What Is A Chemical?

• Sometimes, amongst the general public, the term 'chemical' is considered synonymous with 'toxic', 'hazardous', or 'synthetic'. But technically that's an incorrect assumption.

• Because the craft of natural dyeing is so rooted in chemistry (whether a practitioner understands the chemistry or not, it is chemical reactions between substances that are responsible for our dye results), it is helpful to use the term accurately to avoid confusion in related discussions, and to be able to better articulate relevant concerns (i.e. perhaps you have a concern about hazardous chemicals, rather than about chemicals generally).

• Also, a fundamental principle of toxicology is that “the dose makes the poison”. What this highlights is that even the most seemingly benign chemicals - pure water for example - can be fatal if consumed in high enough quantity. Toxicity of any chemical is a product not just of the chemical, but of the specific quantity of it, the length of our exposure, our developmental age at exposure, the route of exposure (i.e. skin, ingestion, respiration, etc.), and other factors. So it is rarely accurate or helpful to make blanket statements about the claimed toxicity of x, y, or z without providing specifics about the parameters for when that particular chemical is toxic.

• Routinely, though, even when working with generally benign substances, we should always follows dye studio safety best practices.