"Potentially Toxic Element" Something that Means Everything Means Nothing
A character in a famous William Shakespeare play commented that “a great cause of the night is lack of the sun”. (1) Shakespeare used the comment as a statement and a humorous device, which we refer to here as we wish to address reasons why there is perhaps more humor and less illumination in the increasing use of the phrase “potentially toxic element”. Usage of this phrase gained momentum after a 2002 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemist’s publication criticizing the use of the term “heavy metal” to describe metals/metalloids “and their compounds [that] have highly toxic or ecotoxic properties”. (2) The 2002 paper was a scholarly work that carefully analyzed the use of heavy metal in the context of existing definitions, intended meaning, and possible consequences of using a phrase not unequivocally defined to describe hazardous substances. Throwing the proverbial baby out with the baby’s bathwater, we now have the alternative of a less useful phrase. While “toxic element” certainly addresses the concept of toxic and that not all heavy metals are strictly speaking metals, what is not “potentially” toxic? People have died from star fruit poisoning, carrot juice addiction, and water intoxication. (3−5) This global descriptor admits nothing to differentiate the relatively benign iron (Fe), or even sodium (Na), from lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd), that is, metals toxic at relatively low dosages and simultaneously most frequently referred to as “potentially toxic elements”. Under this “helpful” classifier of “potentially”, we lack a definitive basis for not counting star fruit, carrot juice, or water as potentially toxic, and we, the authors of this Viewpoint, could be said in all factual validity to be potentially intergalactic travelers. As the famous ecological economist Herman Daly pointed out “One way to render any concept innocuous is to expand its meaning to include everything... Any definition that excludes nothing is a worthless definition”; that is, a definition that means everything, means nothing.
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American Chemical Society
2022-08-18
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Subjects: | Toxic metal/metalloid pollutant, Bioavailability and speciation, Environmental health and risk assessment, Misintelligence, Risk compensation, Science communication, |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/278812 https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85136648341 |
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dig-idaea-es-10261-2788122024-05-15T20:42:58Z "Potentially Toxic Element" Something that Means Everything Means Nothing Zhang, Xiaokai Barceló, Damià Clougherty, Robert J. Gao, Bin Harms, Hauke Tefsen, Boris Vithanage, Meththika Wang, Hailong Wang, Zhenyu Wells, Mona 0000-0002-2537-7678 0000-0003-3769-0191 0000-0001-6668-217X 0000-0002-6107-5095 0000-0002-5114-435X Toxic metal/metalloid pollutant Bioavailability and speciation Environmental health and risk assessment Misintelligence Risk compensation Science communication A character in a famous William Shakespeare play commented that “a great cause of the night is lack of the sun”. (1) Shakespeare used the comment as a statement and a humorous device, which we refer to here as we wish to address reasons why there is perhaps more humor and less illumination in the increasing use of the phrase “potentially toxic element”. Usage of this phrase gained momentum after a 2002 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemist’s publication criticizing the use of the term “heavy metal” to describe metals/metalloids “and their compounds [that] have highly toxic or ecotoxic properties”. (2) The 2002 paper was a scholarly work that carefully analyzed the use of heavy metal in the context of existing definitions, intended meaning, and possible consequences of using a phrase not unequivocally defined to describe hazardous substances. Throwing the proverbial baby out with the baby’s bathwater, we now have the alternative of a less useful phrase. While “toxic element” certainly addresses the concept of toxic and that not all heavy metals are strictly speaking metals, what is not “potentially” toxic? People have died from star fruit poisoning, carrot juice addiction, and water intoxication. (3−5) This global descriptor admits nothing to differentiate the relatively benign iron (Fe), or even sodium (Na), from lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd), that is, metals toxic at relatively low dosages and simultaneously most frequently referred to as “potentially toxic elements”. Under this “helpful” classifier of “potentially”, we lack a definitive basis for not counting star fruit, carrot juice, or water as potentially toxic, and we, the authors of this Viewpoint, could be said in all factual validity to be potentially intergalactic travelers. As the famous ecological economist Herman Daly pointed out “One way to render any concept innocuous is to expand its meaning to include everything... Any definition that excludes nothing is a worthless definition”; that is, a definition that means everything, means nothing. This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42107245). We thank those who provided constructive commentary for revision of this article, including the editor Prof. Li, one or more anonymous reviewer(s), and D. Phillips. Peer reviewed 2022-09-09T08:36:56Z 2022-09-09T08:36:56Z 2022-08-18 artículo http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 Environmental Science and Technology 56 (17): 11922–11925 (2022) 0013936X http://hdl.handle.net/10261/278812 10.1021/acs.est.2c03056 35980128 2-s2.0-85136648341 https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85136648341 en Environmental Science and Technology Postprint https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c03056 Sí open American Chemical Society |
