Tag: chemicals

Chemical Concerns – Does Acrylamide Cause Cancer-

Chemical Concerns – Does Acrylamide in Toast & Roast Potatoes Cause Cancer?

Chemical Concerns – Does Acrylamide Cause Cancer-
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Acrylamide has been in the news this week, with the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) warning that eating overcooked potatoes, crisps, or burnt toast could increase your risk of developing cancer. Does this mean you should be consigning your toaster to the trash and avoiding roast potatoes with your roast dinner? This graphic assesses the realities of the risks.

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The Chemistry of a Football Shirt

The Chemistry of a Football Shirt

An infographic on the chemistry of football shirts. The shirts are commonly made of polyesters, which are commonly made via a condensation reaction between an alcohol and a carboxylic acid. Polyester only absorbs 0.4% of its weight in water and wicks away sweat so it evaporates rather than being absorbed. Elastane is another polymer often incorporated into shirts, which gives strength and elasticity. The name, number and sponsor logo on the shirts are often made of another polymer, polyurethane.
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With the new season of the Premier League kicking off this weekend, it seemed a good time to take a look at the chemicals that make up your average football shirt. Even if the start of a new football season isn’t the kind of event to fill you with excitement, it’s still intriguing from a chemistry perspective to examine the different chemical materials used and the properties that they lend the finished shirt.

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Natural & Man-Made Chemicals - Dose Makes The Poison

Natural vs. Man-Made Chemicals – Dispelling Misconceptions

Natural vs Man Made Synthetic Chemicals Toxicity
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The term ‘chemophobia’ has been used on social media amongst chemists with increasing regularity over the past year. Defined as ‘a fear of chemicals’, more specifically it refers to the growing tendency for the public to be suspicious and critical of the presence of any man-made (synthetic) chemicals in foods or products that they make use of. Sense About Science, a UK-based charitable trust whose mission is ‘to equip people to make sense of science and evidence’, is attempting to combat this with a new free guide, “Making Sense of Chemical Stories”, for which the graphics in this post were made.

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