What if the public is wrong?

The retailers Toys “R” Us and Wal-Mart have recently succumbed to public pressure and are eliminating children’s toys which include the compound di-isononyl phthalate (DINP). It is alleged by some activists that DINP and other phthalates (pronounced thal-ates) are harmful and that they should be banned across the nation.

Mr. Patrick Moore a founding director (currently ex-member) of Greenpeace noted in a Wall Street Journal article that, “Phthalates are the new bogeyman. These chemicals make easy targets since they are hard to understand and difficult to pronounce. Commonly used phthalates, such as, have been used in everyday products for decades with no evidence of human harm. DINP is the primary plasticizer used in toys. It has been tested by multiple government and independent evaluators, and found to be safe.”

Troubling still is the unasked question: what replaces DINP? Phthalates have been used in consumer products for over 50 years and found to provide, “no demonstrated health risk”. (Consumer Product Safety Commission 1998). Are there other products in the market which make plastics flexible and have been found to be as safe as DINP? In a word: no.

The fickle nature of the activists and citizenry sometimes makes irrational decisions.

A similar situation is evolving in the capital markets and businesses of this great nation as we move from a free-market capitalism to a so-called public-private partnership under President Obama.

Bill Gross, who manages a $700+ billion dollar fund notes, "Not only will redistribution and re-regulation lead to slower economic growth, but the financial flows from it will be hair-cutted and 'burden shared' by stakeholders." Chew on that for a moment: a man who manages $700 billion dollars of assets believes that re-regulation will slow economic growth and that any proceeds which do emerge from growth will severely regulated (taxed, I suspect).

Anyone who has an equity position in a publicly traded company should be concerned about economic plans which punish profitability of American companies.

Bottom line: Activists in chemistry and economics are not always motivated by science or reason.