What is benzene and why is it in my sunscreen?
Hey. I'm Melissa.
Jam:I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist.
Jam:And I'm not.
Melissa:And welcome to Chemistry For Your Life.
Jam:The podcast that helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:So a few weeks ago, we did an episode on skincare.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:We talked about the importance of sunscreen.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And then this month, this June
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:Some not so great news came out about sunscreen. Uh-oh. So, basically, what happened, and we can talk about it more, is there was a chemical called Benzene found in some sunscreens.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So I just wanna say that skin cancer is still a very real risk
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And so is damage to your skin by UV rays.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So sunscreen is still really important to use.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:But we just gotta Dig into some of what happened.
Jam:Okay. It's not like killing cows and making their insides turn black. Right? Not that level?
Melissa:Not sure. Oh. We'll talk about it.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:It's a little bit of a dark side.
Jam:Dang. Wow.
Melissa:Okay. So what is Benzene? Not asking you.
Jam:I'll be late. I do not know. I have no idea.
Melissa:Jim opened his mouth like he was gonna So
Jam:Just from the sound of it, it sounds fine.
Melissa:That was funny. So what is Benzene is was gonna how I prefaced my introduction, I should have just said, so Benzene is. Benzene is a ring with 6 carbons. So Imagine 6 carbons
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:In a hexagon, and Each carbon has a hydrogen bonded to it.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So imagine a hexagon With a little hydrogen pointing out from every angle, every point where the two lines meet.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:That's the overall structure of Benzene.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:If you can imagine way back in the 18/25 range, They knew Benzene existed
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Which to me, how they did anything back then is amazing. I could not have been a chemist if I Was gonna have to do it back then. Uh-huh. So the way the story goes that so they knew in 18/25 that it existed, but they didn't know the structure. I don't think they had even considered the possibility that it could be a ring like structure.
Jam:Okay. I don't
Melissa:know if there were other ring like structures that they'd found or what.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:But the story goes that in 18/65 this is some, like, chemistry lore that you're getting. Okay. A man named Kekule was working that's his last name. He's working to try to figure out the structure of Benzene, and he fell asleep at his desk. Uh-huh.
Melissa:And he dreamed of a snake slithering around in a circle and grabbing its own tail to make a ring.
Jam:K. And
Melissa:that's when he realized the structure of Benzene must be a ring.
Jam:Weird.
Melissa:But the rest of his ideas about Benzene were wrong, But he was the one who figured that out.
Jam:Okay. Okay.
Melissa:So much later on, they confirmed the structure. Sure. And Benzene has a very weird thing about it.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:We've talked about it before.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:It's called resonance.
Jam:Oh, yeah. That sounds familiar.
Melissa:So the best way I can think to describe this is this 6 membered ring is often depicted as having alternating double bonds. So imagine a single bond on one side of the 6 Sides, you know, the hexagon where it's got a double line and then a single line, and a double line and a single line, and a double line and a single line.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:In real life, benzene does not have alternating double bonds.
Jam:K.
Melissa:It has 6 bonds that are roughly equivalent to 1a half bond lengths.
Jam:Weird. I don't know if I'm following.
Melissa:It's kind of weird. So here's a different way of imagining it.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Imagine if you had a white line and then a black line and then a white line and then a black line and then a white line and then a black line.
Jam:Okay. If
Melissa:That is how we're depicting Benzene. Instead of a white line, black line, white line, black line, it's actually more of 6 gray lines.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So it's an average. Okay. So what that means is, say, you have all these bonds, and usually they're made up of 2 electrons.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:Well, there's 6 extra electrons floating around in these double bonds.
Jam:Oh.
Melissa:And they're shared all the way around the ring instead of just being stuck in those double bonds.
Jam:Got it. Okay.
Melissa:So, really, instead of having 3 double bonds and 3 single bonds alternating, we have 6 average Bonds of the 2 of those.
Jam:Okay. Got it.
Melissa:Another example that I like to use is if you have Bruce Banner
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And the Hulk? Yes. But in the end, you have the average of the 2, doctor Hulk?
