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Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity
- mchannon 3y agoLooks like a small dose is about as effective as a massive dose. What’s the downside of a quack doctor selling benzene-contaminated supplements for fat loss? I’m sure there’s a huge increase in cancer risk, but wouldn’t this cause a lot of fat loss in a human?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- EatingWithForks 3y agoThere's something super dystopian that we look at a cancer-causing, bone-marrow-killing chemical and go "look, we can use this for weight loss!". I get fatness is a plague or whatever but thin == healthy is totally broken if you're using poison to get thin.
- xkcd-sucks 3y agoIf you're into super ~metal~ dystopian weight loss aids that are available today, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dinitrophenol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dinitrophenol
- Firmwarrior 3y agoIt sounds like something out of a cartoon It's an explosive compound that causes you to overheat and die if ingested in too large a dose
- A4ET8a8uTh0 3y agoAll I can says is: I learned something new today.
- rybosworld 3y agoI remember reading that body builders and models will take this. It basically causes your mitochondria to work less efficiently, and thus burn more calories. Take too much and you will die because your body can't regulate it's temperature. Scary stuff.
- EatingWithForks 3y agoYeah frankly I'd rather fat people stay fat and focus on lifestyle changes to health, fat or not, than eating life threatening explosives to get thin.
- mrguyorama 3y agoI agree with your opinion, but the other way to look at it is that most fat people know they are fat, "want" to do something about it, but just don't because losing weight is really hard, from a human level. Millions of years of evolution are working against you to lose fat stores, because 99.99% of people who have ever done that starved to death. If sketchy drugs are the only ACTUAL way to get the 3/4ths of the country to lose weight and be healthier, shouldn't we try it? Though, the end result of that is probably finding out that if you are a "healthy" weight from drugs, but your diet is still mainly mcdonalds and steaks and food made mostly of butter, you probably will have just as many health problems. And there's no exercise drug.
- EatingWithForks 3y ago> If sketchy drugs are the only ACTUAL way to get the 3/4ths of the country to lose weight and be healthier, shouldn't we try it? Well the thing is, I actually am super skeptical that eating explosive poison is healthier than being a fatty. I am way more optimistic for wegovy and other hunger-regulating hormone treatments that don't seem to cause you to die from overheating, and I'm all for fat people taking them if it helps them be healthier. But like, I'd rather a fat person stay fat and work on doing runs (even though exercise doesn't help much in losing weight, exercise is still good for fat people) than change nothing about their lifestyle besides eating poison. Skinny isn't always == healthy and shouldn't be treated like an "at any costs" measure. A great way to lose 25% of your body weight is to chop off a leg, but chopping off legs is obviously a stupid way to get healthy.
- zinclozenge 3y ago"Available" is a generous word. It's actually pretty hard to find even from underground anabolic steroid sellers. The only reason I was able to get my hands on it was because a seller was getting rid of his stock. The main reason is that it's actually pretty crummy for fat loss. If you actually want to lose weight you'd probably be pointed to a low dose of hgh, which has a ton of other benefits to help you lose fat.
- hammock 3y agoBenzene is everywhere, particularly in trace amounts in otherwise harmless products. Benzene is a building block for the production of many chemicals, including plastics, synthetic fibers, rubber, resins, dyes and pharmaceuticals, and residual amounts may remain in the final products. Benzene is used as a solvent and cleaning agent in printing, paint manufacturing, electronics, etc. Benzene contributes to the overall VOC load of paint for example. And benzene is in the formulation of adhesives and sealants. Regulations often restrict the amount of benzene to a certain amount
- TSiege 3y agoI thought benzene as a solvent was replaced by toluene, which is not good for you either but is less bad.
- FrustratedMonky 3y ago>"Benzene is everywhere, particularly in trace amounts in otherwise harmless products." Note -> Everywhere 'Today' because of your listed modern products. Not, Everywhere because it is some natural thing. Saying it is "Everywhere" seems to imply it is ok. The point is, we are all exposed now.
- elevaet 3y agoI didn't pick up on it being ok as the implication, rather that it's not ok because it's everywhere in otherwise harmless products.
- FrustratedMonky 3y agoSorry. Think you are correct. I read word 'harmless' and associated it with entire comment indicating 'harmless'. But on closer reading, it could be as you say, and it is not trying to excuse it.
- sidewndr46 3y agothe same thing is true of brominated fire retardants. Somewhere along the way it was decided flameproofing was necessary for consumer products. As a result, we all get a free does of bromine in our homes! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brominated_flame_retardant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brominated_flame_retardant
- pfdietz 3y agoBenzene kills fat tissue? BRB, going to write the "Benzene Diet" book.
- hammock 3y agoThe human brain is 60 percent fat
- CommitSyn 3y agoWoah, did not know that. So can true 'fat burners' like DNP give you brain damage, or is that something the blood brain barrier protects against?
