this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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[–] burgersc12@sh.itjust.works 508 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Plastic. Its in your blood ffs

[–] keenanpepper@sopuli.xyz 235 points 1 year ago (8 children)

This may be true but I hate the practice of referring to "plastic" as if it's a single substance. It's a bunch of different materials that don't really have that much in common with each other, especially from a health/toxicity standpoint.

For example, people treat it as common sense that "you shouldn't burn plastic" because the smoke is "toxic". For PVC this is totally true, it makes very nasty stuff like dioxin that will poison you. But on the other hand you can burn polyethylene (think milk jug) and it's no more toxic than burning a candle. Definitely way healthier to breath than wood campfire smoke, for example.

There's also such a silly pattern where people learn some chemical might have some effect on the body and suddenly everyone is up in arms about it. For example Bisphenol A in many applications was replaced by the very similar Bisphenol S just so things could be labeled "BPA Free". BPS probably has similar estrogenic effects to BPA.

I'd say the moral of the story is be wary of received wisdom about chemical toxicity from people who aren't chemists.

[–] RinseDrizzle@midwest.social 75 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Now I just want an accurate infographic of "safe" combustible plastics.

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[–] sadbehr@lemmy.nz 50 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Have you heard of Dihydrogen monoxide? It literally kills hundreds of thousands of people every single year all over the world, including young children.

You don't hear about it in the news though do you....

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[–] erogenouswarzone@lemmy.ml 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not only BPAs but many chemicals like BPAs can cause birth defects because our bodies think they are estrogen.

If this worries you, read the books It Starts With the Egg and Grain Brain.

They both suggest that not only what you eat, but how it's prepared can affect the health of a child.

For instance it's a big no-no, according to It Starts With the Egg, to heat most plastics in the microwave. The heat breaks the plastic down, it can get in your blood, your body will think it's estrogen, and they don't even know the full effects of this yet.

So think about

  • burritos in plastic wrapping,
  • cling wrap on a bowl,
  • reheating leftovers in Tupperware,
  • disposable cutlery

These chemicals are not just in food:

  • your car's interior
  • your cell phone case
  • even the clothes on your back, unless they're 100% pure, untreated, natural fabric, may have been made with these chemicals.
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[–] lynny@lemmy.world 357 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Social media. It wasn't until very recently that people started to realize just how harmful it actually is.

[–] manitcor@lemmy.intai.tech 114 points 1 year ago (15 children)

Less social media IMO, more the weaponization of techniques first researched in the 60s-80s made real and pushed via automaton to all corners of the public internet.

The reason you become vulnerable is because you abdicate control (most had no idea) of your feed to providers that own domain names.

This was a co-option of how the internet worked previously.

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[–] HamSwagwich@showeq.com 238 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Sugar. People don't realize how bad it is for you and how addictive it is.

[–] Zeth0s@lemmy.world 99 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

Sugar is not bad. Abuse of sugar is bad. Sugar is absolutely fine, as long as one doesn't exceed. Problem is that in American-inspired diets sugar is everywhere at gigantic doses

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[–] knobbysideup@lemm.ee 42 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I'd go with high fructose corn syrup

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[–] BaconIsAVeg@lemmy.ml 208 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Micro plastics. We were advertising them in facial scrubs ffs.

[–] PeachMan@lemmy.one 57 points 1 year ago (11 children)

This right here. We are undoubtedly the plastic generation. And it's not letting up any time soon; our kids will be included in this cohort as well. Banning plastic bags in cities is next to useless when everything we eat, everything we drink, and everything we buy is wrapped in plastic.

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[–] lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Plastic in general, except that we know and just keep doing it. I'm trying to use less plastic if I can but it's frickin everywhere. If you want to buy an ear of corn it's wrapped in plastic as if it isn't already wrapped in nature's protection. Seriously people.

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[–] fubo@lemmy.world 165 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (20 children)

Perfluoroalkyls aka PFAS appear to screw with all manner of body functions.

Since you mention tobacco: It's worth noting that the smoking/cancer connection was noticed long before peak cigarette smoking in the population. Prior to WWII, lung cancer was considered a rare disease. That changed with the mass marketing of cigarettes.

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[–] dmahtani@lemmy.ml 101 points 1 year ago (7 children)
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[–] Ghostc1212@sopuli.xyz 89 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (15 children)

Microplastics are the new lead, and screens are the new tobacco, in my opinion. Overuse of sugar in processed foods is the new version of how they'd cut food with inedible stuff like sawdust back in the day.

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[–] Treczoks@lemm.ee 84 points 1 year ago

Social Media

[–] trachemys@lemmy.world 82 points 1 year ago (4 children)
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[–] IonAddis@lemmy.world 82 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Vapes.

What will happen is one or another of the flavorings used will be safe to eat because of stomach acid and digestion, but inhaling it into delicate lungs will cause disease long term. Look up popcorn workers lung to see how a common butter flavoring in the past that was meant for eating on popcorn harmed factory workers breathing it in daily.

One of the existing vape flavors... or a new one... will eventually be shown to cause simular lung disease due to daily breathing it in never truly being studied. Someone with a favorite flavor will use it for years, like any smoker with a favorite brand of cigs, then probably get sick from constant long term exposure.

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[–] Cybersteel@lemmy.ml 81 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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[–] Nioxic@lemmy.world 74 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Plastics.

Yes, all plastics. Even bpa free plastics leak estrogenic chemicals into food, and fpod is often stored in plastic containers. Even milk cartons are lined with plastic.

