I remember taking AP Chemistry in high school and nothing more after that. Barely dabbled into topics about organic chemistry.
In the lectures about chemical reactions, I always wondered, “So I get the electrons wanting to get into stable states, yeah. But what else could this molecule or atom react with? Aren’t there like, so many things out in the real world that could have a multitude of different reactions with this?”
Knowing medicines and household products have so many complicated things in them with names I can’t even pronounce, what do manufacturers do to ensure it doesn’t harm anyone or anything that it’s not supposed to?
I get that everything still comes with a warning label, but can someone give me some layman insight into how companies think about safety and how to chemically engineer “safer” products?
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Well in short, they test it. I mean look at the process any medication has to go through before it’s approved for human use. It has to be tested in a petri dish, then in animals, then in small groups of people, then in larger groups of people. It’s complex, multi-step process that takes many years. And even then sometimes they miss things that are rare and don’t show up until the entire population starts using them.
Also, a lot of products and medications that we use *do* have some negative reaction. I mean, that’s what a medication side effect is. We just weigh that negative reaction versus the benefit of the medication. For example, an upset stomach is a small price to pay to get rid of an infection. And look at chemotherapy. It’s literally poison that just kills cancer cells more than regular cells, but, at least most of the time, we decide that it’s worth it.
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