Opinions of the Experts
OK, so here is an article that will throw your many years of perceptions and conclusions right out the door. Finally, an article raising the real issue and the truth about natural vs. synthetic and how it is not about saying NO to anything man-made. It is about making intelligent choices, thinking about sustainability, protecting biodiversity and how it is about how the substance is made – how they come into being – as their molecules are identical. Please read this article, and form your own opinion to this.
” It is a common misconception that an ingredient from a plant or other naturally-derived source will necessarily be superior in terms of human safety, biodegradability, aquatic toxicity and sustainability than one from a petrochemical source. Vegetable oil raw materials are already extensively used by cleaning product manufacturers.
Although ‘Green purchasing’ criteria sometimes specify ‘naturally’ based materials, each ingredient must be assessed on its individual merit, and on how it affects the sustainability of the whole formulation, not simply on whether it is from a plant derived or petrochemical source.
To illustrate:
In terms of sustainability, the energy used in processing and transport must be assessed for each material. The fossil fuel consumed in providing some ‘renewable’ materials can be very substantial. Plantations to grow palm trees and coconuts, for example, to provide vegetable oil raw materials take a great deal of space.
Clearing rain forest to create new plantations can be highly unsustainable and damage biodiversity. Of the land currently used for growing non-food crops it is not necessarily clear which crops, such as those providing bio fuels or feed stocks for chemical factories, will offer the best returns in terms of improving sustainability and preserving petroleum resources.
Essentially all ‘natural’ ingredients that could be used in cleaning products involve some element of chemical processing. Many synthetic ingredients have been developed to be better performing, and thus potentially more sustainable, versions of natural substances.
Plants and trees naturally produce many compounds that are hazardous and have other characteristics which would be regarded as an undesirable trait for a cleaning product ingredient. For example, some garden plants contain natural toxins to guard against being eaten and are very poisonous to humans. Some natural substances produced by plants are highly poisonous to fish and could be environmentally very damaging if released in the wrong place. Many chemicals found in nature would not meet the standards of biodegradability now required of surfactants in cleaning products and some would be classified as having the potential to bio accumulate.
An example between synthetic and natural????
To explain what we mean with synthetic and natural, let’s look at a simple compound: Water. We can make water molecules in the lab. All we need is some oxygen gas (O2) and some hydrogen gas (H2). Each molecule of oxygen is made of two oxygen atoms, and each molecule of hydrogen is made of two hydrogen atoms. If we put O2 and H2 in a tank together and set off a spark inside the tank, there will be a big ball of blue fire. This is the hydrogen gas burning. When it burns, each hydrogen molecule is being torn apart into two separate hydrogen atoms. Likewise, each oxygen molecule is being torn apart into two separate oxygen atoms.
All these atoms reassemble into new molecules. An oxygen atom will join with two hydrogen atoms. The new molecules formed are water molecules— H2O.
Our tank will have a small puddle of water at the bottom of it when we’re done, and there will be little drops of water all over the sides. The liquid in the puddle was made by humans, but it isn’t some sort of “imitation water.” It’s real water. The water molecules we made here are identical to the water molecules found in the ocean, a river, raindrops, or any other natural source of water. What makes water act like water is its molecular structure, that is, the type of atoms its molecules contain and how they are arranged relative to each other, and not how the molecule was built in the first place.
So when we talk about “synthetic” substances versus “natural” substances, we’re referring the difference between how they are made—how they come into being—not any difference between their molecules. The molecules are identical.
One important difference between substances found in nature and those synthesized in the lab, however, can be the difference in cost. Generally, substances like occur in nature in small quantities that are hard to extract from the plant or animal in which they occur and is not always good for the environment the way some natural ingredients are harvested. So one great advantage of being able to unravel nature’s secrets and reproduce them in the lab is that, once the process is discovered, it becomes much cheaper to synthesize substances in the lab than it is to get them from nature. This means we can preserve nature and still enjoy the benefits from it.”
REFERENCES;
(1) Julian, Percy, Mr, and Josef Pikl, Mr. “Synthetic vs. Natural: What’s the Difference?” Science Alive: Percy Julian. About Science Alive! Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2005. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <http://www.chemheritage.org/percy-julian/activities/5a.html>.
(1) “Natural vs. Synthetic” Sustainable Cleaning A Guide for Users of Professional Cleaning Products. DEFRA (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs), 2006. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. <http://88.98.37.19/natural_vs_synthetic.asp>.
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