Tips for tackling wordiness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a brief article by Barbara Bashein on page 28 in the November 2019 Toastmaster magazine titled Shed the Dread of Business Writing. Her tips are to:

 

Eliminate wordiness. For example, change ‘at the present time’ to ‘currently’ or ‘now’.

 

Use clear and concise words. For example, change ‘utilize’ to ‘use.’

 

Use active rather than passive sentence structures. For example: ‘The team wrote the report,’ rather than ‘The report was written by the team.’

 

And there is a web page by Margaret Procter at University of Toronto: Writing Advice titled Wordiness: Danger Signals and Ways to React with tips about how to change:

 

Doubling of Words (choose one)

 

Intensifiers, Qualifiers (omit or give specific details)

 

Formulaic Phrases (use a one-word form or omit)

 

Catch-all Terms (can sometimes omit)

 

Padded Verbs (use a one-word form)

 

Unnecessary ‘to be’ and ‘being’ (omit)

 

Passive Verbs (change to active voice, if possible with a personal subject)

 

Overuse of Relative Structures (‘Who,’ ‘Which,’ ‘That’) (omit when possible)

 

And a four-page pdf article by Barb Every in Medical Writing magazine for March 2017, pages 17 to 20 (Volume 6, Number 1) is titled Writing economically in medicine and science: Tips for tackling wordiness. She says to avoid repetition, eliminate redundancy, and minimize purposeless words. Barb’s Table 1 on omitting redundant words is as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cartoon was modifed from this one at OpenClipArt.

 

 

Steeped in an excellent metaphor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a very serious, 9-page pdf article by Pragnesh Parmar and Gunvanti Rathod at Academic Forensic Pathology on January 13, 2026 titled The Tea-Steeping Metaphor: Origin, Application, Advantages, Disadvantages, and Impact on Forensic Medicine Teaching. I found it by searching PubMed Central. The article describes how:

 

“The ‘tea-steeping metaphor’ originates from a universally familiar process—brewing tea—where the infusion of flavor, color, and aroma is directly influenced by the duration of steeping and the conditions in which it occurs. This analogy has been increasingly embraced in educational literature to illustrate the pedagogical necessity of allowing learners adequate time and appropriate contexts to achieve deep, meaningful learning. The metaphor emphasizes that just as tea leaves gradually infuse water to create a robust brew, learners too require sustained engagement within conducive environments to fully internalize, reflect upon, and apply new knowledge.”

 

Four paragraphs describe advantages, which are:

Encourages Deep Learning

Supports Patience and Persistence

Promotes Reflective Practice

High Adaptability Across Contexts

 

And another three paragraphs describe disadvantages, which are:

Time-Intensive Nature

Risk of Over-Saturation

Dependence on Optimal Learning Conditions

 

On April 19, 2022 I blogged about How to do a better job of researching medical and health articles. In that post I mentioned PubMed Central, which is a database with 11.6 million articles compiled by the U. S.  National Library of Medicine.

 

The image of a tea bag came from here at Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Does the design of slides for medical lectures follow the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course not! There is a very recent and serious article by Rajin Le Blanc and Nicola Cooper at Clinical Teaching on December 10, 2025 which is titled Investigating Death by PowerPoint: Do Medical Lecturers Adhere to the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning in Their Slide Design? They examined 52 lectures presented at the University of Nottingham. And they found that:

 

“Students were exposed to text‐heavy slides 84.4% of the time, an approach that CTML [Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning] shows impairs learning through violating the minimal text principle. In addition, the mean word count per slide was 38.2 – significantly more than the ‘few words’ suggested by the principle. Lecturers did however use images relatively frequently at 59.9% of the time.”

 

Counting its title, my slide example modified from Section 2.1 (and shown above) has 85 words, more than twice the 38.2 average.

 

There is another succinct four-page pdf article by Jacob B. Waxman and Sue J. Goldie from the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health titled Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. That theory is also described by Richard E. Mayer in the 2020 third edition of his book, Multimedia Learning.

 

Displaying risks from vaccines and other dangers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting article from Edzard Ernst on July 16, 2025 titled Yes, vaccination risks are real – but how do they compare with other dangers? In order to show the range from the tiny one in a hundred million for the MMR vaccine to one in 1,100 for drowning (and up to one) we need to use a chart with a logarithmic scale - as is shown above. I had discussed risk in a post on November 12, 2024 titled I am not going to throw out my black plastic spatulas.

