/oss/taxonomy/term/930/all en /oss/article/general-science/forever-chemicals-seem-be-forever-spotlight <p>One of the questions I’ve been asked recently with increasing frequency is how to avoid exposure to those “forever chemicals” that we are being warned about in numerous newspaper articles, books, and social media sites. These are the “perfluoroalkyl substances,” commonly referred to by the acronym PFAS, pronounced as “peefas,” that constitute a family of some 9000 compounds. Many are used in a wide array of consumer items on account of their resistance to both water and fats as well as for their lubricant properties.</p> Tue, 17 May 2022 19:03:10 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9112 at /oss /oss/article/environment-health-household-products-news/joe-schwarcz-does-danger-lurk-plastic-bottles <p>Researchers were surprised to see that snails reared in some plastic water bottles produced almost twice as many offspring as their brethren raised in glass bottles. This wasn’t some experiment by restaurateurs looking to add more snails to the menu. There wouldn’t be much point, since these were New Zealand mud snails, less than half a centimetre in size, with not much meat on them. But the snails are pretty meaty when it comes to research about endocrine-disrupting chemicals.</p> Mon, 30 Sep 2013 01:52:50 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2016 at /oss /oss/article/news/dateline-nbc-endocrine-disruptors <p>Well…finally the Dateline piece on “hormone disruptors,: for which I was interviewed aired on March 24<sup>th</sup>. It was not as bad as it could have been, but not as good either. In the end I got 58 seconds clipped out of a 3-hour long interview! They didn't manage to include my comment that reducing extremely low levels to even lower ones has no clinical significance. I even gave an analogy: if you drink a cup of coffee you expect to find caffeine in the urine. If you then abstain it will vanish. Drink again and it's back. So what?</p> Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:16:12 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1903 at /oss