Customer Reviews

Why There's Antifreeze in Your Toothpaste: The Chemistry of Household Ingredients

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I admit, I was expecting a little more exposition and a little less on the "blurbs".

Nevertheless, the book is informative. It covers a SWATH of those cryptic ingredients that we see on products, and explains what they are used for and why. (Sodium Benzoate, Propylene Glycol, Benzaldehyde, etc.) If you're a chemistry student / enthusiast you'll probably like this. The explanations of the properties are well-done, although at times it does read like an abridged MSDS ;)

That said, if you're expecting something more like a musing exploration of chemical additives, you're going to be disappointed. (If that's the case, you may find more joy in the likes of "The Carbon Age", or "Napoleon's Buttons", which deal specifically with entertaining narratives about chemicals and their histories).

This book would be best used as a shelf reference for those moments when you're reading the Ingredients list of a consumable and are REALLY curious about what some of them are used for. Pop open the book, find out, then put it back.

This isn't a book that try to explain things in normal paragraphs and chapters. It's essentially a dictionary of different chemicals that you can look up and it offers their formula along with some interesting facts. Some entries are more detailed then others. If you ever wanted to look at an ingredients list on the back of a package and understand what the weird ones are, then this book will help. But it isn't something to just sit back and have a good read. At least not for most book lovers.

The author was inspired to probe on the chemistry of household ingredients not by the book title but the presence of salt in common shampoo brands and hopes the rationale for buying the book is curiosity and not fear.

More than 20-25 sections covering all types of products and sidebars with additional info - highly informative
ex: brown color in Colas comes from caramel etc

I will reccomend most of the books in DOC DAVE's Chemistry as Entertainment "LISTMANIA" - hope fully this gets included as well.

I use this book to teach non-scientists a bit of chemistry. It's worked really well at both the high school and college levels, and the book is inexpensive!