 

Also, back on January 13, 2010 I had blogged about How thin is “extremely thin”? and used a table with a powers of ten for comparing thicknesses over a range in centimeters from one to one in ten to the minus eighth power.

 

Give people a picture to teach them about health

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a brief and useful article by Pernilla Garmy in the Journal of Research in Nursing on October 23, 2025 titled Reaching beyond words: supporting self-care through visual health education. She says that:

 

“From my own experience as a nurse and educator, I know that there is no single educational format that works for all patients. Some people benefit from verbal dialogue, others prefer detailed written materials. But for many, visual aids are a crucial complement. Pictures can clarify, engage and motivate – especially when literacy is limited or when energy and focus are low due to illness, stress, or comorbidities.

The fact that this resource is printed – not digital – also matters. A physical object can be held, browsed at one’s own pace, and brought along to consultations. It does not require a smartphone, internet access, or digital skills; which may be barriers for some groups. At the same time, digital tools may be more effective in other contexts. The point is: healthcare professionals need a flexible set of educational tools, adapted to the needs, abilities, and preferences of each individual.”

 My PowerPoint cartoon was assembled from those of a nurse and a pain scale at OpenClipArt.  

 

 

Seven tips on how to write a great speech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an excellent short article by Kulamkan Kulasegaram, Douglas Buller, and Cynthis Whitehead in Perspectives on Medical Education on pages 270 to 272 of the July 13, 2017 issue titled Taking presentations seriously: Invoking narrative craft in academic talks. They give the following seven speechwriting tips:

 

1] The act of writing a presentation can yield a clear academic presentation and provide clarity on the topic of presentation.

 

2] Work backwards from key message or conclusion you want the audience to understand at the talk.

 

3] Plot the most efficient and engaging route to this conclusion when writing your presentation. Remove extraneous information that distracts from this conclusion; focus the presentation on the salient points that lead up to your conclusion.

 

4] Each element of the presentation must serve the dual purpose of conveying information and facilitating engagement with the presentation. The effectiveness of conveying information depends on the level of engagement or interaction with the audience.

 

5] Interaction with the audience in a talk means engaging their attention and memory on the concept(s) you wish to convey.

 

6] You can more effectively engage with the audience by designing your talk around instructional design and information processing principles that address the audience members’ capacities for attention and memory.

 

7] Creating presentations is an exercise in creating meaning out of slides, words, and concepts. Revisit your talk once you have completed it and evaluate whether the meaning you want to convey is delivered effectively through the elements of your presentation.

 

The image was adapted from this one at OpenClipArt.

 

 

Quit pissing around and fix your presentation slides

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

There is a brief but excellent article by Michael Leveridge at the Canadian Urologic Association Journal for April 2025 (Volume 19, Number 4, pages 78 and 79) titled This is a busy slide: Fix your presentations this year. He has the following advice:

 

Cognitive Load

 

“Your presentation imparts a ‘load’ on the audience member. All of the information piles into working memory for processing, and only if connections are made will schemata form and encode into long-term memory.

 

The intrinsic load is the complexity or difficulty of the material. It varies between recipients, as those already expert can process complex concepts more easily than novices. There’s not much you can do in the moment to change the complexity or the audience’s knowledge base, but you can think ahead about each.

 

The extrinsic load is everything about the speech and visuals that is not relevant to understanding the material. It is the mental effort required in deciphering redundant text, linking words and visuals, or parsing dense graphics: a marginally relevant image, the static of hearing words being read as you try to read them, irrelevant lines on that table, the back-and-forth to align the figure legend with the curves. These fall under the research-backed principles like coherence, redundancy, and spatial contiguity, and these names suggest the solutions (Ref. 2).

 

Cut the superfluous text and visuals, even if interesting. Signal to the relevant points on the tables and visuals. Bring like elements together on the slide to decrease the work of linking them. Graphic design principles – alignment, repetition and proximity – are the tools of facilitating understanding by removing clutter. Again, a sweep to declutter and intentionally arrange your slide deck is a quick and powerful thing.”

 

My cartoon was adapted from this one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Speechwriting, storytelling, and 55-word stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on January 23, 2012 I blogged about 101-word stories and 50-second elevator speeches. Could we get even briefer and tell a story using just fifty-five words? We sure could! Back In fall 1987 Steve Moss created the Fifty-Five Fiction writing contest. In 1995 (and 1998) he had a book of them titled World’s Shortest Stories: Murder. Love. Horror. Suspense.

