficient test- ing of its products and lack of attention to environmental issues was justified, the “ chemophobia” generated by various activist groups was not based on facts. But un- fortunately emotion usually rushes in to fill the vacuum created by a lack of chemical knowledge and emotion tends to trump science. Often the result is an irrational fear of chemicals that creates confusion and unnecessary stress. A calming element can be introduced into the discussion with an explanation that chemicals are not good or bad, they are just the building blocks of all matter. They don’t make any decisions, people do. Chemicals are not to be feared, nor are they to be worshipped. They are to be understood. It is ignorance that breeds fear and knowledge that dispels it. Therein, though, lies a problem. How do you enlighten the public about chemical issues, which are often very complex, given that many people do not know what a molecule is and look upon a structural diagram as if it were some sort of an ancient hieroglyphic? What is needed is a book that explains controversies in a readily understandable fashion without skimping on the science. That is exactly what the authors of this fascinating compendium of chemical knowledge have managed to put together. A brief introduction to the nature of molecules is followed by an insightful dis- cussion of a vast array of current and historical chemical topics. The differences between natural and synthetic substances are clearly addressed, as well those be- tween butter and margarine and generic and trade name drugs. Concerns about food additives, sweeteners, phytoestrogens, antioxidants and plastics are explored in an objective fashion. Scams such as alkaline diets, bogus cancer treatments and non- sensical detox regimens are exposed with scientific flair. If you’ve ever wondered why ice melts under a skate or why meat is red or where the colours of flowers come from, you will wonder no more. No longer will you be at the mercy of advertisers who make questionable claims about noni juice, glucos- amine, bottled water, aromatherapy and homeopathy. Confusion about the placebo effect, brown versus white sugar, blood doping, DDT, dioxins and the ozone layer will be seen to evaporate with the infusion of sound science. You will even discover why you don’t need hot water to make a hard-boiled egg and why drugs and grape- fruit juice do not mix. Of course no book by Hungarian authors would be complete without the story of Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi’s isolation of vitamin C from paprika. It’s here in glorious detail. Finally you will even discover why goose fat may not be the healthiest snack and how hot paprika differs from the sweet version. This amazingly comprehensive and entertaining book is guaranteed to serve up just the right blend of sweet science and spicy anecdote. Bon appétit! Office for Science and Society Joe Schwarcz McGill niversity Director Montreal Preface “For every complex problem there is a simple solution, and it is always wrong,” said Dr. ictor Herbert, renowned hematologist and champion of evidence-based medicine. In this book, the authors intend to describe chemical misconceptions from as many different points of views as their talent allows, often times explaining connections between distinctly non-chemical phenomena. A quest for finding the truth is by no means an easy one and has often been compared to peeling an onion. Peer Gynt in Henrik Ibsen’s play declares the following when he peels an onion layer by layer: There’s a most surprising lot of layers! Are we never coming to the kernel? [Pulls all that is left to pieces.] There isn’t one! To the innermost bit It’s nothing but layers, smaller and smaller. Nature’s a joker! (Translation by Edgar Lucas) This book has been written for open-minded non-specialists, but we also hope to surprise chemists with a few stories never heard before.

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