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think
Melissa:we touched about the that before, and I think I got in trouble because maybe his name isn't Doctor Hawk, but I haven't seen the movie. So Yeah.
Jam:I can't remember what his name was, but there is definitely a section of Marvel fans who are very specific. I can't remember if they called him what they called him, but there's people I think he would care. So sorry, guys. But you get it. Okay?
Jam:Don't don't nitpick because you get it.
Melissa:You get it. You get it. So so that's Benzene. It is this ring structure that has these alternating double bonds that in real life aren't alternating double bonds at all. They're shared electrons around the whole ring.
Jam:Okay. Okay.
Melissa:And that quality, that shared electrons around the ring is what's known as an aromatic ring.
Jam:Interesting.
Melissa:It's a very stable ring if it's an aromatic ring.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And they're known as aromatic rings is because when they occur in nature, they have a very pleasant smell a lot of times.
Jam:Okay. Gotcha. I was gonna say, like, that's what I'm used to hearing the word about, obviously. There's like a bunch of things, including if you're talking about that side of a like a coffee, for instance.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:You'd be talking about, yeah, The aromatic elements of it even aside from its taste, just how it smells and if any of those line up with the taste and stuff?
Melissa:Yeah. So that is true. I think They discovered Benzene rings in a lot of molecules. It smelled really good, and Benzene itself has a strong smell, so they called them aromatics. And then it Morphed to mean something a lot different in chemistry.
Jam:Got it. Got it.
Melissa:So when I think of aromatics, I think of, oh, a very stable ring structure. Sure.
Jam:Mhmm. And and not all of those have good smells?
Melissa:Well, there are some that just don't have smells, really.
Jam:Okay. But they are stable?
Melissa:Yes. Any aromatic ring by definition is more stable than an open chain that's made up by the same It's more stable in the ring than it would be if it wasn't in the ring.
Jam:Okay. Got it.
Melissa:So it's really stable. So that's what aromatic means to me. I have a different definition. I Love in a different world. Okay.
Melissa:So Benzene, this aromatic ring, the 6 membered ring is insanely useful in organic chemistry.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:We have multiple chapters just talking about Benzene in our organic chemistry classes and how you can manipulate it and How it reacts or doesn't react because it's pretty different.
Jam:Mhmm. And
Melissa:it's the basic structure for so many things. So benzene rings are in Styrofoam
Jam:Oh. In
Melissa:the styrene, vanillin, and all those vanilloids that we talked about in that capsaicin series we did.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:Ginger capsaicin, all those have a benzene ring in them. Mhmm. It's just a benzene ring that's been modified in way.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:To you, usually, what that means is you swapped out 1 of the hydrogens for a different attachment or function functional group.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Tylenol has a benzene ring in it. It has a lot of other stuff, but there's a benzene ring in there.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Many amino acids necessary to life contain benzene rings.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And all of these things are good and important for life. K. So, basically, Benzene ring is sometimes treated as a functional group. If you have a benzene ring in a molecule that has a bunch of other stuff, it can act like a functional group.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:But also benzene can occur by itself.
Jam:Which is not the case with most functional groups?
Melissa:Yeah. Not usually. I mean, maybe there's a really basic unit, but Benzene by itself is used a lot.
Jam:Okay. Okay.
Melissa:So for example, a carboxylic acid, probably the most basic carboxylic acid is vinegar. Mhmm. It has a A CH 3 group and then the carboxylic acid. Mhmm. But benzene by itself, when it's just the ring and, say, you have a A beaker full of benzene rings, that's literally a liquid that's full of just benzene rings.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:That has a little bit of a dark side.
Jam:K.
Melissa:So in beginning in the 19 twenties, It was suspected that Benzene was carcinogenic.
Jam:K.
Melissa:And what that means is it's capable of causing cancer.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:That's a little ironic also because there are a lot of benzene rings in a lot of cancer drugs that will help by cancer.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:But Benzene by itself can be carcinogenic.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And it Seems like there's some evidence that people in industries who benefited from Benzene
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Suppressed that evidence from coming out.
Jam:Oh, man.
