There are varying degrees of "toxic." Red blobs painted on a map may or may not be relevant to your health. Toxicity is an arena rife with controversy and dis

There are varying degrees of "toxic." Red blobs painted on a map may or may not be relevant to your health. Toxicity is an arena rife with controversy and dispute. That they (EPA IRIS, ATSDR, or the like) take a "Lowest Observed Effects Level" and then straight line it back to zero, and then apply myriad "uncertainty factors" to derive an "X in a million" chance of getting cancer -- in many ways, it's all make believe. Many toxics have non-linear toxicity thresholds (like table salt or tylenol), and there's plenty of reason to believe humans may be more resilient to toxic exposures than animal surrogates, and not less. These Pro Public efforts, or those by the Environmental Working Group, use data produced by public agencies to paint a picture of hazard out of context, and they can sometimes lead to very expensive policy prescriptions with very low return on investment in terms of human health.