Essential Nonsense

I won’t go into the various claims made for essential oils, but if you are interested in balloons, as I am, you've probably seen videos where peddlers of these products drip them onto inflated balloons to make the balloons pop.

What’s the point of this? They claim that essential oils, particularly lemon and orange, “digest” petrochemicals, that is, chemicals derived from petroleum. Now, for a variety of reasons, this is just false, and that’s for chemists and biologists to explain. Yes, essential oils will break down plastics made of hydrocarbons, but that has nothing to do with the human body and any “toxins” it might contain.

But the point of this post is that balloons have absolutely nothing to do with petrochemicals. They are made from natural latex, from the sap of rubber trees. And yes, citrus oils will eat them and make them pop. But it proves nothing; it’s just a lot of noise.

And, of course, in my view a waste of a good balloon. Unless you’re into that kind of thing.