Melissa:Oh, man. So they eyes. They really didn't want people to know the extent to which it seemed like Benzene synergetic.
Jam:Man. People are always trying to cover their tracks
Melissa:Yeah. It seems
Jam:cover their rears.
Melissa:Right. It seems like they Kind of knew that there was a lot of instances of Benzene causing cancer in mice, but say it'd be in an organ that we didn't have in humans, so they'd use that as an Excuse or different things until it became really clear that the cancer was ubiquitous or in the blood. You know? Then they realized that they couldn't really cover it up anymore, but
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Part of that was because a man named Peter Infante, I hope I pronounced that right Mhmm. Wrote an expose about it. Okay. And then they kind of gave up and admitted that it was carcinogenic.
Jam:Jeez.
Melissa:That same guy also was in another situation similarly where he went to court because of formaldehyde, which is also well known carcinogenic Uh-huh. Genic Uh-huh. In the early 19 eighties trying to get it labeled as a carcinogen. So Uh-huh. That's a well known carcinogen because of him.
Jam:Got it. Got it.
Melissa:Probably not just because of him. Other people did all the research, but he seems to be a key person, like a warrior to get things labeled as carcinogens.
Jam:Oh, I see. I gotcha. Yeah. That seems like a no brainer, especially because if you're trying to save some dollars because you don't want whatever Chemical you work with to be labeled incorrectly? Yeah.
Jam:I mean, honestly, just think about the fact that it's kinda money versus, like, Human lives.
Melissa:I know. I think he must have saved countless human lives.
Jam:Man, that seems like a no brainer. Come on.
Melissa:It does, but actually, That's still kind of going on. Ugh. So Benzene, for a long time now, has really been late to cancer. It's not allowed in industries, and OSHA and different people have said there's only so many Exposures or so much exposure to Benzene that you can have.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But as of 2018, there's an article that someone wrote calling out the Cancer branch of the World Health Organization.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:This is called the International Agency For Research on Cancer.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:This chemical engineer named Melvin Kopstein feels that this branch of the World Health Organization has really underplayed the potential risks of being exposed to Benzene in the workplace. Uh-huh. He feels that they Strongly underestimate the amount of benzene exposure that people are having in their jobs.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So people like mechanics, people who work with paint, Cabinet makers, shoemakers, all these people are dealing with Benzene.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Not to mention probably people working in the plastic industry because Benzene is part of styrene.
Jam:Got it. Got it. So some of those other people you mentioned, is that because of, like, paints and stains and those kinds of chemicals?
Melissa:Probably have Benzene in them.
Jam:Got it. Got it. Okay.
Melissa:So he thinks that there's a significant underestimation of the exposures of Benzene in the workplace by this branch of the World Health Organization.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And that matters because the World Health Organization basically said that, Really, since the early eighties when we realized what was going on, there haven't been dangerous exposures to Benzene in the workplace. Uh-huh.
Jam:But
Melissa:I think he's involved in some litigation where there are people who are experiencing significant negative side effects from being exposed to Benzene in their workplace, like Possibly getting cancer, and it's linked there's a specific type of cancer that Benzene can cause. Uh-huh. And these people are losing out in these lawsuits because People are citing the World Health Organization's statement that it's a safe level to be exposed
Jam:to. I see.
Melissa:So there really is still some level of not giving Benzene its due credit.
Jam:Mhmm. It's
Melissa:just really unfortunate because it can have a strong impact, especially it's gonna disproportionately impact people of color or Other people who don't have as much generational wealth, you know, that they can go to college or get out of these blue collar working situations.
Jam:Got it. Got it.
Melissa:So this is gonna have an effect beyond just a few people aren't gonna get money because Mhmm. They you know? Yeah. They are doing some kind of bogus lawsuit. This is probably a legitimate situation where people are unfairly being exposed to more Benzene than they should be, And they're getting cancer, which can be really devastating.
Jam:Right. And in the past, we have not had a great record, but we've made a lot of strides about Caring about the conditions of workers, this seems like kind of a no brainer in that case too. It's like, oh, hey. There's this dangerous thing people around. Mhmm.
