4 ms·
Aluminum wiring is the thalidomide of the construction industry. No matter how much you improve it, you will never get over the stigma. No one will buy a house
by baskethead 4y ago
Aluminum wiring is the thalidomide of the construction industry. No matter how much you improve it, you will never get over the stigma. No one will buy a house with state-of-the-art aluminum wiring just like no one will ever take thalidomide, even though they know exactly what caused the birth defect issue (chiral molecules that were created during the manufacturing process).
- josephcsible 4y agoBut people do still take thalidomide today, just not pregnant women, and only along with contraception.
- eru 4y agoFrom what I could learn from Wikipedia, it seems it's much less widely used than it would be without the bad reputation. In addition, German Wikipedia mentions some extra paperwork and hassle German doctors have to jump through if they want to prescribe.
- freeqaz 4y agoWikipedia straight up says "thalidomide causes birth defects." Could you please cite where you found this info? I might take a stab at updating the article if it's a legit source. Thanks!
- mb5 4y agoIt's not just stigma with thalidomide - the two forms of the molecule interconvert in the body. So even a dose of 100% pure R-thalidomide (the useful kind) will invert into its mirror image, L-thalidomide (the harmful kind), and will approach a 50:50 mix. As the sibling comment says, it's still used in cases where there's little to no chance of pregnancy, because we don't know another way to make it safe.