 

Three excellent articles discuss how 55-word stories have been used in medical education. One June 2010 article by Colleen T. Fogarty in Family Medicine is titled Fifty-five Word Stories: “Small Jewels” for Personal Reflection and Teaching. She has a table describing ten steps for writing a story. And Colleen says:

 

“Well-written 55-word stories include the key elements of narrative: (1) Setting, (2) Character(s), (3) Conflict (something has to happen!), and (4) Resolution (what’s the outcome of the story?) Writers of 55-word stories must remember that just because they are short doesn’t mean they are easy!”

 

A second article by Julie Fashner in the HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine for April 2020 (Volume 1 Number 2) on pages 115 to 117 is titled Creative Writing in Residency Training. And a third 2024 article by Nancy E. Krusen in Translational Science in Occupation (Volume 1, Number 2) is titled 55-Word Stories: Insight into Healthcare.

 

You could tell one or more fifty-five-word stories within a five-to-seven-minute speech for a Toastmasters club meeting.

 

 

The Certainty Illusion: What you don’t know and why it matters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting 2025 book by Timothy Caulfield on separating nonsense from sense titled The Certainty Illusion: What you don’t know and why it matters. A preview is at Google Books. This book is divided in three parts:

Part I: The Science Illusion

Part II: The Goodness Illusion

Part III: The Opinion Illusion

 

In Part I, in a section on The Predator Problem on page 63 he discusses predatory journals:

 

“Predatory journals profit by charging researchers a fee to publish – which many legitimate publications also do (sometimes the fee is more than $10,000!), especially journals that are open access. But predatory journals have a lax peer-review process or almost none at all. They’ll publish just about anything. Their editorial boards – the entities meant to apply rigorous standards to decide what gets published – are often padded with questionable ‘experts.’ For example, Dr. Olivia Doll sat on the editorial board of seven academic journals. She is, or so it has been claimed, a celebrated authority in ‘avian propinquity to canines in metropolitan suburbs’ and ‘the benefits of abdominal massage for medium-sized canines.’ No surprise, as Dr. Olivia Doll is a Staffordshire terrier named Ollie. Chasing birds and belly rubs are central to her career agenda. Despite these passions, she has found time to review manuscripts for journals like Global Journal of Addiction & Rehabilitation Medicine and Psychiatry and Mental Disorders. She did that. Good doggie! And she has published a few articles herself, including co-authoring a piece with Alice Wuenderlandt from Lutenblag University in Molvania…

 

Ollie’s career as an editor was the brainchild of professor Mike Daube, a public health researcher at Curtin University in Australia. He wanted to demonstrate how these journals lacked credibility. Mission accomplished. The credentials of Dr. Olivia Doll, also known as Ollie the dog, were accepted by all these publications, despite the fact that, as Professor Daube has noted, ‘it would take a five-year-old one click to expose this. In fact, one journal told Ollie that they were ‘delighted to have such an eminent person as yourself.’ Woof.”

 

Dr. Doll is discussed by Ryan Cross in a Science article on May 24, 2017 titled Australian dog serves on the editorial boards of seven medical journals and another article by Kelsey Kennedy at Atlas Obscura on May 25, 2017 titled This Dog Sits on Seven Editorial Boards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And in Part II: The Goodness Illusion, starting on page 101 he discusses The Devious Dozen buzzword terms, which are: Natural, Holistic, Healthy, Organic, Non-GMO, Gluten-Free, Chemical-Free, Toxin-Free, Locally Grown, The Colour Green, Immune-Boosting, and Personalized. Another three honorable mentions: are Low-Fat, Sugar-Free, and Protein.

 

The cartoon was adapted from this one at OpenClipArt.  

  

A sticky story on the glue you lick to seal envelopes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting article by Joe Schwarcz at the McGill Office for Science and Society on March 26, 2025 titled A Sticky Story. He states that:

 

“The adhesives that are used on envelopes and stamps have very stringent safety requirements. That shouldn’t be surprising. After all, some of the stuff may be swallowed, so it has to be regulated as a food. Gum arabic from the acacia tree, dextrin from corn starch and the water-soluble resin, polyvinyl alcohol are the adhesives most commonly used. There are also additives for flexibility and spreading quality which include glycerin, corn syrup, various glycols, urea, sodium silicate and emulsified waxes. Preservatives such as sodium benzoate, quaternary ammonium compounds and phenols are also included. These substances may not taste great, but they are not poisons.”

