'Synthehol' In Development!

If you're a fan of Star Trek, you may be thrilled to find out that researchers at Imperial College London are working on an alcohol substitute, that may have been inspired by the "Synthehol" from Star Trek. Ideally, this alcohol substitute would let the drinker experience the buzz without getting drunk or getting hangovers. Furthermore, it could potentially be "switched off" with a pill, so that drinkers could sober up immediately. The synthetic alcohol will likely be based on benzodiazepines, which are related to the active compound in Valium, diazepam, because these compounds affect the nerves in the brain in a similar way to alcohol, but are much easier to flush out of the body.

Chemtastic Designs: Phat Degree

That hard earned Ph.D. is definitely a Phat Degree.

Chemtastic Designs: The Dalton Chemical Symbol Series

These latest T-shirt designs are inspired by 19th century chemist John Dalton's chemical symbols.












The first one is an interesting-looking symbol for Quicksilver (aka Mercury). The ether and caffeine molecules are drawn using Dalton's chemical symbols.

The top 15 chemical additives in food

According to Coupon Sherpa, the top 15 chemicals that are added to food to make it look better and last longer are:

1. 1-Methylcyclopropene: also known as "SmartFresh," this gas is used to keep fruit from producing ethylene, which causes ripening. Apparently, it preserves apples for a year and bananas for a month.
2. Artificial coloring: many of the artificial colors developed since the early 1900s have been banned by the FDA as proven carcinogens. The artificial colors currently allowed in foods are: Blue #1, Blue #2, Green #3, Red #3, Red #40, Yellow #5, and Yellow #6. However, many are banned in other countries and still have potential health risks. The following have been restricted or banned: Greens #1 and #2, Reds #1, #2, #3, and #4, and Violet #1. As a safer alternative, look for natural food dyes, such as: caramel coloring, annatto, cochineal, betanin, turmeric, saffron, and paprika.
3. Artificial flavoring: apparently these have been linked to behavioral changes...
4. Aspartame: also known as Equal or NutraSweet, should be avoided by people suffering from phenylketonuria, who can't metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine. The safety of aspartame is still debatable as it breaks down into methanol, phenylalanine, and aspartic acid, and then further into formaldehyde, formic acid, and diketopiperazine.
5. Astaxanthin: is apparently added to the diet of farm-raised salmon so that their flesh acquires that pink color found in wild salmon. This is because farm-raised salmon don't get to eat crustaceans which contain a natural astaxanthin.
6. Sodium benzoate: is a preservative that is often added to soft drinks, cereals, meats. It has been linked to digestive problems, headaches, asthma attacks, and hyperactivity.
7. Antioxidants: such as BHA and BHT, are added to oil-containing processed foods, like crackers, cereals, and sausages, as a preservative to keep them from getting rancid. Both butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) are possible human carcinogens.
8. Canthaxanthin: is apparently used to make egg yolks look golden yellow. Large amounts of canthaxanthin can cause retinal damage.
9. Emulsifiers: such as agar, albumin, alginate, casein, egg yolk, glycerol monostearate, xanthan gum, Irish moss, lecithin, and soaps. These help to improve the shelf life of bread products and help oil and water to mix homogeneously. Reduced-fat and low-calorie products tend to contain emulsifiers.
   
10. High fructose corn syrup: is used as a sweetener and also helps to maintain moisture while preserving freshness. It is highly used in processed foods. In addition to causing obesity, its consumption has also been linked to diabetes, heart disease, as well as kidney and liver disease.
11. Monosodium glutamate (MSG): is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, an amino acid. MSG is used as a flavor enhancer in processed foods, such as chips, condiments, and seasonings. Some people have reported tightening in the chest, headaches and a burning sensation in the neck and forearms after consuming food containing MSG.
12. Olestra: also known as "Olean," is a fat substitute that doesn't get digested by the human body, and is often used in foods such as fat-free chips. Aside from the well-publicized "anal leakage" problem, consumption of large amounts of Olestra can also prevent our bodies from absorbing fat-soluble vitamins.
13. Partially hydrogenated oils: are a cheaper alternative to butter and are found in many processed foods. The process of hydrogenating oil can lead to the production of trans fats as a side product. Trans fats have been linked to heart disease.
14. Potassium bromate: is an oxidizing agent and is used to improve flour, so that bread dough rises higher. Most of the bromate breaks down during the breadmaking process, but traces of it can be a cancer risk.
15. Sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate: are commonly used to preserve meat and is found in cold cuts, hot dogs, and sausages. When heated to high temperatures (like frying), sodium nitrite in meat can form nitrosamines, which are carcinogenic.

