We're pretty thrifty types at chez Reclus, and we usually keep plastic cups and glasses, washing them and reusing them several times before we discard them. The other day I poured myself a glass of milk and had to throw it away, it had a sickly-sweet perfumy smell to it that was unbearable. Looking for the cause of this, I soon found it: Mme Reclus had stored several scented candles in the same cupboard and the smell had permeated the plastic of the glasses. The candles were still in their sealed packaging from the factory, and the glasses were a non-soluble glossy plastic designed to take hot or cold liquids, but somehow, the stench had escaped from the plastic packs and somehow permeated the plastic so even my lousy sense of smell could detect it. That's scary.

I'm not one of these paranoid types that thinks everything that isn't "natural" (whatever that means) is necesssarily lethal, but this was too much. This perfume, no doubt some exotic synthetic or petroleum tar derivative, is capable of penetrating and being absorbed by supposedly impermeable plastics in quantities even my challenged sniffer can detect. It's probably harmless, but I don't know that for a fact, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's never been properly tested or even vetted off a list of known toxins. And, of course, it comes from China. Thousands of engineered compounds like this are now loose in the world, none of which can be guaranteed to be harmless to biological organisms or processes in the environment. Organisms like me. They do not exist in nature and no living thing has experienced them, evolved defenses against them, or developed mechanisms to excrete them. It would be foolish to think all of them are completely and totally harmless. And who knows what synergistic effects they may exhibit in combination with other industrial cosmetics?

Why have we allowed this to happen? If it's so important that our candles smell like Bay Rum why can't we afford to pay a few pennies more per package and use real Bay Rum? Who is it that makes these decisions? The market? Or accountants?
Is there any difference?