Question from Annette Tweedel
Hi Debra,
I have a question. I thought all chemicals were bad for us and my husband says no, that there are some chemicals that are good for us. Which is it? And if there are some chemicals that are good for us, which are they? Thank you in advance for clearing the air for me.
Debra’s Answer
This is a very good question. There are so many words we use of which we don’t know the meanings, it’s good to clear this one up, since we use it here on this blog all the time.
The easiest definition of chemical for me comes from the definition of chemistry: “the study of matter and the changes that take place with that matter.” The study of matter. That’s anything and everything in the physical universe. Literally, everything is a chemical.
Rather than going into all the details of matter, I’m going to direct you to a wonderfully simple website called Chem4Kids, which explains chemistry in a way even I can understand.
In Nature, there is matter that is the very basic stuff of life that cannot be broken down any further and still be what it is. These are known as elements. They are listed on what is known as the Periodic Table. Some elements we all know include hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, sodium, aluminum, titanium, copper…36 in all. These are the basic building blocks of all matter and exist throughout Nature.
Nature takes these basic elements and combines them together to make all the matter in the universe. Water, for example, is two molecules of hydrogen with one molecule of oxygen. The hydrogen and oxygen make a chemical reaction and stick together to make water. This is so fundamental to life that in our language, we even say people who like each other and form a unit together have “chemistry.”
Many centuries ago, people known as alchemists tried to change elemental metals into gold. Basic truths about the physical laws of life discovered by alchemists lead to the field of modern inorganic chemistry (the branch of chemistry having to do with all chemical compounds that are not made with carbon, carbon-based compounds are addressed in organic chemistry).
