6 ms·

I always wonder how many toxins are we currently unknowingly afflicting upon ourselves. Lead has been linked to a number of neurological and societal issues. T

I always wonder how many toxins are we currently unknowingly afflicting upon ourselves. Lead has been linked to a number of neurological and societal issues. The spike in anxiety and depression in the past decades makes me wonder if there is something going on there or if it is more of a reaction the social environment.

reedjosh 5y ago
Estrogenic Chemicals for one. https://www.amazon.com/Estrogeneration-Estrogenics-Making-Sick-Infertile/dp/1946546011 https://www.amazon.com/Estrogeneration-Estrogenics-Making-Si... Pretty much 90% of plastics.
- throwaway384028 5y ago
  I agree - I think we'll realize in our lifetimes that plastics have a lot to do with rises in some of those mental issues alongside the decline in average testosterone levels in males.
  - zapdrive 5y ago
    Boo fucking hoo. Nobody gives a damn about males. This is the age of feminism. Isn't testosterone a leading cause for toxic masculinity anyways? I forgot the /s, but I'm going to get downvoted either way.
  - astrange 5y ago
    There isn't such a decline. https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1372192564053430279 https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1372192564053430279
    - fighterpilot 5y ago
      The first factual claim on miscarriages is false. He says early pregnancy failures have increased ten percent. The graph he links shows no such increase according to line of best fit. It only shows it if he cherry picks the largest observation in the data. Even if I grant this false assumption, his inference that late miscarriages have declined doesn't even follow, the data he's presented is fully consistent with an increase in late miscarriage of a few percent. Regarding the testosterone question. The data in the tweet you mention actually does show such a decline - of almost 50 percent in young US males. His point is that the decline has stopped and levels have increased by an extremely small amount in the last 10 years, although that could easily be statistical noise since it is such a tiny increase. Overall, his data shows a large decrease over 50-100 years in the US.
    - throwaway384028 5y ago
      As much as I want to trust a guy on twitter who made some graphs on excel, according to the journal of endocrinology their is a decline: https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/92/1/196/2598434 https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/92/1/196/2598434 Plastics might not be the only factor, I believe a lot of it has to do with lifestyle of average americans as well (obesity, sedentary, high sugar and fat diets) though I do think that plastics play a part as well.
  - bongoman37 5y ago
    I wonder if that's behind the huge rise in MtF transsexuals in recent times. A friend of mine is a teacher in a high school and 4 of 15 kids in her class are trans.
    - bongoman37 5y ago
      Why is it okay to speculate about mental issues from rise in sex hormone mimicking chemicals in the environment but not about actual sexual issues?
SilverRed 5y ago
Non stick pans, water resistant shoe spray, plastic, mercury in seafood due to coal mining, various fumes from cars and gas stoves. We know all about it. It's just no one cares.
- fumar 5y ago
  Does all water resistant proofing that causes issues?
  - extrapickles 5y ago
    You can use the classic techniques such as using waxes and/or oils to add water resistance. There are downsides though in that they add more weight and require special care (eg: oiled items cannot be washed with soap without having to reapply).
- melling 5y ago
  40% of the world’s electricity is from coal, which is also a very large source of CO2 emissions
- qq4 5y ago
  I have never seen any conclusive evidence for nonstick cookware being dangerous with normal usage. I know that PTFE shouldn't get too hot, and temperatures above 500F are rare for range cooking.
  - hnick 5y ago
    Even if you burn the heck out of it, it has little direct risk if you're not a bird. I think the worst recorded case had someone fall asleep, burn the pan down to the base metal, and fill his apartment with smoke. All he got were some flu-like breathing symptoms (polymer fume fever) and a few days in hospital to monitor. So the chances of problems from incidentally getting the pan too hot via normal cooking seem low. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4544973/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4544973/ That said, cancer is apparently everywhere these days so that's a possibility, but no links are yet known. Though I do steer towards steel and iron anyway since I like to get a good sear which is easier with iron, and using metal tools is just more fun.
miguelrochefort 5y ago
Vegetable oil
ecmascript 5y ago
Microplastics is probably a big one. We're just making more of it every year and they will never disappear. It's incredibly stupid and everyone just keeps using it, even in stuff like body wash, sunscreen and toothpaste. People like us should get together and fill the world with at least sensors so that it becomes more visible.
- inter_netuser 5y ago
  does it not eventually get consumed by bacteria? they keep talking about finding bacteria/fungii that can digest it?
bionhoward 5y ago
FYI, for true pedantic accuracy, the term toxicant is preferred by toxicologists. Toxins are offensive poisons produced by organisms. Thus Lead is not a toxin unless concentrated to harmful doses by some organism. Highly recommend anyone interested in medicine to study toxicology, because there are so many misconceptions and FUD in this space. It's a great bullshit detector for all the hippies crowing about "removing toxins from the body"

reedjosh 5y ago

Estrogenic Chemicals for one. https://www.amazon.com/Estrogeneration-Estrogenics-Making-Sick-Infertile/dp/1946546011 https://www.amazon.com/Estrogeneration-Estrogenics-Making-Si... Pretty much 90% of plastics.

