Pet peeve

And we thought that elections here in the U.S. were bad. Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian opposition presidential candidate, was reportedly poisoned by "dioxin". Don't ask me why, but it bugs me when a reporter talks about "the chemical dioxin". "Dioxin" is not a chemical, it's a group of several hundred chemicals, the "dioxins".

When a reporter says "dioxin", they're usually referring to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (often and mercifully abbreviated to TCDD). Why not just call it TCDD?

It shouldn't bother me this much. Must be those memories of studying organic chemistry...