I am pro-organics, but I question the veracity of the telegraph's article. At the least, I think this post should be linked to the actual EU report, if one does exist.
“At least 100 different pesticides are known to cause adverse neurological effects in adults, and all of these substances must therefore be suspected of being capable of damaging developing brains as well,” a report carried out by the parliament’s Scientific Foresight Unit, led by the Swedish University of Agricultural Scientists, states.
chlorinated pools are also full of poison but that isn't really an issue.
My friend once ate what looked like a few nightshade berries. We called poison control, who asked how many. "Three." They immediately said it was fine, and nothing to worry about.
A couple dozen will kill you, three will have no effect.
Water is poison: drinking 50 liters in 1 minute will kill you.
But yes, water will destroy your cellular membranes if exposed to it in big quantities for a long time. Those are chemical (biological) effects.
How about a noble gas? Presumably those are chemically inert enough to not cause anything chemical/biological at all?
> Nonetheless, low reactivity—instead of no reactivity, as had formerly been thought—characterizes the rare gases. One of the factors governing the reactivity of an element is its electron configuration, and the electrons of the noble gases are arranged in such a way as to discourage bonding with other elements.
That said, I would probably classify noble gases as perfectly safe, since damage from exposure to them will more likely come from mechanical interactions, and not biological / chemical.
[1] http://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/chemistry...