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Chemicals are shorthand for synthetic chemicals. We co-evolved with natural chemicals which means that they're usually not too harmful to us and get easily biod
by legulere 3y ago
Chemicals are shorthand for synthetic chemicals. We co-evolved with natural chemicals which means that they're usually not too harmful to us and get easily biodegraded.
In this case it's about PFAS, a subgroup of organofluorine compounds. There's only 5 known organofluorine compounds produced by organisms.
- bawolff 3y ago> We co-evolved with natural chemicals which means that they're usually not too harmful to us There are plenty of counter examples to this (and also pretty unclear what is meant by "natural") Lead is natural. Mercury is natural.
- legulere 3y agoNotice the word usually I used. It's about probabilities, and with vastly different probabilities come different burdens of proof. If you had the choice to put something random from the forest in your mouth or something from a chemistry lab?
- edgyquant 3y agoNeither lead nor mercury are chemicals that naturally exist in large quantities in a typical human habitat.
- defrost 3y agoAside from the evidence of > 2,000 years of lead and mercury poisoning, of course. Humans have been naturally digging these things up and refining them since at least the Roman Empire [1] in the west and the earliest Chinese Dynasties in the East [2]. [1] https://sites.dartmouth.edu/toxmetal/more-metals/lead-versatile-metal-long-legacy/ https://sites.dartmouth.edu/toxmetal/more-metals/lead-versat... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_the_First_Qin_Emperor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_the_First_Qin_Emp...
- marshray 3y agoJesus this is a stupid argument. "Don’t dump chemicals in water or on land" is a perfectly logical and defensible statement.
- hcurtiss 3y agoIs water a chemical? How about nitrogen, which comprises 3/4 of our atmosphere?
- edgyquant 3y agoYou know what was meant and this question is the perfect example of someone who is bad faith actor and we should jail for pretending to not get it. Water is a necessity to life and what humans drink, toxic chemicals aren’t. It’s simple, if it isn’t water don’t dump it, period.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- marshray 3y agoIs Bose–Einstein condensate a chemical? How about Neutronium? See how that works? Real productive mode of conversation, huh.
- hcurtiss 3y agoI’m just trying to understand what “don’t dump chemicals in water or on land” even means. If nitrogen and water are OK, then the directive is plainly wrong. What else would be OK? And how would we make that decision?
- paulmd 3y ago> I’m just trying to understand what “don’t dump chemicals in water or on land” even means. classic bad-faith interpretation, using the classic bad-faith slogan. No, you’re not “just trying to understand” anything, and GP is absolutely correct about that. We are not dying for content here without your “hurr durr don’t you know water is a chemical posts, and we generally try to maintain a higher level of discourse here. Maybe try Reddit instead. Please see the site rules about using the most generous possible interpretation of a comment, and if you actually have something to contribute then maybe try again.