Neither the chemicals that leach in tiny amounts from plastics, nor the so-called radiation from your cell phone threatens your health as much as the simple act of sitting may. While news media and activists peddle the former two scenarios as grave public health threats, the latter is actually more detrimental, since a sedentary lifestyle increases obesity and significantly increases your likelihood of cancer and death. Jon Entine, director of the Genetic Literacy Project at STATS at George Mason University and author of our publication Scared to Death: How Chemophobia Threatens Public Health, echoes this simple message in his recent Ethical Corporation op-ed.
Chemical risk, he reminds us, depends on how much and how often you re exposed to a particular chemical as well as the intrinsic toxicity of the chemical itself. So even though prominent global health and scientific organizations have declared bisphenol A (BPA) and other everyday chemicals safe, toxic accusations made by activist organizations continue to promote policies based on fear rather than science. Entine writes:
It often leads to political pressure to slap warning labels on packages that amount to a skull-and-cross-bones, stirring unnecessary concerns among consumers and workers.
The fear of synthetic chemicals diverts our focus and drains public funds from addressing documented dangers ¦Despite the hysteria suggesting that modern society is being assaulted by its increased reliance on synthetics, chemical exposure represents relatively small risks and human cancer rates continue their steady decline.