throwaway384028 5y ago
I agree - I think we'll realize in our lifetimes that plastics have a lot to do with rises in some of those mental issues alongside the decline in average testosterone levels in males.
- zapdrive 5y ago
  Boo fucking hoo. Nobody gives a damn about males. This is the age of feminism. Isn't testosterone a leading cause for toxic masculinity anyways? I forgot the /s, but I'm going to get downvoted either way.
- astrange 5y ago
  There isn't such a decline. https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1372192564053430279 https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1372192564053430279
  - fighterpilot 5y ago
    The first factual claim on miscarriages is false. He says early pregnancy failures have increased ten percent. The graph he links shows no such increase according to line of best fit. It only shows it if he cherry picks the largest observation in the data. Even if I grant this false assumption, his inference that late miscarriages have declined doesn't even follow, the data he's presented is fully consistent with an increase in late miscarriage of a few percent. Regarding the testosterone question. The data in the tweet you mention actually does show such a decline - of almost 50 percent in young US males. His point is that the decline has stopped and levels have increased by an extremely small amount in the last 10 years, although that could easily be statistical noise since it is such a tiny increase. Overall, his data shows a large decrease over 50-100 years in the US.
  - throwaway384028 5y ago
    As much as I want to trust a guy on twitter who made some graphs on excel, according to the journal of endocrinology their is a decline: https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/92/1/196/2598434 https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/92/1/196/2598434 Plastics might not be the only factor, I believe a lot of it has to do with lifestyle of average americans as well (obesity, sedentary, high sugar and fat diets) though I do think that plastics play a part as well.
- bongoman37 5y ago
  I wonder if that's behind the huge rise in MtF transsexuals in recent times. A friend of mine is a teacher in a high school and 4 of 15 kids in her class are trans.
  - bongoman37 5y ago
    Why is it okay to speculate about mental issues from rise in sex hormone mimicking chemicals in the environment but not about actual sexual issues?

SilverRed 5y ago

Non stick pans, water resistant shoe spray, plastic, mercury in seafood due to coal mining, various fumes from cars and gas stoves. We know all about it. It's just no one cares.

fumar 5y ago
Does all water resistant proofing that causes issues?
- extrapickles 5y ago
  You can use the classic techniques such as using waxes and/or oils to add water resistance. There are downsides though in that they add more weight and require special care (eg: oiled items cannot be washed with soap without having to reapply).
melling 5y ago
40% of the world’s electricity is from coal, which is also a very large source of CO2 emissions
qq4 5y ago
I have never seen any conclusive evidence for nonstick cookware being dangerous with normal usage. I know that PTFE shouldn't get too hot, and temperatures above 500F are rare for range cooking.
- hnick 5y ago
  Even if you burn the heck out of it, it has little direct risk if you're not a bird. I think the worst recorded case had someone fall asleep, burn the pan down to the base metal, and fill his apartment with smoke. All he got were some flu-like breathing symptoms (polymer fume fever) and a few days in hospital to monitor. So the chances of problems from incidentally getting the pan too hot via normal cooking seem low. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4544973/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4544973/ That said, cancer is apparently everywhere these days so that's a possibility, but no links are yet known. Though I do steer towards steel and iron anyway since I like to get a good sear which is easier with iron, and using metal tools is just more fun.

miguelrochefort 5y ago

Vegetable oil

ecmascript 5y ago

Microplastics is probably a big one. We're just making more of it every year and they will never disappear. It's incredibly stupid and everyone just keeps using it, even in stuff like body wash, sunscreen and toothpaste. People like us should get together and fill the world with at least sensors so that it becomes more visible.

inter_netuser 5y ago
does it not eventually get consumed by bacteria? they keep talking about finding bacteria/fungii that can digest it?

bionhoward 5y ago

FYI, for true pedantic accuracy, the term toxicant is preferred by toxicologists. Toxins are offensive poisons produced by organisms. Thus Lead is not a toxin unless concentrated to harmful doses by some organism. Highly recommend anyone interested in medicine to study toxicology, because there are so many misconceptions and FUD in this space. It's a great bullshit detector for all the hippies crowing about "removing toxins from the body"