The Global Warming Scare

1- Paranoia About Chemicals

Because of environmental scare campaigns, many authors have pointed out that this nation has become paranoid about risks from chemicals.  The late Dixy Lee Ray’s Y1990 book with Lee Guzzo, Trashing the Planet and Mihkel Mathiesen’s Y2000 book, Global Warming in a Politically Correct Climate, are good examples.  A detailed examination of chemical scares is provided by W. A. Sweeney Jr., which dispels such fears in a manner that is thorough and concise (Happy and Healthy in a Chemical World, 1^st Books, Bloomington, IN, 2002).  The New York based American Council on Science & Health discusses 28 examples (1997 Special Report  FACTS VERSUS FEARS).  Dini discusses several scare-based fiascoes (Dini03).  Public relations firms such as Fenton Communications that promote the scares are very creative and  deceitful (CRC Organization Trends, Dec 2004). .

            The Precautionary Principle (any chemical is guilty until proven innocent) has replaced common sense in assessing risk. According to some enviros, guilt is any real or imagined adverse affect on any life form.  This applies at almost any concentration level, regardless of how it is used.

             Much of this relates to regulators assuming a linear no-threshold relation between toxicity and dose.  Contrary information shows that this is usually wrong.  About forty percent of toxics that have been studied are beneficial at low levels. This also applies to radiation. Called hormesis, even the popular media has begun to take notice with feature articles on the subject. It is an  extension of the toxicology principle that "the dose makes the poison" (Ray90p109), (Dini04p59-64), (Fortune:6/9/03), (C&EN: 4/5/04), TCS&T:17#4p72, 2004-5.

            Another fallacy EPA uses to justify regulations is the assumption that test data on animals far removed from man, such as mice, can be applied to humans.  Combining these principles makes it possible to justify almost any control measure. Then, if the facts don’t fit the idealogy, the facts are overlooked.