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In case you haven't noticed, we have surrounded ourselves with chemicals that our bodies never evolved to deal with, and the list is growing. And as a society w

by jostmey 12y ago

In case you haven't noticed, we have surrounded ourselves with chemicals that our bodies never evolved to deal with, and the list is growing. And as a society we are still dealing with chemicals known to be dangerous. Take asbestos as an example. Everyone knows it is bad, and yet you can still find in the walls of old school buildings, houses, and places of work. Worse, the ban on asbestos was lifted in the USA allowing for materials to contain up to 1% of it. Someday we as a society will hopefully wake up to the dangers we put ourselves through. I continually find it amazing that human lifespan has gone up, not down.

finid 12y ago
> Someday we as a society will hopefully wake up to the dangers we put ourselves through. I continually find it amazing that human lifespan has gone up. That made me laugh. but yes, it's true.
ekianjo 12y ago
Huh, you should stop using computers immediately if you care a little bit about what you said, because that's one hell of a cocktail of various plastics, heavy metals and the like. And you are constantly breathing dust containing who knows what coming from it.
- jostmey 12y ago
  You're totally right. Not only are computers laden with a lot nasty chemicals, but the insides can become really hot, which could help the chemicals leak out. At the same time, computers have become indispensable to our lives.
jacobolus 12y ago
> I continually find it amazing that human lifespan has gone up, not down. I suspect you’ve never spent time in rural peasant villages. Many rural peasants (still today, but even more in the past) eat a simple and often poorly balanced diet punctuated by occasional periods of near starvation, do demanding physical labor from an early age until their bodies break down, catch all sorts of diseases that suburban office workers are never exposed to, sometimes get serious bacterial infections when they suffer any kind of laceration, have vastly inferior treatments for pretty much every medical condition, even something simple like a broken ankle used to be permanently crippling, etc., and you find it "amazing" that life expectancy has improved? If you want to talk about exposure to various carcinogenic compounds, any family who cooks on a wood fire in an open hearth in the middle of their house is breathing more smoke than all but the heaviest of cigarette smokers, worse than the worst air pollution Beijing has to offer.
- xeromal 12y ago
  lol. Salt Lake City has some of the worst smog I've ever lived in out of Chicago, LA and Atlanta. I remember reading an article about wood burning stoves causing equal pollution to all the vehicles in the entire valley. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56427415-78/utah-pollution-winter-wood.html.csp http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56427415-78/utah-pollution...
a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
> we have surrounded ourselves with chemicals that our bodies never evolved to deal with A healthy human body clears BPA fine. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2199288/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2199288/ The problem is many people are getting exposed to quite a bit all day long by eating and drinking a lot of canned/bottled stuff. I wouldn't freak out about what a water bottle is made of if you don't have chronic high exposure. More important than freaking about minor exposure is supporting a strong metabolism, immune system, and liver function. The body can clear stuff like this fine if running well. You want to be running a high metabolism on plenty of sugar and starch.
- graeme 12y ago
  >You want to be running a high metabolism on plenty of sugar and starch. Could you expand on that? Are you saying that sugar and starch help immune system and liver function?
  - a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
    Yes. The liver burns through a ton of glycogen. Allowing glycogen to get low by way of long periods of fasting or insufficient carb intake will inhibit the liver's effectiveness at clearing out estrogens, xeno-estrogens or otherwise. The immune system is also very glucose intensive. This is of course why hospitals put sick patients on dextrose drips.
jghn 12y ago
Asbestos isn't a problem if it's non-friable, like what you see with old house siding. My house has that stuff and it's a pain in the butt because it needs to be treated specially even though it's harmless.

by jostmey 12y ago

finid 12y ago

> Someday we as a society will hopefully wake up to the dangers we put ourselves through. I continually find it amazing that human lifespan has gone up. That made me laugh. but yes, it's true.

ekianjo 12y ago

Huh, you should stop using computers immediately if you care a little bit about what you said, because that's one hell of a cocktail of various plastics, heavy metals and the like. And you are constantly breathing dust containing who knows what coming from it.

jostmey 12y ago
You're totally right. Not only are computers laden with a lot nasty chemicals, but the insides can become really hot, which could help the chemicals leak out. At the same time, computers have become indispensable to our lives.

jacobolus 12y ago

> I continually find it amazing that human lifespan has gone up, not down. I suspect you’ve never spent time in rural peasant villages. Many rural peasants (still today, but even more in the past) eat a simple and often poorly balanced diet punctuated by occasional periods of near starvation, do demanding physical labor from an early age until their bodies break down, catch all sorts of diseases that suburban office workers are never exposed to, sometimes get serious bacterial infections when they suffer any kind of laceration, have vastly inferior treatments for pretty much every medical condition, even something simple like a broken ankle used to be permanently crippling, etc., and you find it "amazing" that life expectancy has improved? If you want to talk about exposure to various carcinogenic compounds, any family who cooks on a wood fire in an open hearth in the middle of their house is breathing more smoke than all but the heaviest of cigarette smokers, worse than the worst air pollution Beijing has to offer.

xeromal 12y ago
lol. Salt Lake City has some of the worst smog I've ever lived in out of Chicago, LA and Atlanta. I remember reading an article about wood burning stoves causing equal pollution to all the vehicles in the entire valley. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56427415-78/utah-pollution-winter-wood.html.csp http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56427415-78/utah-pollution...

a8da6b0c91d 12y ago

> we have surrounded ourselves with chemicals that our bodies never evolved to deal with A healthy human body clears BPA fine. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2199288/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2199288/ The problem is many people are getting exposed to quite a bit all day long by eating and drinking a lot of canned/bottled stuff. I wouldn't freak out about what a water bottle is made of if you don't have chronic high exposure. More important than freaking about minor exposure is supporting a strong metabolism, immune system, and liver function. The body can clear stuff like this fine if running well. You want to be running a high metabolism on plenty of sugar and starch.

graeme 12y ago
>You want to be running a high metabolism on plenty of sugar and starch. Could you expand on that? Are you saying that sugar and starch help immune system and liver function?
- a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
  Yes. The liver burns through a ton of glycogen. Allowing glycogen to get low by way of long periods of fasting or insufficient carb intake will inhibit the liver's effectiveness at clearing out estrogens, xeno-estrogens or otherwise. The immune system is also very glucose intensive. This is of course why hospitals put sick patients on dextrose drips.

jghn 12y ago

Asbestos isn't a problem if it's non-friable, like what you see with old house siding. My house has that stuff and it's a pain in the butt because it needs to be treated specially even though it's harmless.