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Topic: Is there a special recommended diet for chemists?  (Read 9033 times)

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Offline mir

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Is there a special recommended diet for chemists?
« on: December 05, 2006, 04:44:54 PM »
I am daily in contact with halogenated solvents. Solvents that does not flush through the body so easily, because of the solubility in fat and organic tissue.

Just a thought:

Is there a recommended diet, for chemists in daily contact with hazardous chemicals?


We read all the time about diets in magazines (girl and work-out magazines especially). Its so common, that some people I know eats the exactly the opposite just to demonstrate: "That rubbish dont bite on me"  ::)

Chemists should be more aware of the dangers on the job, also in longer terms. Maybe a diet rich in fat should be something for me to consider - Just to choose between to evils.
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Online Borek

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Re: Is there a special recommended diet for chemists?
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2006, 04:54:14 PM »
Standard part of chemist's diet is milk - I used to work as a chemist (long ago) in two different places and we were provided with free milk every day. I hear from my neighbour (working in pharma industry) that he gets his share every day - so it has not changed.
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Offline constant thinker

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Re: Is there a special recommended diet for chemists?
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2006, 08:20:42 PM »
Yea, I've heard that if you suspect a poisoning of some kind, like in a young child, where you shouldn't induce vomiting for whatever reason, you should give them lots and lots of milk. Also you should call poison control.

What's so special about milk by the way?

I've been told it's the fact that the cream will dissolve/help to dissolve any non-polar compounds, and the water will dissolve the polar compounds as we all know. I've also been told that the magnesium in milk is helpful for something. I'm not a very learned when it comes to chemical biology.
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Offline pantone159

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Re: Is there a special recommended diet for chemists?
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2006, 03:18:56 AM »
Pauling says that milk (and egg white) is an antidote for mercury...  Hg binds to proteins, and if you have milk proteins in your stomach it binds to those instead of the proteins you want to keep for yourself  :)

I don't care much for milk, but I'll make a point of having some if I work with Hg in the future.

Offline The Tao

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Re: Is there a special recommended diet for chemists?
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2006, 05:15:52 PM »
Oddly enough an old chemist friend of mine enjoys eating lots of vitamin C. He has an entire jar of it in his car, and whenever he gives people rides he asks them if they'd like some vitamin C.
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Offline pantone159

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Re: Is there a special recommended diet for chemists?
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2006, 07:18:53 PM »
vitamin C

Pauling recommends that one too.   :)

Offline teapot5

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Re: Is there a special recommended diet for chemists?
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2007, 08:03:47 PM »
-milk
-vitamin B,C,D
-and my chem teacher told me that some people take Tumms (I don't think it helps with anything though)

Offline dualbot

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Re: Is there a special recommended diet for chemists?
« Reply #7 on: March 19, 2007, 12:40:14 PM »
Working with heavy-toxic elements (some with high vapor pressure): Cd, Pb, Hg.... its recommended a daily dose of a good -complexant of the element: EDTA, citrate, ...

In contact with radioactive isotopes: Ethanol! and others.

It depends on what chemicals are you dealing with.

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Re: Is there a special recommended diet for chemists?
« Reply #8 on: March 20, 2007, 01:10:06 PM »
Melatonin (5-methoxy-n-acetyltryptamine) and mexamine (melatonins non acetylated relative) are radioprotective, and lengthening the carboxyl on the amine nitrogen will increase that effect.

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Offline constant thinker

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Re: Is there a special recommended diet for chemists?
« Reply #9 on: March 21, 2007, 09:32:25 PM »
Melatonin (5-methoxy-n-acetyltryptamine) and mexamine (melatonins non acetylated relative) are radioprotective, and lengthening the carboxyl on the amine nitrogen will increase that effect.
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