 

The final episode from the 1995 season of Seinfeld titled The Invitations is not realistic:

 

“Disregarding George's suggestion to use glue for the wedding invitations since the adhesive in the envelopes takes a lot of moisture to work, Susan keeps licking envelopes until she passes out. George returns to his apartment, finds that Susan has collapsed, and takes her to the hospital. After the examination, a doctor informs George that Susan is dead from licking the envelopes, since the adhesive is toxic.”

Nursing Story Slam: five-minute contest speeches from the University of Calgary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting article from the University of Calgary Faculty of Nursing titled Nursing Story Slam. They had contests with five-minute speeches in 2023 and 2024. The 2025 contest will be held on May 8, 2025. Videos from this contest will be of interest for Toastmasters who are in nursing or other areas of medicine.

 

There is a great YouTube video from a critical care flight nurse titled Logan Rutter BN’15 – 2024 Nursing Story Slam | UCalgary Nursing.

 

Another excellent video is titled Katherine Stelfox – 2024 Nursing Story Slam | UCalgary Nursing. This deals frankly with defecation, so it is not safe for work. It discusses a situation where a wheelchair patient needed to be lifted, but the two staff members and lift already were tied up taking care of another patient.

 

 The cartoon was adapted from one at OpenClipArt.

 

Natural always being better is a fallacy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Amanda Ruggeri at BBC on February 12, 2025 titled Natural doesn’t always mean better: How to spot if someone is trying to convince you with an ‘appeal to nature’. It also was discussed by Steven Novella at Science-Based Medicine on that day in another article titled BBC Takes On Appeal to Nature Fallacy. And there is a Wikipedia page on Appeal to nature.

 

Natural may be terrible. For example, poisonous arsenic can be in well water. There is a web page at the Minnesota Department of Health titled Private Well Protection Arsenic Study with the following information:

 

“Approximately 10 percent of new wells in Minnesota contain arsenic above the drinking water standard. Drinking water with low levels of arsenic over a long time increases the risk of diabetes and increased risk of cancers of the bladder, lungs, liver, and other organs. It can also contribute to cardiovascular and respiratory disease, reduced intelligence in children, and skin problems such as lesions, discolorations, and the development of corns. Health impacts of arsenic may not occur right away and can develop after many years, especially if you are in contact with arsenic at a low level over a long time.

 

Arsenic can be found in groundwater throughout Minnesota, but is more likely in some areas than others, due to the way glaciers moved across Minnesota. Because it has no taste and no odor, testing is the only way to know whether or not a well has arsenic in it. All new wells must be tested for arsenic before being placed in service.”

   

Arsenic can also show up in foods grown in water like rice. In November 2014 there was a Consumer Reports article titled How much arsenic is in your rice? and a long report titled Analysis of Arsenic in Rice and Other Grains. In July 2023 there is an article by Lihchyun Joseph Su, Tung-Chin Chiang, and Sarah N O’Connor at Frontiers in Nutrition titled Arsenic in brown rice: do the benefits outweigh the risks?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How about poisonous plants, for which Wikipedia has a web page. And the Wikipedia page about Cassava discusses how there is cyanide in bitter cassava (manihot esculenta).

 

What about fish? There is a Wikipedia page about poisonous fish. The Wikipedia page on the Fugu (pufferfish) says it can be deadly if not properly prepared, as shown in a YouTube video from The Simpsons.

 

The adapted water warning sign and Poison Garden gates are from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Active Listening and Aizuchi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an intriguing brief article by Daniel James Ince-Cushman and Marion Dove in the January 2025 issue of Canadian Family Physician magazine - Volume 71, No. 1, pages 67 and 68 titled Approach to teaching active listening in the age of artificial intelligence.

 

The fourth and fifth paragraphs say:

 

“Aizuchi originally referred to the alternating strikes of hammers on hot iron by an expert sword maker and their apprentice. It has come to mean the frequent short interjections or sounds that a Japanese listener makes to show they are paying attention. Simple aizuchi translations include words such as yeah, uh-huh, and oh (Table 1).