- sidewndr46 3y agoDNP doesn't actually target fat that I am aware of. It messes with ATP and makes it incredibly inefficient, so your cells burn basically everything including fat to try and keep up with energy demands. This also can kill you due to the heat produced. It's also an explosive.
- zinclozenge 3y agoI took a standard DNP fat loss dose, the effects (weight loss and others) are vastly overstated. You'd have to take well in excess of any recommended dose to get to the point where the waste heat production would become dangerous. You're more likely to develop a cataract as a deleterious effect. I'd wager most of my weight loss came from the fact that I just wasn't eating because I felt awful.
- EatingWithForks 3y agoAccording to wikipedia, the actual tolerance of the dose varies widely. Because of this I would strongly discount individual accounts of safe experiences.
- Octokiddie 3y agoBenzene's wide-ranging negative health effects have been known for a long time. It's far from clear why this article reporting the results of a mouse study with rather unremarkable findings is on the front page.
- ramraj07 3y agoBecause someone posted it at the right time and not everyone knows benzene toxicity has an endocrine component.
- kens 3y agoHN makes much more sense if you think of it as a collection of chat rooms with titles. People are upvoting the topic and discussing benzene, mostly unconnected to the actual article. (Serious question: did anyone who upvoted the post read the article first?)
- thinkcontext 3y agoMy guess is because there was a study reported on last week that talked about benzene emissions from gas stoves.
- reddisbad 3y agoI thought it was related to a discussion on HN last week about an article that discussed the unreported and untracked levels of benzene in hand sanitiser, after regulations were eased during Covid.
- toss1 3y ago[flagged]
- com2kid 3y agoInduction stoves are better in every possible regard, except price. Well that and they can get too hot, I warped the bottom of my carbon steel wok because my induction stove heated it up too fast! Not a problem I had with any previous gas stoves!
- rcme 3y agoThey’re pretty good, but their low heat performance leaves a lot to be desired. Rather than provide a consistent level of low heat, they tend to turn off and on. That’s not what I want. But overall they are decent. Cleaning the glass is annoying though.
- mrguyorama 3y ago[flagged]
- jeffbee 3y agoThey must have perceived some threats because they created this entire astroturf campaign for the pro-gas side. https://youtu.be/hX2aZUav-54?t=708 https://youtu.be/hX2aZUav-54?t=708
- mrguyorama 3y agoNo, they didn't perceive threats, they perceived opportunity to push harder on the culture war, since it's basically their leading platform and leading means of generating the outrage that keeps their people voting. The "threat" was entirely manufactured. The group discussing it were not even TALKING about banning or confiscating stoves.
- takeyourmeds666 3y ago[flagged]
- davikr 3y agoBenzene also causes aplastic anemia when exposed to chronically, like in the case of some gas station workers. This is a pretty well known phenomenon.
- specialist 3y agoYup. I had aplastic anemia as a kid. (Fixed with a bone marrow transplant.) I previously had a summer job cleaning a small PCB mfg (1983). It was fucking awful. I read that company was later fined for improper use, storage, and disposal. Can't prove cause & effect, of course. But childhood aplastic anemia is pretty rare in my area (vs agricultural areas). So it's plausible.
- bilekas 3y agoThese types of studies are so intensive you really need to know about the subject matter to follow completely. I hate to ask this but is there anyone who can explain even the bulk of it for a layman?
- angst_ridden 3y agoBack in the day, I worked at a print shop as a press operator for AB-Dick 360CD printing presses. We'd clean the ink off the rollers between separations with benzene. We didn't have any special ventilation (or even use gloves, for that matter). The first few times you did it, you'd get quite a headrush. It's 40 years on, now, and I haven't yet experienced any health effects that I can directly link to that exposure. I'm sure I'm dumber than I would have been had I avoided the exposure, although I also grew up in the era of leaded gasoline. Based on what I've read, I'm more likely to experience Parkinson's, anemia, and various cancers in the future.
- notacoward 3y agoMy mother was a typesetter, and either worked at or leased space from printing companies for years. She also had major health problems for most of her life. I've often wondered if the whole cascade of medical problems started with exposure to the many nasty chemicals used in that industry.
- Robotbeat 3y agoCrazy how people just drive around in cars and fuel up with gasoline that contains like 2% benzene. And we let teenagers do this, with no personal protective equipment and no basic supervision.
- nomel 3y agoReference, for skin absorption of gasoline: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4067326/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4067326/
- mschuster91 3y ago> And we let teenagers do this, with no personal protective equipment and no basic supervision. Gas pumps have mandatory vapor recovery systems for decades now. That problem is long solved.
- nomel 3y agoThat doesn’t solve the problem of people splashing it on themselves, from faulty handles, which I’ve experienced and seen within the last decade.