Melissa:We
Jam:should care about it. You know? You think about, like, you know, coal miners and stuff, and those conditions being horrible Right. And it taking so long for anyone to ever care about that.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:And then both people had their Their dads were, you know, sick and died early and all this stuff because they're breathing in horrible things. It just seems like It's just happening again. Why don't we learn our lesson a little bit?
Melissa:Yeah. And I think what's hard is the International Agency For Research On cancer, they have acknowledged that there are shortcomings in their studies and that they are prone to have it's possible to have mistakes because it's a really wide scope to cover all the risks of Benzene exposure.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:But they're not editing their findings to include that even though this has been pretty clearly pointed out.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:They've just Acknowledge the people who sent the email that there could be some mistakes, and then they're continuing to let their statements sand and be cited in court.
Jam:Yeah. So
Melissa:it's just kind of a bummer. They are kind of acknowledging that they fell short, but not changing anything.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So that's a little bit about the history of Benzene. Mhmm. A snapshot of the tumultuous, sort of sketchy, but also very useful when used in conjunction with other things, Common in industry, great impact of Benzene.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So two sided. You know? There's a Good side and a bad side.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:So now let's talk about what happened recently and why we're having this conversation.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Doctor Diana Mason, she's a professor at UNT who's retired. I think she's professor at Meredith now, technically.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Emailed me An article that appeared in the chemistry and engineering news magazine. So that magazine is put out by the American Chemical Society. It's a reliable source
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Stating that an independent lab that test products of commercially available products, you know, like cosmetics, Recently added Benzene to their standard screenings.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:This company is called Valisure, I think is how you pronounce it. Mhmm. And the CEO of this company said he thought it was a waste of time because Benzene has been outlawed for so long. Uh-huh.
Jam:In those kind of products, you mean?
Melissa:Yes. It's really not present in anything that we're gonna consume or put on our faces on our bodies, anything like that.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:In water, for example, in drinking water, the maximum amount of Benzene allowed is 0.005 5 parts per million.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:The goal is to have 0 Benzene in drinking water.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So it's really you don't want Benzene to be in anything that you're gonna put on your body. If you're using a product with Benzene in it, you're supposed to take appropriate precautions to not breathe it in and not be exposed to it.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So they kinda the CEO kinda thought this was gonna be a waste of time.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But they did it anyway. I think it was a request, or I'm not sure why they chose to add it in. But what they found was a lot of products with Benzene in it. Oh, no. I think they tested 280 ish and close to 70 70 to 80, I think, had some Benzene in it.
Jam:Yikes.
Melissa:Yikes. And This is kind of a big deal. Uh-huh. And that's why I wanted to talk about it. 1, so that you guys could get some idea of what a chemist thought about it.
Melissa:Mhmm. And 2, we just talked about using sunscreen.
Jam:Yeah. Seriously.
Melissa:So I don't wanna be like, hey. Go use sunscreen. It's gonna put Benzene all over your body.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:So that's kind of where I wanted to address this.
Jam:How much are we talking is in the sunscreens and stuff like that compared to, like
Melissa:What's allowed? Yeah. Okay. Well, I wanna say that they did find about 200 had no Benzene in them.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And you can go to their website and find a Full list of the sunscreen where Benzene was detected and a full benzene a full list where there's no Benzene detected.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And there were brand names that I recognized that were on both of the lists. For example, Neutrogena had a lot of products on the Benzene list, and it had some products on the no Benzene list.
Jam:Got it. Okay.
Melissa:Same thing with Ulta MD, and I think Beach Bum had some on both. So it's not all in every product based on the brand.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:It seems like a more widespread issue with a certain few products.
Jam:Got it. Got it.
Melissa:And for amount, so I mentioned Recommended for water, we want less than 0.005.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:In medicines that are going to have a strong benefit Beyond the negative impacts of benzene Mhmm. You're allowed 2 parts per million.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:But really, in consumable products, water, beverages, any kind of food, it's 0 is really what they want.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:0.005 is The least allowable.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:1 of these sunscreens had over 6 parts per million.
Jam:Woah. Three times that of, like, What's allowed for medicine?
