Donald Hank
Were Syrians massacred using a toothpaste ingredient?
FacebookTwitter
By Donald Hank
September 5, 2013

First, let's get one thing straight. I try to avoid using Splenda, adding the natural product stevioside to my coffee instead. And I brush my teeth with baking soda to avoid contact with fluoride.

But I also try to avoid spreading false rumors, even about things I don't like. Fair is fair.

Have a look at this formula:
    [(CH3)2CHO]CH3P(O)F
It is the gross chemical formula for Sarin gas.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing – or at least, an embarrassing thing.

And Mike Adams is a nice guy and I like his web site.

But Mike sometimes gets confused.

He writes the headline: "Syria's 'chemical weapons' turn out to be sodium fluoride," suggesting that the same stuff used to fluoridate water, is the chemical used to kill people in Syria.

That's like saying salt is a deadly gas. In a roundabout way that could be construed as true because table salt (NaCl) is used as a raw material to produce chlorine (the Cl in the formula), which is in fact a deadly gas. But if you say that, you are ignoring the fact that salt is a solid and is essentially non-toxic. I am not suggesting sodium fluoride is not toxic. It is.

However, the chemicals used in chemical production reactions don't have anywhere close to the same properties as the finished product. Thank goodness. The fluorine in Sarin gas may indeed come from sodium fluoride. But that doesn't mean the deadly gas used in the massacre was sodium fluoride. It wasn't.

For instance, salt is a starting material for a lot of chemicals. In fact, I once did contract translation work for a major chemical company, and I discovered that, at least at that time (35 yr ago), their main starting material was salt. But that didn't mean that their products were harmless. In fact, a great many poisons contain the element chlorine in their molecule. You see, there is this thing called chemical bonding, and it makes all the difference in the world in industrial chemical production.

For one thing, the recent tragic deaths in Syria are universally attributed to a gas. Sodium fluoride is a solid, and is usually dissolved in water for use. So the culprit was hardly sodium fluoride (NaF).

The lethal dose for NaF is a whopping 5-10 g. It would be impossible to poison 1000 people without first dissolving it in water, but it would be pretty hard to get those 1000 people to voluntarily drink the stuff because in solution at high concentrations, NaF tastes soapy.

Now we know that European countries sold sodium fluoride to Middle Eastern countries, the same as it sells the stuff to dealers in Europe. So what is the link to Sarin?

Well, since Sarin contains fluorine in its molecule (that's the F at the end of the above formula), it is likely that NaF is a starting material in the production of Sarin.

"But, but,.." Mike might protest. "One article says, right here that Europe sold 'nerve gas chemical' to Middle East countries."

Yep, in fact several sensationalist headlines said exactly that. Which is why journalists need to learn science and why secondary reporters need to read between the lines.

Technically speaking, you are breathing "nerve gas chemical" right now because the Sarin molecule also contains C (carbon), H (hydrogen) and O (oxygen). In the jargon of irresponsible journalism, these are all "nerve gas chemicals" in an informal sense (although, needless to say, no professional scientist would ever call them that) because they are all components of the Sarin molecule.

A similar argument is brought to bear against sucralose (Splenda®), which, we are ominously warned, "contains chlorine." But sucralose does not contain free chlorine. Its molecule contains chemically bonded Cl which has lost its toxicity and other properties in the bonding process. So before you go off half-cocked and regurgitate information from articles written by well-meaning reporters on a mission to return the world back to nature, check with a scientist – or bone up on chemistry.

It could save you some embarrassment.

© Donald Hank

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)

Click to enlarge

Donald Hank

Until July of 2009, Don Hank was operating a technical translation agency out of his home in Wrightsville, PA. He is now retired and residing in Panama with his wife and daughter.

A former language teacher, he holds an undergraduate degree in French and German from Millersville State University (PA), a Master's degree in Russian language and literature from Kutztown State College (also in PA), has studied Chinese for 3 years in Taiwan at the Mandarin Training Center, and is self-taught in other languages, having logged a total of 8 years abroad in total immersion situations.

He is also the founder of Lancaster-York Non-Custodial Parents, a volunteer organization that provides Christian counseling for non-custodial parents.

Subscribe

Receive future articles by Donald Hank: Click here

More by this author

 

Stephen Stone
HAPPY EASTER: A message to all who love our country and want to help save it

Stephen Stone
The most egregious lies Evan McMullin and the media have told about Sen. Mike Lee

Siena Hoefling
Protect the Children: Update with VIDEO

Stephen Stone
FLASHBACK to 2020: Dems' fake claim that Trump and Utah congressional hopeful Burgess Owens want 'renewed nuclear testing' blows up when examined

Stanley Zir
The sky is not falling, Chicken Little, under Donald Trump

Jerry Newcombe
How Thanksgiving became a national holiday

Frank Louis
Thanksgiving Thoughts: If you think prayer doesn’t work, think again

Kari Lee Fournier
Almighty God vs. Satan: Thanksgiving during demolition of the Deep State!

Victor Sharpe
Glory or weakness: Israel’s eternal choice

Selwyn Duke
Let’s say man IS changing the climate. So what?

Pete Riehm
Give thanks for another opportunity for freedom

Tom DeWeese
Observations on the 2024 Election

Curtis Dahlgren
War and peace

Matt C. Abbott
Milwaukee archbishop-designate aided investigators in nun's satanic murder case

Cliff Kincaid
Why the Deep State is afraid of Matt Gaetz

Paul Cameron
Can the growth of homosexuality be stopped?
  More columns

Cartoons


Click for full cartoon
More cartoons

Columnists

Matt C. Abbott
Chris Adamo
Russ J. Alan
Bonnie Alba
Chuck Baldwin
Kevin J. Banet
J. Matt Barber
Fr. Tom Bartolomeo
. . .
[See more]

Sister sites