- mschuster91 3y agoI don't doubt your experience, but I'd rather put that one on abysmal lax standards in the US... here in Germany, myself and a couple of friends I just asked never have witnessed such a thing outside of freak accidents where someone knocked over a jerry can.
- nomel 3y agoI believe the standard here is to change the handle once enough people complain about it splashing them. That was the case for the faulty handle that splashed me.
- specialist 3y agoMy father (and me) washed engine parts with gasoline. And occasionally degreased our hands (followed by dish soap and sugar). We practically bathed in the stuff. Then my father discovered Goop. My father also dumped engine oil into storm drains. Then into the ground when that was banned. Yes, he was an idiot. (Becoming a treehugger was probably an act of rebellion.)
- karmakaze 3y agoAll I recall besides being one of many carcinogens is that it's in cigarette smoke. From a Dutch health page. [https://www.rivm.nl/en/tobacco/harmful-substances-in-tobacco-smoke/benzene https://www.rivm.nl/en/tobacco/harmful-substances-in-tobacco...] > For smokers, tobacco smoke is the most important source of exposure to benzene. It is released in the smoke when tobacco is burned. Non-smokers are also exposed through tobacco smoke when they inhale smoke passively. A typical smoker inhales an average of ten times more benzene per day than a non-smoker.
- Karawebnetwork 3y agoCanada also has a page on Benzene if you want to compare notes: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/environmental-workplace-health/reports-publications/air-quality/benzene-indoor-air.html https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/environmenta...
- idlewords 3y ago"In mice"
- pengaru 3y agoBack in the late 80s/early 90s my elderly Italian-speaking grandfather lived with us in the states. Whenever he'd watch driving my gas RC car, if the thing would die he'd motion with his thumb down (like a pouring spout) while saying "benzene?". I don't know if it's an Italian language thing, his dialect, or just his knowledge of engines, but RC car fuel was "benzene". Makes me wonder what kind of benzene exposure he had in his younger days...
- MatmaRex 3y agoThat’s the word for “gasoline” in Italian and a number of other languages. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline#/languages https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline#/languages
- pengaru 3y agoI believe you, (and google translate agrees). But I just never heard it spoken outside those specific circumstances from him. Despite having Italian immigrant parents who spoke a lot of Italian around me. I can't remember but suspect they said gasolina, not benzina.
- zinclozenge 3y agoWhen I was taking organic chemistry my (mid-to-late 60s at the time in ~20010) teacher told us an anecdote about benzene when we started learning about aromatic molecules. She told us that they used to clean their lab bench with benzene solvent to make it sparkling clean. Of course, she also told us it was carcinogenic and then finished by saying a lot of her contemporary colleagues that went into organic chemistry research were now dead. Really drives home that a lot of safety precautions and practices are "written in blood", so to speak.
- vondur 3y agoChemists used to basically bathe in Benzene back in the day. I’ve heard that they as a group tended to die in their 60’s. Most teaching Chem labs tend to work with small amounts of chemicals today and try to avoid the nasty stuff if possible.
- PaulHoule 3y agoSee https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2031509/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2031509/ which seems to indicate administration is hazardous to your health
- tdeck 3y agoSpeaking of bathing in benzene When I went to Belgium I visited the Red Star Line museum The Red Star Line was a passenger ship company that brought millions of immigrants from Europe to the US in the early 20th century. In order to depart for the US, passengers were required to scrub themswlves down with benzene and let it soak in to kill any potential lice eggs. Also their luggage was autoclaved (yep, with hot stean) and then drenched in disinfectant.
- valianteffort 3y agoI believe around the same time the US was spraying migrants crossing the southern border with Zyklon B to deal with lice and typhus.
- treeman79 3y agoI and family was expose to very large amounts of benzene from a gas leak over the course of three months. It was a rental house came with that smell, and they kept making excuses as to why it had a weird smell. It’s taken about five years to get something resembling normal health. Intelligence of all family members dropped like crazy. Blood started clotting a lot. Nerve pain and inflammation were the norm. Doctors didn’t know what effect those chemicals would have so refused to sign any paperwork saying it was cause of all health problems. So lawyers wouldn’t take the case. Only in the past year can me and my oldest daughter start having normal conversations like we used to.
- nvartolomei 3y agoThis topic was recently brought to attention by David Friedberg in the latest episode of the All-In podcast. https://youtu.be/5cQXjboJwg0?t=6645 https://youtu.be/5cQXjboJwg0?t=6645 (1:50:45)
- caycep 3y agohow bad are gas stoves if I have a giant range above, I wonder?
- jokoon 3y agoI have this large plastic box that has quite a strong smell when I open it. I guess the plastic is decaying or reacting with something that's in it.
- xtiansimon 3y agoAh. Just in time for summer camping…My Svea 123 says to use benzene fuel. I use naphtha or “camp fuel”. Are we talking about the same compound? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svea_123 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svea_123 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naphtha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naphtha