Soap

• The global palmitic acid market is projected to reach an impressive USD 519 million by 2030, driven by its expanding use in personal care and household products like soaps, shampoos, and laundry detergents.
• Additionally, its contribution to the formation of grease and lubricants used in the automotive and industrial sectors further boosts market demand.
• The report highlights the flourishing demand for palmitic acid in the soap & detergent, personal care & cosmetics, and grease & lubricants sectors, making it an essential ingredient in numerous products.
• As the global market for palmitic acid continues to grow, major industry players are driving innovation to meet evolving consumer needs.

• In fact, according to ACI’s 2022 survey of college students, 72% feel less than completely prepared to navigate the responsibility of cleaning on their own.
• Sixty-four percent of parents surveyed this summer expressed at least some concern that their college kids don’t know how to use cleaning products effectively.
• The American Cleaning Institute’s Class of Clean: A College Student’s Guide to Cleaning offers resources to educate college students on proper cleaning, laundry and hygiene practices.
• The ACI College Parents Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research ( www.wakefieldresearch.com ) among 500 US parents of college undergraduates, between June 15th and June 22nd, 2023, using an email invitation and an online survey.

• And men worldwide – Africa included – are experiencing a worrying trend of decreased sperm count and quality.
• However, it is clear that environmental contaminants play a large part in declining fertility worldwide.
• Other contaminants that are increasing in prevalence and show signs of entering our food chain are pesticides and medication.
• Our study suggests that these “contaminants of emerging concern” might be contributing to the male infertility crisis in surprising ways.

Impact on male fertility

• The axis is the part of the endocrine system that controls reproductive functions – the ability to produce sperm in men and eggs in women.
• We report that contaminants of emerging concern can also act directly on testicles by disrupting the blood-testis barrier.
• This physical barrier protects the developing sperm from harmful substances that may be present in the bloodstream.

The legacy of fathers

• But these epigenetic marks can affect how the genes within sperm work without changing the underlying DNA sequence.
• Yet, these changes can be passed down from a parent to their child.
• In both cases, epigenetic changes can be passed on to future generations who have not been directly exposed to the contaminants.
• One category of compounds whose impact on epigenetic marks that has been extensively studied is nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as paracetamol and ibuprofen.

Taking charge

• But it’s not easy to detect and eradicate these contaminants.
• Current control measures include regulatory frameworks to limit the use of certain pesticides or pharmaceuticals, and develop safer alternatives.

• If you don’t know Lizzo yet, she shot to fame in 2019 with the release of her third studio album Cuz I Love You.
• The re-release of sleeper hit Truth Hurts launched Lizzo to number one on the charts and made her a household name.
• The catchy lyrics still have people around the world singing, “I just took a DNA test, turns out I’m 100% that bitch”.

Thick and juicy

• She also uses descriptors such as big, thick and juicy.
• Lizzo’s reclamation of the word is rooted in a queer-feminist led and disability-related activist movement: fat activism.
• The fat activist movement emerged in the United States in the 1970s, and includes early figures such as Judy Freespirit and Aldebaran.
• Fat studies has since emerged as an interdisciplinary field that documents and theorises the work of fat activists.
• For years fat activists have been drawing attention to the assimilationist nature of body positivity and its toxic and exclusionary mechanisms.

Fatness in society and culture

• We have the added complication that fatness, in many ways, is in the eye of the beholder: conceptions of fatness tend to be individually, socially and culturally shaped.
• She says,
  I am a Black woman, I am making music from my Black experience, for me to heal myself.
• I am a Black woman, I am making music from my Black experience, for me to heal myself.

So should we say ‘fat’?

• If an individual like Lizzo self-identifies as fat, an invitation emerges for us to also pick up and use the term to describe her body.
• Doing so, it feels like we, too, might participate in a process of fat liberation and size acceptance.