Not necessarily
>"The good and bad IMHO comes from improper use and not enough testing."
The problem is not insufficient testing. The problem is the very notion of synthesising artificial chemicals to inject into our bodies and expect them not to have major side-effects. Synthetic chemicals are inherently dangerous. You don't have to look far to see that - falling sperm counts, spiralling levels of enviromental illness. I have seen one study where 60% of chemicals tested were found to be carciogenic (see below).
You can *never* test enough. We would have to turn the entire planet into one big testing lab stuffed full of poor animals ready to be sacrificed for our folly.
The only *testing* I trust is the one provided by nature. Substances which exist naturally, and usually have been used by people over hundereds/thousands of years. Natural preventative diets/lifestyles which have been used by millions for thousands of years.
Going back to gray areas. The ideal would be to cure/prevent-illness purely through the use of diet/foods. Failing that concentrated extracts of herbal/natural supplements.
I agree that pollution is difficult to control (other than by moving), but nutrion/exercise can go a long way to mitigate. It wasn't long ago that the very notion of the envioronment causing cancer was deemed lunacy. Now we know that children who live close to petrol stations/car garages are more likely to suffer from lukemia. Provable medicine is always several steps behind common sense.
> but where do you draw the line in saying what is, or is not, a synthetic chemical; many natural remedies are sythesised to some extent. Take aspirin, do you call that a synthetic chemical?
Of course there will be gray areas - life is not black and white. Personally I consider aspirin synthetic. I would not take it other than from desperation. As for using it as a blood-thinner, if I found myself in the "hole" of having a heart-condition I would use a natural alternative - e.g. siberian ginseng, which has positive side-effects. Blood thinners abound.
BTW did you check out the horizon link about the SSRI controversy? Did you read the caring responses of the drugs cartels?
JV.
http://www.annalsnyas.org/cgi/content/abstract/895/1/232