3 ms·
> First, what is a 'dose' for a new chemical? The dose is the amount you expect an animal to ingest in its lifetime. > Second, there are all sorts of critical
by zug_zug 6y ago
> First, what is a 'dose' for a new chemical?
The dose is the amount you expect an animal to ingest in its lifetime.
> Second, there are all sorts of critical things that if you took 100x the recommended dose you would see a significant negative physiological effect. Like salt. Or water.
Uh, lol, no. 100x and 1000x multiples are standard EPA testing procedure, so you're not disagreeing with me, you're disagreeing with the EPA, and I'm gonna stick with the EPA on this one. [1]
> This is a far more nuanced problem that "let's just shoot up some monkeys with a gallon of the stuff and see if their nuts shrivel up". In fact, that sort of reductionist approach is why we have this problem.
That's a disingenuous reading. A 1000x dose of these chemicals would be less than a miligram, which is plenty to do harm. Even lead can do brain damage at the ppm level (some chemicals are even ppb). Don't be too embarrassed by your comment though, we all start somewhere.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_dose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_dose
- andromeduck 6y agoHaving a 100x multiples for clearance leaves a large safety margin but again take water, 0.5L per day is good, 1L won't kill you but above 8L people have known to die. That's only 16x. People also get get cyanide poisoning from raw almond smoothies, alcohol poisoning from binge drinking and caffeine poisoning at and also less than 100x regular portion. Radiation too, 2-30 is pretty typical and no statistically significant results but bring that to 300 and you get measurable increase in cancer rates.
- kjs3 6y agoDefinition of dose (Websters) (Entry 1 of 2) 1a : the measured quantity of a therapeutic agent to be taken at one time b : the quantity of radiation administered or absorbed 2 : a portion of a substance added during a process 3 : an amount of something likened to a prescribed or measured quantity of medicine a daily dose of hard work a dose of scandal 4 : a gonorrheal infection So the common definition isn't the one you are using. But if you pick your own definition, you get to be right. Being able to write with accuracy and precision is hard. Don't be too embarrassed by your comment though, we all start somewhere.