 

However, aizuchi is not only a verbal phenomenon. Nodding is also a form of aizuchi. Much of Japanese communication is nonverbal, and short utterances are also mirrored with engaged facial expressions and well-timed nods. In linguistics this is referred to as back channelling. Back channelling is how we interject to show understanding and attention rather than to convey new information. These are not so much questions but rather facilitating remarks to encourage the speaker to continue.”

 

The image was adapted from one of forging ahead at the Library of Congress.

 

Living with a stutter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is it like to live with a stutter? There is an excellent brief article by Rachel Goodman at the US Cardiology Review on September 9, 2024 titled Big Girl Words. She is a cardiology fellow at Tufts Medical Center. Rachel says:

“I have smiled and waved a lot in my life, often related to my speech. I stutter. I am not nervous, hesitant, or unsure of myself. Rather, there is some neurological issue that is frankly far too complex for my understanding which leads to a repetition of sounds and blocked words.

It starts with a blockage in my throat and leads to squinting eyes and pursed lips in an attempt to force the words out, making it challenging for my breath to keep up with my voice. I can feel it coming before it happens and often have enough time or foresight to change my words to ones that will leave my mouth more smoothly.

While the embarrassment of the stutter has lessened with time and my fluency has increased with intensive speech therapy, the stutter will always be there. The deep guttural Gs and lip-smacking Ps will always be my hardest, but I’ve learned ways to compensate.

Experience has taught me to not let this speech impediment define who I am or what I do. It took time and motivation to get here. I have worked hard throughout my life to obtain some semblance of fluency, devoting countless hours to after-school speech therapy, week-long speech intensives during my time off, and practicing saying my name while sitting on the floor in front of a mirror on nights and weekends.

I am not a shy person but, because of my stutter, I often dread occasions that require public speaking: introductions, doing rounds in the hospital, reading out loud, and presenting at a podium….

Reflecting upon my experience as a trainee with a stutter, it has – perhaps paradoxically – taught me a lot about communication. Having a stutter has taught me to be thoughtful and to think ahead. I’ve learned how to perform under pressure and overcome embarrassment. In undergoing speech therapy, I’ve learned diaphragmatic breathing and how to manipulate my muscles to facilitate fluent speech; though the speech may sound slow, it may also come across as thoughtful and patient. Stuttering has taught me the importance of giving people grace instead of rushing to assumptions.”

 

The image was adapted from this one at Openclipart.

 

 

I am not going to throw out my black plastic spatula

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the Food Network on October 25, 2024 there is an article by Christine Byrne titled Why you might want to throw away your black plastic kitchen utensils and takeout containers. And there is another article by Kristin Toussaint at Fast Company on November 1, 2024 more emphatically titled Why you should get rid of your black plastic spatula immediately. But there is still another article by Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz at Slate on November 4, 2024 titled I’m not throwing away my black plastic spatula. Potentially toxic flame retardants are a possible problem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I agree with Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz. The problem here is a difference between a hazard (a potential problem) and a risk (a real problem). Getting bit by a rabid unicorn is a hazard, but the risk is negligible. There is yet another article by Steven Novella at Science-Based Medicine on July 5, 2023 titled Aspartame and Cancer that explains how these two concepts differ:

 

“The difference between hazard and risk is important to understand in terms of this research. A good analogy I often go to is – a shark in a tank is a hazard, meaning that it can potentially cause harm in the right circumstance. But as long as you don’t swim in the tank with the shark, the risk is zero. Something happening chemically may be a hazard, but we need to know how the substance is metabolized, will it get to the target tissue and in what dose, and what compensatory mechanisms are there? A potential hazard can be of zero risk depending on exposure.”

 

Misinformation about commercial lemonade from Vana Hari - the ‘Food Babe’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the Food Babe web site by Vana Hari there is an article on August 2, 2024 titled The insane ingredients in lemonade + Homemade Lemonade Recipe. She is not too sane either, and there is a webpage about her on August 15, 2016 at the Encyclopedia of American Loons. And there also is a webpage about her at RationalWiki. Vana has been telling us nonsense for over a decade. There is an article by David Gorski at Science-Based Medicine on December 8, 2014 titled Vani Hari, a.k.a. “The Food Babe,” finally responds to critics which begins:

 

“It’s no secret that we here at Science-Based Medicine (and any scientists and skeptics with a knowledge of basic chemistry and biology) have been very critical of Vana Hari, better known to her fans as The Food Babe. The reasons for our criticisms of her are legion. Basically, she is a seemingly-never-ending font of misinformation and fear mongering about food ingredients, particularly any ingredient with a scary, ‘chemically’ – sounding name.”