Melissa:Three times what's allowed for medicine and 1,258 times what's allowed for water.
Jam:Gosh. Mhmm. Jeez, dude.
Melissa:A lot more of them were in the 2 parts per million range.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:That's 400 times what's allowed for water. Uh-huh. And 1 part per million is 200 times what's allowed for water. Yeah. So there were a lot more in that range.
Melissa:There were some with less, maybe closer to what is allowed in water. Mhmm. But any Benzene in a product like that is pretty much unacceptable. Mhmm. So this company has put in a request to the FDA to issue a recall on these sunscreens.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And I support that. Yeah. I'm going to Pull out my sunscreen and check and see if it's on the list. And if it is, I'm throwing it away. So now I wanna talk about what I think happened.
Melissa:How did the Benzene get there?
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:The companies who have responded to requests for comment have said they don't use Benzene. Mhmm. And I believe that.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:They would be an insane choice.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:You'd have to be pretty sketch to throw Benzene in your sunscreen on purpose.
Jam:And that much of it.
Melissa:Like That much of it.
Jam:Wouldn't be like, oh, yeah. We were just kind of Flirting with some Benzene a little bit just for fun. It's like, no. We're putting well above what anyone should have in anything.
Melissa:Right. Absolutely. Dang. So here's my guess. Some sodas used to use benzoate salts.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So that is a benzene ring
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:With a carboxylic acid on it.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But instead of the the h on the carboxylic acid, It's lost that proton and become negatively charged.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And then it's part of a salt.
Jam:Mhmm. K.
Melissa:So you don't need to know all the details of that, but that's just what it is.
Jam:That was in sodas?
Melissa:They use benzoate salt in sodas. It's also naturally found in fruit Uh-huh. To be a preservative.
Jam:Oh, okay. Gotcha.
Melissa:However, they also use ascorbic acid as a preservative. Uh-huh. Ascorbic acid is vitamin c.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So a vitamin c and benzoate salts interact together in the presence of heat or light, It can react to form Benzene. Ew. So something very similar happened with these SOTA is where the FDA realized there was Benzene in them, and they had to be recalled, reformulated to get the amount of Benzene down below what it was, you know, 0.005 or less. Uh-huh. So I suspect that something similar happened based on the structures of some of these sunscreens or ingredients in sunscreen Mhmm.
Melissa:Is that there's something that has a Benzene ring in it Mhmm. And it's reacting with something else
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:To make Benzene on accident.
Jam:I see. Gotcha.
Melissa:It makes me also wonder how long after the shelf life is this amount of benzene increasing.
Jam:Oh, I see. The longer it has time to react With more and more of the okay.
Melissa:Yes. And I also wonder if there are any benzoate salts. Maybe they wouldn't have made this mistake, but I know for a fact, Vitamin c is a good ingredient to put on your skin. So if they have been soy it could be a recipe for disaster.
Jam:Yeah. Dang.
Melissa:So maybe they knew that though and wouldn't have made that kinda mistake. I checked, And a lot of vitamin c containing sunscreens were on the no benzene detected list.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So don't just not give vitamin c containing sunscreen just because of that. But It's something like that, I believe, is happening Mhmm. Where Benzene is reacting. We know molecules don't just sit Solidly on a shelf.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:They're moving around. They're interacting all the time.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:So these molecules are interacting and I think causing a side product that's unintended that leaves Benzene in your sunscreens.
Jam:Dang. Mhmm. Bummer, dude.
Melissa:Yeah. I'm really sad about it, but I wanted to talk about it because I want you guys to take it Seriously. So I'm not one to be afraid of chemicals. You know, people I heard someone say they focus on Not consuming chemicals rather than not consuming calories, and I just wanted to repost it on Our Instagram. I don't wanna call them out.
Melissa:But Yeah. Calories are chemicals, and sugar is chemicals, and everything you eat is chemicals. Your body's made up of chemicals. So you guys know I'm not one that would just run and scream because there's a quote, unquote chemical found in our sunscreen.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:But this chemical is a big deal. It's, No question, scientifically proven to cause cancer.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And I know from experiencing cancer, it's not a joke. You know? Yeah. One way or another, if you have a loved one diagnosed with cancer, they're probably gonna be tortured. You know?
