COMING OUT OF THE MAZE OF INFORMATION

By Brian McLean (Tri Nature’s chemist)

It would be fair to say that, over the years, people concerned with natural lifestyles, environmental degradation and consumer health and safety have been exposed to a mass of opinion and conjecture about what is and is not ‘natural’.  Over time, the focus has expanded somewhat to include what is and is not safe, toxic, irritant, mutagenic, carcinogenic, biodegradable, organic … you get the picture.

So how does one discern good information from ‘misinformation’; research facts from research fiction or fictional research; credible and helpful guidelines from self-serving propaganda? How can we be sure that claims we see on labels or in a product marketing ‘spiel’ are what we get?  And what about those long lists of chemical sounding names that we find in small print on the packaging of our intended ‘natural’ purchases?

Let’s just step aside from all the questions for a moment – we will get to them in this and the next issue – and have some fun with a little consumer quiz to test your already established knowledge or beliefs.

Below is a list of chemical components that have been isolated from a common household shopping list item.  Based on what you’ve read, heard or researched, take a pen or highlighter and mark all the names you consider could be harmful to your health or to the environment.  Underline the ones that you think could be particularly nasty.

Diethyl Succinate, Estragole, Ethyl Acetate, Ethyl Butyrate, Ethyl Osobutyrate, Ethyl Decanoate, Ethyl Caproate, Ethyl Laurate, Ethyl 2-Methylbutyrate, Ethyl Propionate, Ethyl Isovalerate, Geraniol, Heptanal, Heptyl Acetate, Heptyl Alcohol, Gamma Hexalacetone, Hexanal, Hexanoic Acid, 2-Hexanal2-Hexen-1-ol, 3-Hexen-1-o1, Trans 2 – Hexenyl Acetate, Hexyl Acetate, Hexyl Alcohol, Hexyl Buturate, Methyl Isobutyrate, Methyl Hexanoate, Methyl Laurate, Methyl Myristate, Methyl Octanoate, Nonyl Alcohol, Octanoic Acid, 1-Octanol, Octyl Acetate, 2-Pentanone, Phenethyl Acetate, Phenthyl Alcohol, Propionaldehyde, Propyl Acetate, Propyl Alcohol, Iso Propyl Alcohol, Propyl Butyrate, Propyl Hexanoate, Propyl Propionate, Alpha Terpineol, Valeraldehyde, Valeric Acid, Cis-3-Hexanyl Acetate, Hexyl Isobutyrate, 2-Nonanol, 2-Pentanol, Acetone, n-Butyl Methylbutyrate, 3-Octanol, Linaloon Oxide, 2-Butanol, Acetaldehyde, Actoin, Iso Amyl Acetate,
I-Pentanol, Iso Amyl Alcohol, Amyl Butyrate, Iso Amyl Butyrate, Iso Amyl Hexanoate, Amyl Octanoate, Iso Amyl Octanoate, Benzaldehyde, Benzyl Alcohol, 2-Butanone, Butyl Acetate, Iso Butyl Alcohol, Butyl Butyrate, Butyl Iso Butyrate, Butyl Formate, Butyl Heptanoate, Butyl Laurate, Butyl Propionate, Butyl Aldehyde, Iso Butyl Aldehyde, Butyric Acid, 4-Carvomentenol & Decanol.

Okay – what do you think this mystery item could be? The answer is over the page, of course, but no peeking until you’ve finished the quiz.

And here’s the answer.  All of the ‘ingredients’ in the long list of suspicious sounding names on the previous page are present in none other than the humble (or heroic, depending on your view) Granny Smith apple!

It’s time to take an honest look at what one can realistically expect from products produced by genuinely concerned, ethical manufacturers.  Let me preface any discussion we may have by quashing the idea that any cleaning or personal care product that we use is natural, contains only natural ingredients or indeed contains any natural ingredient.

Let us also be clear that there is no such thing as ‘chemical free’.  Free of petro- or synthetic chemicals maybe, but not free of chemicals.  Everything on earth is 100% chemical.  All of you, all of me, all of a Granny Smith apple – yes, entirely composed of chemicals!  Strictly speaking, anything that comes from nature is only truly ‘natural’ in its whole form.

I guess the most natural ingredients that you can get (apart from rainwater) are cold pressed oils.  Even though the prepared and cleaned up oil is not present in nature, I will accept its ‘naturalness’.  However, the vast majority of trees, fruits, plants and herbs do not give of their precious oils when they are cold and squashed.  They require the extra persuasion of heat and solvents to effect an efficient release of their treasures.  Hardly a natural process … and from there everything gets decidedly ‘unnatural’!

Any surfactant (detergent agent) or emulsifier used in any specialty household or personal care product has gone through a variety of ‘chemical processes’, most of which are complex and all of which can be scary to the uninitiated.  Etherification, sulphation, sulphonation, ethoxylation, ammonisation and neutralisation are just a few examples of such processes.

None of the resultant detergent ingredients are ‘natural’.  The best that we can say is that these raw materials are based on renewable vegetable resources.  This may be distressing for some people to read – but it need not be, if you come to understand the difference between safe and harmful substances, rather than relying on the ‘natural’ tag to determine the wisdom of your buying decisions.

As many of you know, my company, Tri Nature Pty Ltd, has been highly proactive in the removal of harmful ingredients and processes in the manufacture of cleaning and personal care products since the early 1980s.  We have labeled our approach ‘the art of gentle chemistry’.

We are not in the practice of maligning other ‘natural’ product manufacturers, their merchandise or ingredients in an effort to ‘push’ our own.  Nor are we of the blinkered belief that if we don’t use a particular ingredient, we should find some obscure reason why it’s harmful in order to make those that do use it look ‘bad’.

This article is an introduction to a practical set of guidelines for the ‘natural living’ shopper, to be published in the Spring edition of New Vegetarian and Natural Health.  Given our revealing Granny Smith exercise, it makes sense first to touch on the use of ‘chemical’ names with a couple of examples presenting difficulties that a good PR person would need to overcome in the marketing of a product!

What’s in a name?

 Terms like propyl, butyl, octyl and lauryl throw fear into many people because of inaccurate and irresponsible reporting by some members of our industry.  You may be surprised to learn that each of these terms is only a prefix that designates a number.  Propyl = 3, butyl = 4, octyl = 8 and lauryl = 12.  They are in fact just the technical identification of the carbon chain length in a chemical compound – and all of them (exemplified by our Granny Smith apple) are prolific in nature.

I have heard that, because propylene glycol is such a dangerous product, the world should be wary of anything with a ‘prop’ in it.  That is just ridiculous.  Any danger that propylene glycol may pose has been highly exaggerated (which is not to say that Tri Nature uses it) and to link it to any other compound with a three carbon chain in its structure displays a complete lack of knowledge (or a very passionate commitment to misinformation).

Second example:  phenol is an extremely dangerous and highly toxic organic acid derived from coal tar – yet the catechin compounds that are the active principles of green tea (and considered to be some of the most powerful antioxidant compounds known) are all polyphenols.

Let us not be fearful of the complexity in the way science has chosen to name nature’s compounds.  Let us become familiar with them and ‘demystify’ them.  They are only names.  You may not like the name Archibald, but it doesn’t mean that Archie isn’t a very fine fellow.

In the next issue, we will look at specific ingredients, chemicals and processes that generally cause concern.  Some ingredients that are commonly listed by their ‘natural’ names for marketing benefit will also be unmasked … just a few small first steps towards helping you out of the ‘maze of misinformation’.

Final text submitted for publication in the Winter 2003 issue of – New Vegetarian and Natural Health