40% of Euros want to live in a world where chemical substances don't exist

[dead0man]

link=American Council on Science and Health

A recent study published in Nature Chemistry finds that 39 percent of respondents in eight European countries say they "agree" with the statement that  "I would like to live in a world where chemical substances don't exist." Another 39 percent say the "slightly agree" or "slightly disagree" with this statement. Similarly,  40% say "they do everything I can to avoid contact with chemical substances in my daily life."

As the study's authors—Swiss academics Michael Siegrist and Angela Bearth—point out, such "chemophobia reflects stunning scientific ignorance, because human life would be virtually impossible without chemicals. Indeed, pretty much everything we use or touch is a chemical or combination of chemicals. Even if we limit the definition of "chemicals" to artificially produced substances (as opposed to naturally occurring ones), most of the products of modern industry and agriculture routinely use such materials, and they are—on average—no more dangerous than "natural" substances are. If you truly do everything you can to avoid contact with chemical substances (even just artificial ones), you would probably have to return to a stone-age lifestyle. Siegrist and Bearth note that "many claim that they do everything they can to avoid chemical substances although they clearly — and most likely unknowingly — rely extensively on products, from food to cell phones, that would not be possible to manufacture without synthetic chemicals." If you're reading this post on a smartphone or on a laptop, you are using "chemical substances" right now!

Reason link
of course 80% Americans think products containing DNA should be labeled as such

[ricardotor]

Very useful news. Thank you for share it.

[Trump Is A Maoist]

Europe trends towards an all-natural hippy ideology? Colour me shocked.

[Sic Semper Fascistis]

...as in, they want to live in an immaterial world of pure thought? I mean, same, but I don't think it's a very realistic goal, at least in this life.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Wow! I wasn't aware that banknotes have opinions.

[Trump Is A Maoist]

Wow! I wasn't aware that banknotes have opinions.

That's what " they" wanted you to think.

[dead0man]

yeah, that was clearly hard for a certain type of person to figure out that I meant people in Europe.  I apologize for forgetting that some posters here are kind of stupid.

[Tender Branson]

What’s wrong with it ?

The figure should be closer to 100%, not 40%.

Humanity is about to crash into a wall soon anyway, by polluting the planet and it’s soil with chemicals and by other forms of man-made pollution.

In the forms of emissions, we are creating our own global gas chamber. Who needs Nazis to terminate us, when we behave like Nazis ourselves ?

But it’s too late. Unless the breeding and capitalism can’t be stopped now, there’s no way Earth can recover from the damages that mankind has inflicted ...

[Landslide Lyndon]

yeah, that was clearly hard for a certain type of person to figure out that I meant people in Europe.  I apologize for forgetting that some posters here are kind of stupid.

People of Europe are called Europeans.
You are welcome.

[dead0man]

What’s wrong with it ?

ya see, (nearly) everything is made with "chemical substances".  That's why it's funny.

Humanity is about to crash into a wall soon anyway, by polluting the planet and it’s soil with chemicals and by other forms of man-made pollution.

no we're not

In the forms of emissions, we are creating our own global gas chamber. Who needs Nazis to terminate us, when we behave like Nazis ourselves ?

no we're not

yeah, that was clearly hard for a certain type of person to figure out that I meant people in Europe.  I apologize for forgetting that some posters here are kind of stupid.

People of Europe are called Europeans.
You are welcome.

thanks Rick.

[HillGoose]

isn't water and sh**t a chemical substance lmao

[You are responsible]

Obviously the term "chemical substance" has received a misleading framing in the public consciousness.

Indeed, when I run "chemische Substanzen" through Google the second German-language site there - following the general article on chemical substances on German Wikipedia -  is for instance the "GESTIS  substance databank (Chemical, regulatory, and toxicological information on dangerous substances by the German Public Casualty Insurance). So, the framing is apparently "chemical substance" = "dangerous substance".

[Trump Is A Maoist]

isn't water and sh**t a chemical substance lmao

Depending on the definition, technically you could consider all matter "chemical substances", including all solids, liquids and gasses.

[brucejoel99]

Especially that terrible dihydrogen monoxide! It's deadly!

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Unclear and misleading polls truly are fascinating. Not.