Melissa:Like, either the cancer is gonna hurt them, the medicine is not great. That could hurt them too. Mhmm. You know, it's just not gonna be a good experience unless you get really, really lucky and can treat it really, really fast. So
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And there are regulations on these products for a reason. You know? The Mhmm. The story of Peter Infante fighting for that regulation, I included that because It shows that it's really important that we have those.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:So I highly recommend you go ahead and check your sunscreen at home. Make sure it's on the list of Benzene free. If it's not, just toss it. It's not worth the $10 or whatever you'd save to be exposed, especially at that level. Yeah.
Melissa:Something that could hurt your family. And I do suspect, though, that if it's a side product reaction, the longer it's on the shelf, the more of that reaction could happen
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Which could mean the longer it's gone on, the higher concentrations it could be until those molecules are used up.
Jam:Right. And it's not like Like you said, the list has plenty that are don't have Benzene in them. So it's not like Right. You have to make a choice between wearing sunscreen at all Or Mhmm. Having Benzene.
Jam:You know what I mean?
Melissa:Right.
Jam:It's it there are options that are that don't have it, so that's good.
Melissa:And the company is looking for more samples to run more tests on different type of sunscreens. I didn't see any Olay products on there, which I use a lot of those. There were a ton of Neutrogena products on there. There were a ton of Beach Bum, of Coppertone, UltaMD. You know, there's all kinds of stuff on there, but
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Not every brand. So I'm gonna switch to buying the checked out ones
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:Soon as I can.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:So that's it. That's your lesson for today. I wanted to teach you what Benzene was.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Talk about the benefits of it. Don't Go running, screaming if you see a benzene ring in your vanilla because it's supposed to be there, and it won't cause cancer.
Jam:Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Melissa:But benzene when it's all by itself, Sketchy.
Jam:Mhmm. Dang. Interesting, dude. This dark side of chemistry, it's real, dude.
Melissa:It's real.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:So you don't have to explain to me all of the stuff about Benzene, its impact, and the sunscreen if you don't want to. But Mhmm. How about you take a stab at explaining Benzene, aromaticity, resonance, that kind of con that big chemistry concept back to me.
Jam:Okay. Got it. So benzene is 6 carbons
Melissa:That's right.
Jam:In a ring. Mhmm. And they each have a hydrogen?
Melissa:They each have a hydrogen. That's right.
Jam:Okay. And resonance would be if they had if it had alternating double bonds. Correct?
Melissa:Resonance is when the alternating double bonds are delocalized.
Jam:K.
Melissa:The resonance is The act is doctor Banner.
Jam:Oh, it is doctor Banner. Okay. Mhmm. What I was about to say was I thought resonance was when it has those, and you said it does not have alternate double bonds. So what it really is is instead of having Alternating double bonds.
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:It actually has doctor Hulk or whatever. It has these kind of distributed Extra bonds or something in in a way that's not alternating double bonds.
Melissa:Right. And I've talked about alternating double bonds before and how they're in conjugation. Uh-huh. And in reality, they are experiencing resonance too. They are the electrons are shared all along those alternating double bonds, but it's just really hard to explain that concept.
Melissa:So sometimes I'll just Leave you with the alternating double bonds, make an electron highway, and we kind of move along from there.
Jam:Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Melissa:And that is a Got enough foundation. But in this case, because it's a ring, it's kinda different than the highway. They're all shared around the ring.
Jam:Okay. Okay. Gotcha. Interesting. So one of the things that is most important to take away from that is that it makes a very stable ring.
Melissa:Yes. Anytime there's resonance, conjugation Uh-huh. That makes something more stable.
Jam:And it's not only more stable, but also Kind of then the reason this category of these molecules is called that is because at least a good chunk of them smell Good or have a strong smell of some kind?
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:And so then they gives us this section of of molecules called aromatic rings.
Melissa:That's right.
Jam:And Benzene, despite all of its good and bad, Is that, is stable, does smell good, I guess?
