That's just public ignorance, as far as I can see. When people think "chemical" they think of things like the reagents found in chemistry sets. There's no excuse for it really, but part of it is just emotion.
The same guy that got me the MSDS for water once saw me eating some cheese spread, and said, "You wouldn't eat that if you knew what was in it!" I asked him "what was in it," and he replied, "eartha-bait." I knew immediately what he was talking about, but one he rambled about "eartha-bait," and how it was made from earthworms, and how "they" put it in all kinds of processed foods. Of course he was talking about erythorbate, which has nothing to do with earthworms, but he had already swallowed the entire myth, hook, line and sinker.
If people would only think with their brains, instead of their emotions, they wouldn't be such suckers for propaganda!
Ha-ha. Good luck finding a majority of people who do that, even on FR here. What really gets me is not just that they fall for these ridiculous unscientific stories, but that they become so emotionally attached to them. Goodness, isn't your health worth a bit more than an emotional attachment to propaganda?