10 ms·
Makes you wonder what we'll find out is being withheld right now, 50 years from now.
by DoodleBuggy 9y ago
Makes you wonder what we'll find out is being withheld right now, 50 years from now.
- jungletime 9y agoNot really withheld, but I think underestimated is air pollution. "Worldwide, ambient air pollution contributes to 5.4% of all deaths" source - http://www.who.int/ http://www.who.int/
- averagewall 9y agoThat's a meaningless statistic on its own. Does it shorten 5.4% of people's lives by 5 minutes each? or does it kill 5.4% of people while they're children? The reality will be somewhere between those extremes but the number alone tells us nothing interesting. You can use something like years of life lost instead: http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat2006YearsOfLifeLost.pdf http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat2006YearsOfLifeLost.pdf
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- tryingagainbro 9y agoPlastics is my guess, even though quite a bit has come out. But then, maybe, that's the price we pay for convenience.
- ashark 9y agoI sometimes wonder which materials I directly interact with on a regular basis that people in a few decades wouldn't touch for anything short of large amounts of money. History tells us there are probably a few. Guessing at least a couple are plastics or plastic additives/coatings of some kind. Maybe whatever they replaced BPA with. Possibly gasoline will qualify. Probably one or two things currently on/in our food.
- johnchristopher 9y agoSome years ago (and I mean decades) my teenage self read somewhere or heard someone talking of the unknown dangers of some gas being released by motherboards (think: silent killers).
- gech 9y agoInteresting - found this https://ask.slashdot.org/story/02/09/09/1828240/gassing-off---motherboards-that-smell https://ask.slashdot.org/story/02/09/09/1828240/gassing-off-... The manufacturing process might not have been completed, the solders etc.
- Moru 9y agoThat is usually flame retardant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame_retardant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flame_retardant
- johnchristopher 9y agoThanks, that looks like it.
- vanderZwan 9y agoI expect the practice of of "sous vide in plastic bags" to be shown as long-term unhealthy sooner or later. It's one of those things where I wonder if the plastics really are as safe as claimed, or just "safer than the standard we set (and we didn't set it high, and our way of measuring is flawed)".
- test6554 9y agoIt's a good point. I can't remember the last time I saw a plastic bag that gave a safe temperature range right there on the bag or package containing the bags. You'd think they would say Safe for food up to 200 degrees F or something.
- 9y ago
- gggvvff 9y agoAspartame.
- tomjen3 9y agoI only upvoted you because Aspartame is such an interesting case - no other food that I can think of has had such vitrol thrown at it, yet every single scientific study has shown no effect on blood sugar, the chemical is simple, the two compounds it breaks down to in the liver are already present in the body and its properties are well known. Yet people still hate it.
- wolco 9y agoFrom my limited life experience: It tastes bad to the average male, it leaves a bad after taste that is really noticable. Females don't seem to notice the after taste.
- jessaustin 9y agoI used to feel that way and I am male, but I've found that now that I've consumed a lot, it no longer has that effect.
- megaman22 9y agoI don't notice any bitterness, but I've been drinking Diet Pepsi for something like 20 years.
- andygates 9y agoWait what? No. "Average" and "me and my buddies" aren't the same.
- wolco 9y agoIt is if you preface the discussion by saying in my experience. That limits the group to people I've had contact with that the word average would apply.
- 9y ago
- orthoganol 9y agoThe effects of vehicular pollution? If sitting in your garage with a running car kills you, obviously being surrounded by traffic all day in the cities we live in must be absolutely terrible for you.
- trendia 9y ago"For older women, breathing air that is heavily polluted by vehicle exhaust and other sources of fine particulates nearly doubles the likelihood of developing dementia, finds a study published Tuesday." http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-air-pollution-alzheimers-20170131-story.html http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-air-poll...
- GoToRO 9y agoYep. And a congested street is just like a pipe with holes every 4-5 meters, that distributes poison.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- pm90 9y agoThere are a lot of environmental and societal factors that would get you rather than anything that we probably don't know about yet. Sugar and Tobacco are probably outliers simply because of the sheer quantity in which humans consume them (or used to, for smokers). That itself increases greatly the chances that they will directly cause some kind of cancers. Now if in the future, we change our society and progress medical science far enough that we live well past 100 years, that is when we should be worried about dangers from materials that we only occasionally come into contact with. Even then, cancer treatments would probably be a routine thing by then... I guess my point is that you would more likely die in a car accident than from something we're not aware of just yet.
- jacobush 9y agoFacebook
- y_u_no_rust 9y agoecigs no doubt
- dclowd9901 9y agoRadio signals causing cancer, probably.
- pessimizer 9y agoNon-stick coatings on cooking implements and flame retardants.
- toomanybeersies 9y agoTeflon is chemically inert though, as long as you don't overheat it.