 

Vana Hari’s lemonade article has a statement in red about a preservative used in commercial lemonades:

 

“When Sodium Benzoate is mixed with Vitamin C, it can produce BENZENE, a known carcinogen.”

 

Her site has a web page tiled Ingredients to Avoid in Processed Food containing the following explanation:

 

Sodium Benzoate (E211) or Potassium Benzoate (E212)

What it is: Synthetic preservatives.

Why to avoid: When combined with either ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or erythorbic acid it produces benzene, a known carcinogen.

Commonly found in: Soft drinks, pickles, syrups, sauces, salad dressing.

 

But there is an article by Joe Schwarcz at the McGill Office for Science and Society on February 15, 2017 titled Chemistry lesson for The Food Babe … and everyone else #7: the difference between hazard and risk. Joe begins by saying:

 

“We know that Ms. Food Babe’s scientific knowledge is negligible. Especially when it comes to understanding the difference between hazard and risk. This is important especially when it come[s] to understanding the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s listing of chemicals as being carcinogenic. This list is based on hazard, not risk. Hazard can be defined as a potential source of harm or of some adverse health effect. Risk is the likelihood that exposure to a hazard causes harm or some adverse effect. If a substance is placed in IARC’s Group 1, it means that there is strong evidence that the substance can cause cancer, but it says nothing about how likely it is to do so. That likelihood depends on several factors including innate carcinogenicity, extent of exposure and personal liability.”

 

At PubMed Central I found an article by Lucia Justyna Walczak-Nowicka and Mariola Herbet in the Nutrients magazine in 2022 (Volume 14, Number 7) titled Sodium Benzoate – Harmfulness and Potential Use on Therapies for Disorders Related to the Nervous System: A Review. Their seventeenth reference is another article from 2017 by  J. D.Piper and P. W. Piper in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety for 2017, Volume 16, pages 868 to 880 titled Benzoate and Sorbate Salts: A Systematic Review of the Potential Hazards of These Invaluable Preservatives and the Expanding Spectrum of Clinical Uses for Sodium Benzoate. There is a section titled The potential of benzoate to undergo decarboxylation, thereby generating benzene with the following discussion:

 

“Certain beverages containing benzoate salts and ascorbic or erythorbic acids have been found to contain low (ng/g) levels of the carcinogen benzene (Gardner and Lawrence 1993). This benzene is thought to form during storage through decarboxylation of the=benzoate by hydroxyl radicals. Elevated temperatures and ultraviolet light can accelerate, while sugar and metal ion-chelating agents can inhibit, such hydroxyl radical formation catalyzed by trace levels of metal ions.

 

Since the 1990s, food safety organizations have conducted surveys to determine the levels of benzene in retail beverages. Many companies have, in turn, responded to this benzene problem by reformulating those products that were found to contain benzene, substituting PS for the SB in soft drinks or - where possible - eliminating the preservative altogether. There may be additional benefits of this use of sorbate, as compared to benzoate, notably a prevention of the allergic response or altered cognitive function effects of benzoate described in more detail later in this article. A few cases of children having benzoate allergy were recently confirmed (Jacob and others 2016), while benzoate has been cited as a food additive that might be a contributory factor to hyperactivity in children (Eigenmann and Haenggeli 2007). However, the usage of benzoate in cosmetics does appear to be on the increase (Jacob and others 2016).

 

It is important to see this benzene contamination in perspective. Benzene can occur naturally in small amounts in a number of fruits, including mangoes, cranberries, prunes, greengages, and cloudberries, as well as fruit juices with naturally occurring benzoic and ascorbic acids. Second, our major exposure to benzene is from the atmosphere. On average, most people inhale 220 μg benzene every day from exhaust emissions, whereas cigarette smokers may be exposed to up to 7900 μg/d (Lindner and others 2011; Falzone and others 2016). While, as described below, benzene is potentially very harmful, it is improbable that the low levels of benzene in soft drinks are leading to any appreciable increase in benzene exposure for most individuals.”

 

The U. S. Food and Drug Administration has a web page with results from before 2007 titled Questions and Answers on the Occurrence of Benzene in Soft Drinks and Other Beverages which found:

 

“The results of CFSAN's survey indicate that the levels of benzene found in beverages to date do not pose a safety concern for consumers. Almost all samples analyzed in our survey contained either no benzene or levels below 5 ppb. .… FDA also found benzene above 5 ppb in one cranberry juice beverage with added ascorbic acid but no added benzoates (cranberries contain natural benzoates).”