Teflon(nonstick coated pans and pots) arr similarly terrible

Shoes with a raised heel is bad for your knees. (Easily measurably bad. Especially for running)

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[–] andrew@midwest.social 72 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Automobiles. Especially in the USA they are causing a public health crisis, environmental crisis, qualify of life crisis. I grew up loving them and they have uses but I'm fully convinced in the future they should be a luxury used for specific tasks or trips rather than the only form of transportation available.

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[–] ocassionallyaduck@lemmy.world 71 points 1 year ago (25 children)

Tiktok.

You said product, and I mean this legitimately. Not because of meme hate or hating on what is trendy, but because it is and has been a tool of the CCP. This isn't really in question, and it was one of the first large platforms to entirely erase the idea of a timeline and fully devote itself only to a algorithm feed. One that bytedance has put their finger on the scales of many times.

The effect this has is hard to quantify, but the postmortem on it is going to be incredible as we unpack exactly how much this influenced the trends and politics among zoomers, and to what extent.

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[–] pH3ra@lemmy.ml 64 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Microplastics and plastic related byproducts, like phtalates (which are connected with a decreased fertility in mammals)
I'm positive that the long term effects of these substances, that can be found in every link of the food chain nowadays, will be discussed a lot in the future

[–] pturn1@lemmy.world 64 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Vapes. The less regulated and underground production, which is easily finding its way to the high street, is building to be a repeat of the tobacco issues with cigarettes.

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[–] Coreidan@lemmy.world 60 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] Shikadi@wirebase.org 57 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Worth noting companies usually know it's dangerous way before the public does.

The chemicals used in Teflon manufacturing

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[–] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 56 points 1 year ago

Forever chemicals

[–] jannis@feddit.de 56 points 1 year ago (9 children)

PFAS, which are needed to produce teflon and other nonstick materials. It currently begins to attack attention, but wasn't really an issue a few years ago. It doesn't decay naturally so it will be forever in the environment. The EU is even planning to ban all PFAS.

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[–] _xDEADBEEF@lemm.ee 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Vaping fluid, hydrophobic coatings

Not sure why people keep saying microplastics. That's been known for a long time now.

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[–] jandar_fett@lemmy.fmhy.ml 48 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Literally came here to say plastic. That's the one.

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[–] spacedancer@lemmy.world 47 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Sugar, especially in the US where it's literally added into everything. What's worse is the alternative (substitutes like aspartame) might also be a candidate and we just don't know it yet because enough time hasn't passed to study the long term effects. I try to take stevia as much as possible because it's more "natural", but only a few sugar-free products use it over aspartame. I read recently the WHO still considers aspartame as a carcinogen, but only in excessive amounts, like several glasses of soda a day.

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[–] TeoTwawki@lemmy.world 47 points 1 year ago

Endocrine disrupters - mainly from plastics

[–] thawed_caveman@lemmy.world 47 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I thought the comments section would be filled with vapes.

Guys, i think vapes are a good candidate for something that hindsight will show us was dangerous, and i think images of teens smoking Juul will age as poorly as kids drinking beer.

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[–] Sharkbreath@lemmy.ca 47 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Capitalism. Been around for all generations but feels like greed is at its worst now.

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[–] manitcor@lemmy.intai.tech 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  • a number of nano-things
  • everything monsanto has been spraying
  • pfas
  • micro-plastics
[–] drdabbles@lemmy.world 45 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Aside from tobacco, all of those things were known to be dangerous but used commercially anyway because they were cheaper than alternatives. Today's equivalents are PFAS, plastics, and sweeteners of every kind. You will die with all of them in your body.

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[–] Cheers@sh.itjust.works 45 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Marketing. We put a person on the moon because we were scared of the space race, and then we spent the next 50 years figuring out how to make rich people richer by manipulating human behavior and gamifying everything so you buy into the buy more stuff you don't need and click more stuff you don't care about. We've gotten so good at it, we only need a 10 second short to advertise stuff to you.

This affects everything we do down to its core and will likely be the cause of astronomical ADHD rates in the future.

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[–] Cozy@feddit.de 42 points 1 year ago (13 children)

Corn. It is a fact that the number of autoimmune diseases are rising. I read a NHS study comparing the data of the last 30 or so years and of right now 1 of 10 people in the UK will get an autoimmune disease at some point in their live such as diabetes, MS, Parkinson,... 30 years ago it was like 1 out of 50. And one common thing in countries with a higher autoimmune disease rate is a lot of corn products, like corn starch, corn sirup,... Right now the final proof is missing cause the studies just started. And maybe it is not corn and something completely different, but the stakes are high it is corn.

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[–] czer0_@sh.itjust.works 42 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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[–] legion@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sugar is this generation's nicotine.

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[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Probably brake pads. Everyone's living in cities now, just breathing in brake pad and lead particles.

Oh and car tires. Just huffing those all day.

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[–] algalorp@lemmy.fmhy.ml 37 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Plastic, PFAS, CO2 Pollution, Tire dust (leading problem is cause of Asthma), Leaded fueled small prop planes (still standard), Oil, Industrialized agriculture (destroys nutrients in soils so food does not have it, produces tons CO2), many more.

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[–] mrpibb@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago (19 children)

Please, please, please, don’t be caffeine! 🀞

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[–] Walop@sopuli.xyz 36 points 1 year ago

"smart" devices aka Internet asbestos

[–] Bruce@lemmy.ml 36 points 1 year ago

If it's not known wether it's dangerous, how would anyone reply? With their guts?

This question can only get non proven answers and risks getting answered the top health infox of the moment.

[–] Underwaterbob@lemm.ee 32 points 1 year ago

It was only 13 years ago that the FDA changed its stance on BPA from "safe" to "some concern".

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