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Toxic metal/metalloid pollutant Bioavailability and speciation Environmental health and risk assessment Misintelligence Risk compensation Science communication Toxic metal/metalloid pollutant Bioavailability and speciation Environmental health and risk assessment Misintelligence Risk compensation Science communication |
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Toxic metal/metalloid pollutant Bioavailability and speciation Environmental health and risk assessment Misintelligence Risk compensation Science communication Toxic metal/metalloid pollutant Bioavailability and speciation Environmental health and risk assessment Misintelligence Risk compensation Science communication Zhang, Xiaokai Barceló, Damià Clougherty, Robert J. Gao, Bin Harms, Hauke Tefsen, Boris Vithanage, Meththika Wang, Hailong Wang, Zhenyu Wells, Mona "Potentially Toxic Element" Something that Means Everything Means Nothing |
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A character in a famous William Shakespeare play commented that “a great cause of the night is lack of the sun”. (1) Shakespeare used the comment as a statement and a humorous device, which we refer to here as we wish to address reasons why there is perhaps more humor and less illumination in the increasing use of the phrase “potentially toxic element”. Usage of this phrase gained momentum after a 2002 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemist’s publication criticizing the use of the term “heavy metal” to describe metals/metalloids “and their compounds [that] have highly toxic or ecotoxic properties”. (2) The 2002 paper was a scholarly work that carefully analyzed the use of heavy metal in the context of existing definitions, intended meaning, and possible consequences of using a phrase not unequivocally defined to describe hazardous substances. Throwing the proverbial baby out with the baby’s bathwater, we now have the alternative of a less useful phrase. While “toxic element” certainly addresses the concept of toxic and that not all heavy metals are strictly speaking metals, what is not “potentially” toxic? People have died from star fruit poisoning, carrot juice addiction, and water intoxication. (3−5) This global descriptor admits nothing to differentiate the relatively benign iron (Fe), or even sodium (Na), from lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd), that is, metals toxic at relatively low dosages and simultaneously most frequently referred to as “potentially toxic elements”. Under this “helpful” classifier of “potentially”, we lack a definitive basis for not counting star fruit, carrot juice, or water as potentially toxic, and we, the authors of this Viewpoint, could be said in all factual validity to be potentially intergalactic travelers. As the famous ecological economist Herman Daly pointed out “One way to render any concept innocuous is to expand its meaning to include everything... Any definition that excludes nothing is a worthless definition”; that is, a definition that means everything, means nothing. |
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0000-0002-2537-7678 |
author_facet |
0000-0002-2537-7678 Zhang, Xiaokai Barceló, Damià Clougherty, Robert J. Gao, Bin Harms, Hauke Tefsen, Boris Vithanage, Meththika Wang, Hailong Wang, Zhenyu Wells, Mona |
format |
artículo |
topic_facet |
Toxic metal/metalloid pollutant Bioavailability and speciation Environmental health and risk assessment Misintelligence Risk compensation Science communication |
author |
Zhang, Xiaokai Barceló, Damià Clougherty, Robert J. Gao, Bin Harms, Hauke Tefsen, Boris Vithanage, Meththika Wang, Hailong Wang, Zhenyu Wells, Mona |
author_sort |
Zhang, Xiaokai |
title |
"Potentially Toxic Element" Something that Means Everything Means Nothing |
title_short |
"Potentially Toxic Element" Something that Means Everything Means Nothing |
title_full |
"Potentially Toxic Element" Something that Means Everything Means Nothing |
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"Potentially Toxic Element" Something that Means Everything Means Nothing |
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"Potentially Toxic Element" Something that Means Everything Means Nothing |
title_sort |
"potentially toxic element" something that means everything means nothing |
publisher |
American Chemical Society |
publishDate |
2022-08-18 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/278812 https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85136648341 |
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