I'm not sure I can rid my diet of all of these additives, but it definitely makes sense to limit our consumption of processed foods (so hard!) Check out the ingredient list of foods that you commonly buy and see if you're horrified.

A Handy Resource: The Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database

I recently came across this handy website called the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database, which was created by the Environmental Working Group. The site is useful because it allows you to search for cosmetics and personal care products by product name, ingredient, or company/brand, and it shows you their safety rating, which is based on the potential health hazards (e.g., cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, allergies, etc.) linked to the individual ingredients in the product. You can also browse categories of products, such as makeup, skin care, hair care, etc., and try to find safer products to use.

You'd think that with the FDA's "strict" regulation of cosmetics and personal care products, all the products that you buy should be safe. Well, before these products can be sold to the public, the U.S. Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) requires that companies show that the products and their ingredients are safe and that they don't contain banned ingredients. But really, how do you prove that a certain chemical is "safe" before you try to market a product? A lot of these chemicals may not show any significant health effects until years down the road, and what company is willing to wait that long before marketing a product? You get the idea.

The Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database is neat in that it lists all the relevant information in an easy-to-use layout. The safety ratings are color coded -- green for "low hazard", yellow for "moderate hazard", and red for "high hazard" --so you can get an idea for how safe a product is at a glance. Of course, when I first discovered the site, I immediately started looking up all the products I use on a daily basis, and I was a little horrified at the results. There were a couple of things that I use that were in the high moderate to high hazard category. Yikes! As a result, I looked up some safer alternatives. You'll notice that a lot of the safest products will likely be hard to find in your average store, and that was something that annoyed me. I decided to look for products that you can find in the store with a decently safe rating instead.

HOWEVER -- this is a big HOWEVER... Just because the rating says a product is safe, it doesn't mean it actually is. What? You say. Well, it's important to look at the actual ingredient list. For example, a lot of the sunscreens that are rated the safest contain zinc oxide or titanium dioxide nanoparticles, and recent studies have shown that these particles can be absorbed through the skin. The Australian government has been looking into this and has published a review of the scientific literature on the safety of titanium dioxide or zinc oxide nanoparticles in sunscreens. A while ago, I had bought some California Baby Sunscreen thinking that it would be safer than other kids' sunscreens. Skin Deep rates it at "1" or "low hazard," but guess what. It uses titanium dioxide nanoparticles. So, is it really safer? Not sure...

Another ingredient that has been listed as hazardous is polyethylene, which I find rather puzzling. It is listed as a cancer risk (based on a study from 1955!) Huh? Polyethylene is one of the cleanest and safest plastics out there. So, for example, Maybelline's Lash Discovery mascara is dinged pretty heavily (score: 7, high hazard) partly because it contains polyethylene... Hmm. Well, my point is, look at the ingredient list carefully. Skin Deep is a useful tool, but don't take the ratings at face value.

Blood sugar sensing tattoos for diabetics

The thought of having to draw blood (even if it's just a tiny pin prick) to check for blood sugar levels several times a day is rather unpleasant... Perhaps here is some good news for diabetics. Researchers at Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, MA have developed a tiny color-changing sensor tattoo that can detect blood sugar levels. The tattoo ink consists of nanospheres containing a fluorescent dye and a molecule that can attract and bind glucose to produce a color change. The nanospheres are injected into the outermost layer of skin. [Apparently, when blood glucose levels increase, they also increase everywhere else in the body, including the outermost layer of skin.] The nanospheres turn purple when glucose is present -- otherwise, they're yellow. Of course, there will be a range of colors depending on how much glucose is present. With a healthy blood sugar level, the tattoo is an orangish color.