 

The image with a glass jar of lemonade came from HarshLight at Wikimedia Commons.

 

Wicked Problems and Engineering a Better World

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been enjoying reading a 2024 book by Guru Madhavan titled Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World. It also has a preview at Google Books. For two decades I conducted failure analysis projects to solve what he describes as hard problems.

 

In the book he discusses four types of problems: hard, soft, messy, and wicked. Beginning on page 7 he says:

 

“Call the first type ‘hard problems.’ They are bounded and boundable, and scientific principles, market pressures, and sponsor requirements neatly specify them. The outcomes are directed – even dictated- by customers, consumers, and clients….Such problems can be mathematically manipulated, chemically configured, and materially improved. Ultimately, they can be ‘optimized’ by applying available knowledge and experience with the idea that the best possible outcome exists and is achievable.

 

The second class, call it ‘soft problems,’ is in the area of human behavior, which is complicated by political and psychological factors. Because their endpoints are unclear, and thorny constraints complicate their design, soft problems cannot be solved like hard problems; they can only be resolved. There are no easy fixes to a problem like traffic congestion….Since soft problems fuse technology, psychology, and sociology, resolving them yields an outcome that’s not the best but only good enough. As Ackoff characterized it, the results are based not on optimizing but on ‘satisficing,’ an approach that satisfies and suffices.

 

The third class, ‘messy problems,’ emerges from differences and divisions created by our value sets, belief systems, ideologies, and convictions. A disease outbreak may involve hard problems with solutions such as barcode-tracked supplies or antibiotic deliveries. The outbreak’s soft problems might require resolutions like mapping infectious disease spread or retooling the indoor environment to prevent the propagation of infection. Neither resolution is exact, but both are good enough. By contrast, a messy problem can involve a pathogen gaining antibiotic resistance or intersecting with delicate religious rituals, as we’ll see with Ebola…..Messy problems can be reframed out of existence not by optimizing or satisficing but by ‘idealizing.’ In Ackoff’s words, this entails getting the matter ‘closer to an ultimately desired state, one in which the problem cannot or does not arise.’

 

If they were works of art, hard problems would be photographs, offering clarity and directness. Soft problems are like blurry brushstrokes of impressionism, and messy problems are spilled and splattered abstractions. A wicked problem emerges when hard, soft, and messy problems collide. Think of them as a cubist collage where the truth is simultaneously sharp, shaky, and squiggly. All three are required for wickedness. Hardness is nestled in soft problems, and hardness and softness reside within messy problems. By extension, a solution can be within a resolution, and a dissolution might contain resolutions and solutions.”     

 

Chapter three of the book discusses the failure of a fifty-foot tall, ninety-foot diameter steel molasses tank that occurred on January 15, 1919 – when it had been filled for the first time. It killed 21 and injured 150. Wikipedia has an article about it titled the Great Molasses Flood. On page 114 Dr. Madhavan says:

 

“Based on the technical manuals of the time, the Purity tank’s safety factor should have been at least four times the strength chosen. The tank’s thin walls, selected as a cost-savings measure, proliferated a rapid fracture. Since the 1850s, when steel production ramped up, low-temperature brittleness has been a problem. Microscopic analyses from the Boston Navy Yard showed that the tank’s fractures were herringbone, a zigzag damage pattern. The breakdown of riveted constructions remained common well into the mid-20th century; during the winters of 1943 and 1944, World War II Liberty ships literally broke in half, embrittled.”  

 

But he is wrong about the Liberty ships, which were welded rather than riveted. The textbook example for failure was the tanker SS Schenectady, which broke in two on January 16, 1943 while she was moored at a dock in Portland, Oregon. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another tanker, the SS Pendleton, broke in two during a gale south of Cape Cod on February 18, 1952. 32 sailors on one half were heroically rescued by four men in a 36-foot Coast Guard motor lifeboat from Chatham, as depicted in the 2016 film, The Finest Hours and above in a sign at the Chatham station. You can watch a nineteen-minute YouTube video titled The Daring Sea Rescue That Shocked the World.

 

There was another horrible failure involving a tank storing liquified natural gas in Ohio. The Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion on October 20, 1944 killed 131 people.

 

A ten-pointed image from Openclipart represents a wicked problem.