- mjevans 9y agoI hope the silicon stuff is OK; I prefer that as it's point of thermal breakdown is way past anything I want in my kitchen anyway (aside from direct open flames which I don't currently use but know some cooking does). I also prefer the ceramic linings, since those are more likely to be OK in my mostly uneducated opinion. (However the type of material is different, and hopefully less likely to leach).
- lucaspiller 9y agoThe problem is it starts breaking down at around 250C, and if you leave a pan on a stove it can easily get above that temperature. The chemicals it breaks down into are known neurotoxins, and are especially lethal to birds. In Europe (especially Italy where I believe Teflon is banned in cookware) ceramic coatings are becoming the standard for non-stick cookware.
- davymac 9y agoAka don’t cook with it
- KozmoNau7 9y agoI've made a complete switch to stainless steel, cast iron (both enameled and bare) and carbon steel. I particularly enjoy using my inexpensive carbon steel pan that I got from a local kitchen supply store, I find it even better than an actual cast iron pan. It's made from 3mm plate steel and it's smooth like old-fashioned cast iron pans, so after about a month of regular use, I would honestly call it nonstick. Certainly nonstick enough for eggs or fish. As an added bonus, it will last basically forever as long as you don't warp it from thermal shock or let it sit while wet, so it rusts. You can take away most other items in my kitchen and I wouldn't be too upset, but don't ever touch my carbon steel pan and wood spatula!
- jungletime 9y agoAlso, asbestos is all over the place in a lot of homes. Plus many locations also have Radon gas seeping in. These things are known about, but mostly ignored because of the cost to fix them.
- buckminster 9y agoMost Western countries have banned the use of asbestos so the problem isn't getting any worse. But not America! What's worse is that we've known about the dangers for more than 100 years.
- Tsiklon 9y agoHang on, Asbestos is still used in America?
- buckminster 9y agoYes. Permitted uses include brake pads and clothing!
- SmellyGeekBoy 9y agoWoah, TIL: https://www.asbestos.com/blog/2012/09/17/why-isnt-asbestos-banned-in-the-united-states/ https://www.asbestos.com/blog/2012/09/17/why-isnt-asbestos-b... Here in the UK if traces of asbestos are found the entire building is quarantined while a team of workers in hazchem suits and breathing apparatus removes it!
- jungletime 9y agoEstrogen in Soy causing #SoyBoys
- devmunchies 9y agoMyth. There's much more estrogen in dairy. Milk is packed with hormones. It comes from a female cow after giving birth for heavens sake.
- sethammons 9y ago"The bullets from handguns." "Myth. There's much more 'bullet' to a rifle round." Just because there may be more estrogen in milk, how does that take away from the estrogen in soy?
- dashundchen 9y agoSoy doesn't contain estrogen, it contains phytoestrogens. This is a common misunderstanding. Phytoestrogens include isoflavones in soy, which can have a wide variety of effects, (including decreasing estrogen levels) depending on gut flora, age, sex, hormone levels https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3074428/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3074428/
- leakyabs 9y agoThe good news is that a) it isn’t estrogen in soy but a chemical that mimics it in the body, and b) it doesn’t turn men into women.
- wu-ikkyu 9y agoPerhaps it is superstition, perhaps not, but I try to avoid TV dinners or meals which involve microwaving plastics.
- obstacle1 9y agoThat's a good idea. But I think the TV dinner itself might be worse for you than ingesting whatever the by-product of microwaving the dinner's plastic container might be.
- lamby 9y agoIt's likely that engineering a lifestyle that does not result in eating TV dinners is healthier. Sure, it's getting cause-and-effect backwards, but I'm certain there is something there... :)
- asabjorn 9y agoThe obesity code by Dr. Jason Fung gives some great insights into what we know, and in the end it's quite simple. Our body regulates weight through insulin, so try to keep the insulin levels as low as possible and have extended periods every day where you don't eat.
- lucaspiller 9y agoI wouldn't be surprised if evidence comes out that changes alcohol consumption drastically. Yes people have been drinking alcohol for centuries, but it was originally as a way to preserve calories, avoid drinking unsafe water, and as a crude medical treatment. Today the main reason people drink is to get merry and drunk, and forget about life's problems. The alcohol we drink is (usually) no longer natural, it's processed and refined on an industrial level. I'm sure everybody knows someone who was an alcoholic and the issues it caused them. On the other hand, it's common knowledge that smoking causes major health issues, yet people still do it...
- KozmoNau7 9y agoI've already changed my alcohol consumption. Firstly, I cut down on my overall consumption: most days I don't drink any alcohol at all, and at events I try to stick with 4-5 beers maximum. I sometimes stretch that a bit at festivals, but those only happen once every ~3 months or so and the intake is usually spread out over 8-10 hours. Secondly, I very much prefer less processed types, such as wine, whisky and unfiltered beer. I stay far far away from alcopops and similar drinks. It may be anecdotal evidenece, but I get far fewer hangovers now, even if I drink to the same amount as I used to.