The tattoo has been successfully tested in healthy mice, and the next step will be to test it in diabetic mice. The tattoo may be ready for testing in people within the next 5 years.

Pregnant women beware -- Folic acid plus vitamin B12 increase cancer risk?

A recent study of patients with heart disease in Norway found that they had an increased risk of cancer and death if they were treated with folic acid and vitamin B12. Previous studies have typically shown that folic acid deficiency can promote the development of cancer, while high doses of folic acid can enhance cancer cell growth. Apparently this particular study showed that there was an increased incidence of lung cancer among patients who received both folic acid and vitamin B12. Food in Norway isn't fortified with folic acid like it is in North America. Since 1998, folic acid has been added to flour and grain products in order to reduce the risk of neural-tube birth defects, which can result in spina bifida or anencephaly in developing fetuses. Pregnant women are also encouraged to take prenatal vitamins which contain even more folic acid and vitamin B12. What does this mean for the general population and especially pregnant women? Pending further studies, the authors recommend that the safety of widespread folic acid consumption be monitored. Wonderful...

Chemtastic Designs: New stuff...

Oops. It's been a while since I posted about Chemtastic Designs, so here are a bunch of new and updated chemistry T-shirt designs...

First, there's the "Precious" design, which features the chemical element symbols of four precious metals -- gold, silver, platinum, and palladium -- none of which are as precious as your little one. :)

There's the updated "Little Princess" design, now looking more girly:


There's the "Sweetheart Series" which features 4 different sweeteners: sucrose (table sugar), aspartame (200 times as sweet as sugar), saccharin (300x sugar), and sucralose (600x sugar). Are you a real sugar or artificial sweetener kind of person? How sweet are you? Pick your sweetheart:





There's the "chemistry is not for the weak" and "CYNIC" T-shirts:



The "HUNK" and "PUNK" and "BrAt" designs:



And finally "SAsSY" and "PrINCe charming":



That's it for now. :)

Cheap 'dipstick' test for pesticides in food

Researchers from McMaster University in Canada are developing a cheap "dipstick" test that can detect pesticide residues in food and drinks in less than 5 minutes. In contrast, conventional mass spectrometric testing typically takes hours to complete. The experimental paper-based test strip detects acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors, including organophosphate pesticides, and changes color depending on the amount of pesticide present. The test has pesticide detection limits on the order of 1-10 nM (bendiocarb 1 nM; carbaryl 10 nM; paraoxon 1 nM; malathion 10 nM) and should be suitable for the rapid screening of trace levels of organophosphate and carbamate pesticides.

Their work has been published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

While the test won't be able to tell us exactly what types of pesticides are present in our food, it would be pretty neat if the test strips could eventually be available to the average consumer so that we can check the levels of pesticide residues in the stuff we buy, and make better choices about the foods we eat.

Tylenol reduces effectiveness of vaccines in babies?

A new study published in The Lancet, led by military and government scientists in the Czech Republic, has found that Tylenol (aka acetaminophen, paracetamol), when administered right after an immunization shot, can slightly reduce the effectiveness of vaccines in young babies (9-16 weeks old). Acetaminophen is widely recommended as an analgesic for babies, and it seems to be common practice for parents to give their babies acetaminophen right after they get their shots to prevent fever and fussiness. Fever after a vaccine is pretty common -- it's the body's immune response -- but apparently, curbing the fever also reduces the immune response and the amount of antibodies that are produced. In fact, antibody levels remained significantly lower even after the babies got their booster shots at 12-15 months old.

Doctors from the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention note that even with the use of acetaminophen, more than 90% of the babies achieved protection from the vaccines after the booster dose, but they believe that the consistency of findings from other studies suggests that routine use of fever-lowering medicines during immunization may not be recommended.