Melissa:It sounds kind of sickly sweet. I read that they used to use it as aftershave.
Jam:Woah.
Melissa:Because they liked this smell
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:Which is terrifying.
Jam:Yeah. Seriously. Man, so many things that It there's no way we could know unless over time. You know?
Melissa:Know. Yeah.
Jam:It's like, how could we know that what things will cause in our bodies? But
Melissa:I know.
Jam:Did I miss anything on that, about Benzene?
Melissa:No. I think you got it. There's also different sized aromatic rings. So Benzene is a 6 membered aromatic ring. There's Some 10 there's some 10, 14, like, bigger Uh-huh.
Melissa:Sized rings that can be aromatic as Well Mhmm. And there are some rules around when something's considered aromatic or not, but that is a topic for organic chemistry 2 students and not for us today.
Jam:Okay. Nice.
Melissa:Good job. I'm impressed. You got that down really well.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:So I'm gonna steal the thunder and the happy things from our week because
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Mine evolves sunscreen.
Jam:Oh, nice.
Melissa:My husband and I went with his family to South Padre. Nice. Lots of sunscreen. I was lathering it on because of what I learned Uh-huh. About how the sun damages our skin.
Melissa:I wore a hat the whole time. I love hats. And it was a really fun time I was still working Uh-huh. But it was so nice to sit on the porch and look out at the beach and just write about chemistry and my dab. It was really fun.
Melissa:So
Jam:Dang. That's cool.
Melissa:And that's what I did this week that involves sunscreen and was happy. Do you have A happy thing this week?
Jam:Yeah. Mine's kind of related, actually. The thing I was thinking about sharing about is that, the weather's gotten really warm, which is something that Here in Texas is familiar. In fact, it's kind of was put off a little longer than normal because we have such a rainy May.
Melissa:Which I loved.
Jam:Yes. But it made it a sudden change when things got very hot. But the good thing, I will say, is that it finally Allowed our pool to warm up enough. And so I have now swam in it a few times. Even this morning, I went on a short run, which, you know, in a Texas summer is feels like a long run.
Melissa:Even in even at 8 AM?
Jam:Uh-huh. And then I went and swam some laps in the pool right afterward, and it was the perfect combo.
Melissa:Nice. I love that.
Jam:It's just like, I'm still working out, but I'm not hot and dying.
Melissa:That's right.
Jam:And so that is kind of my it's sort of related to sunscreen. It's that it's yeah. It's hot, but I can actually we can actually use our poll finally got warm enough, like, Because it kept raining, it kept being in the low seventies.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:And it'd get a little bit warmer, and then it ran again. And lots of cold water would get in there. And so It finally got up to 78, which is the low end that you want, and then now it's up to 85
Melissa:to use your pool tomorrow, and I'm very excited that it's finally warmed up, and I'm not gonna be chilly the whole time.
Jam:Yes. It's definitely definitely nice.
Melissa:Great. Well, thanks, Jim, for letting me use your pool and for coming and learning all about Benzene and sunscreen.
Jam:Anytime.
Melissa:And we will I've posted in our references, or you can Google this company, Valisure, and find the list of safe sunscreens where they have Under parts per million, it says n d, which I think stands for none detected.
Jam:Nice. Okay. Cool. Cool. Well, thank you for teaching us about that very relevant, Kinda scary, but very important lesson, and we really appreciate breaking that down for us and helping us make some better, safer decisions.
Jam:Wilson, I have a lot of ideas for topics of chemistry in everyday life, but we want to hear from you. So if you have any questions or ideas, thoughts, mysteries, concerns that you think are chemistry related. Please let us know on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook at chem for your life. That's chem, f o r, you're live to share your thoughts and ideas. If you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it, go to kodashfi.com/ chem for your life, and donate the cost of a cup of coffee.
Jam:If you're not able to donate, you can still help us by subscribing on your favorite podcast app and rating and writing our review on Apple Podcasts. That also helps us to share chemistry with even more people.
Melissa:This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Collini and J. M. Robinson. References for this episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. J.
Melissa:M. Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks To A Colini and v Garza who reviewed this episode.
