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Are you that special person who - weary from trudging the endless superhighways - just longs to camp next to a glorious oasis of the mind? Do you desire to explore new frontiers, splash in shared ideas, fill your belly with the refreshing fruits of inspiration, and bask in the gentle rays of fond reflection?

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Friday, February 20, 2009

The land of the chemical free

John Butler of the John Butler Trio (pictured at a chemical factory) discusses "chemical free"...

Yesterday I heard an advertisement for a boutique beer promoting itself as having "no chemicals". But what does that mean?

Chemicals are the building blocks of everything natural and synthetic. Water is a chemical. Plants are chemical factories producing thousands of different molecules and compounds, some of them carcinogens. Even a humble cup of tea - and yes this beer for the dickhead market - is positively alive with chemicals. And the chemicals in it are swimming in other chemicals.

In chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl group (-OH) is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl or substituted alkyl group. The general formula for a simple acyclic alcohol is CnH2n+1OH.

The promoters of this beer go on to claim their miracle product is full of anti-oxidants. No chemicals and anti-oxidants? This is quite the trick.

Look, there are no chemical-free foods or drinks. What's more, the distinction these tofu-for-brains are probably intending to make between synthetic and natural chemicals is entirely meaningless.

All of which makes these articles patently ridiculous.

How do they get away with it? Don't we have an advertising code?

1 comment:

Egg said...

The Chemical-free Brothers?