Reply #52: How about some real chemistry.

[DrWeird]

Phosphorous is a main row non metallic element that exists in it's pure form in two common allotropes. Red phosphorous and white phosphorous, both are sort of chalky solids and while one is much more toxic then the other, I wouldn't want to be exposed to either. Phosphorous is used in matches, gunpowder, and incendiary bombs. Vonnegut wrote well on what the latter does to civilians.

Phosphoric acid, H3PO4, is a strong acid which, when concentrated, can cause horrible burns. I have the scars to prove it. It's also one of the listed ingredients of coca-cola.

Other phosphorous containing compounds are common. Adenosine triphosphate is the energy currency in all living organisms, and phosphate makes up the back bone of DNA and RNA molecules.

Phosphorescence is a form of light. It's the quantum mechanically forbidden transition of an electron in a triplet state to a singlet state, basically, it's glow-in-the-dark. It got it's name centuries ago when some egalitation "scientist" first noticed in while experimenting with white phosphorous. That's the only connection phosphoresence has with phosphorous. Objects that phosphoresce are called phosphors, they do not, by definition, need to containg phosphorous.

Long story short:

Just because a compound contains phosphorous does not mean its bad, the human body contains a lot of phosphorous naturally.

Just because something is phosphorescent does not mean it's bad or contains phosphorous.

Just because somebody was born in the United States it does not mean they don't torture people.