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

A Selection of the Scientific American Book Club
Explaining why antifreeze is a component of toothpaste and how salt works in shampoo, this fascinating handbook delves into the chemistry of everyday household products. Decoding more than 150 cryptic ingredients, the guideexplains each component’s structural formula, offers synonymous names, and describes its common uses. This informativeresource canserve curious readers as a basic primer to commercial chemistry or as an indexed reference for specific compounds found on a product label. Grouped according to type, these chemical descriptions will dissolve common misunderstandings and help make consumers more product savvy.