"But they mean artificial chemicals!"
Sure. Except people don't know which ones are "artificial", nor do they know whether these artificial chemicals are more dangerous than their natural counterparts.
They're just full of shit. They don't have a clue, they're just parroting shit they read on Instagram or whatever.
You want to prove "chemicals" are bad? Pick one specific chemical, do some studies and conclusively prove it's harmful, then say "chemical x is bad". "Chemicals are bad" is just incorrect.
Almost none of this shit is based on reality. For the things we know are bad like lead, asbestos, PFAS etc we have solid science and we act on that knowledge by writing legislation to prevent unsafe use.
Popular science is like 99% total bullshit. That's why people complain that "scientists change their mind every year". Because the scientists just published some results showing a weak link between chocolate and cancer, then a bunch of bullshit articles popped up saying chocolate cures cancer and then people wonder why they still have cancer after they ate chocolate.