• ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
    3·
    1 hour ago

    I hate how every time we come up with a new “miracle” chemical that solves really big issues it ends up being either carcinogenic or devastatingly harmful to the environment.

    It’s like how we almost made bed bugs extinct in America but the chemical being used was causing cancer and birth defects.

    Why can’t we have nice chemical things!?!?

  • ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
    51·
    4 hours ago

    I remember the first time I huffed canned asbestos. Woke up six days later in Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee; dressed like Santa Claus in the middle of April.

    10/10 experience. Totally worth the deliberating lung cancer.

  • Phantaloons@piefed.zipEnglish
    64·
    15 hours ago

    I learned there were asbestos tobacco pipes like a week ago. Humanity really didn’t see any of this coming.

    Asbestos tobacco pipes are insanely rare and collectible these days, though. No one dares smoke them, more historical discussion pieces.

    • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
      7·
      4 hours ago

      Isn’t it asbestos dust that’s the issue? Like asbestos in the walls isn’t harming anyone, but if it gets demolished or destroyed then the dust is what causes issues?

      At least that’s what I heard, but it could be wrong. And I guess scraping the pipe might create some dust anyway…

      • filcuk@lemmy.zip
        10·
        9 hours ago

        Ah the famous picture of a guy who’s lower jaw just fell off after he kept drinking this.
        Similarly well known ‘radium girls’.
        Horrific cases.

    • Goun@lemmy.ml
      37·
      15 hours ago

      We never care of what’s coming, we invent/discover something and use it for freaking everything instead of studying long term impact. It happens all the fucking time.

      • DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.ml
        122·
        10 hours ago

        Like with aspartame. There was no legit long term studies done until recently and it showed that aspartame can reduce intelligence

          • arrow74@lemmy.zip
            12·
            7 hours ago

            There seem to be problems with their study

            Here’s the first glaring one:

            the mean consumption of LNCSs was 92.1 ± 90.1 mg/d.

            What an absolutely ridiculous range of consumption for a study population.

            Also the years they were collecting this data unfortunately had a whole pandemic occur. Covid is very well documented at causing long term mental decline. I’d like to see how many of their study group had confirmed covid infectious.

            Overall I’m not saying it’s not worth further investigation, but there are far too many unknown variables that the study did not control for. Rate and frequency of consumption are huge.

      • Agent641@lemmy.world
        43·
        13 hours ago

        Asbestos really seemed like a miracle material. Its so easy to pull out of the ground and process into anything from tiles to fabric to brake disks. It’s abundant, cheap, and easy to mine. In a world where it seemed everything was always catching on fire, asbestos was magically fireproof. It was saving houses and children and housewives from going up in flames if they got too near a stove or fireplace. It was revolutionising industry, making workplaces safer and more efficient. I really don’t blame anyone for using it everywhere in those early years.

        But greed took over after asbestos products flooded the market and the major health hazards became apparent. The corpos and the govts were too greedy and scared to admit it was dangerous, because that would mean choosing to dismantle a billions-dollar value strong industry and start recalling everything.

        • MintyFresh@lemmy.world
          19·
          12 hours ago

          Exactly this. I knew this old retired fighter pilot guy, and he had asbestos gloves he held onto from his service days. He let me play with them at a BBQ once. You could straight up shove your hand into a pile of burning coals, hold it in your hand. Cool to the touch. It really seemed like magic. It really is a wonder-material. If not for the afromentioned cancer…

      • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
        2·
        4 hours ago

        Some plastics are worse than others. ABS, BPA, BPS, PFAS, etc. are really bad. Polycarbonate releases toxic fumes during manufacturing but it’s considered non-toxic afterwards.

        PLA is plant-based and decomposable. Polyethylene is inert/non-reactive and non-toxic. Cellophane is literally made from cellulose.

        I don’t really know about polypropylene, polyurethane, polystyrene, or polyester.

        Then there’s vinyl and nylon. Fairly certain those are inert and non-toxic, but I’m not 100% certain.

        Then you’ve got latex and natural rubber which some people have allergies to but they aren’t intrinsically toxic as far as I’m aware. Synthetic rubbers vary in toxicity. I don’t know about neoprene for instance, but silicon is inert and non-toxic.

        The problem is “plastic” is such a broad term, and to a lot of people, all of the above are just “plastic.” The fact is there are a variety of plastics and choosing your material intelligently can make all the difference.

        Of course, microplastics are a whole nother issue even aside from toxicity…

      • VonReposti@feddit.dk
        11·
        12 hours ago

        I think it will be much less pronounced. The negative effects of plastic in the body are relatively unknown, but IMO I think it will mostly pose as neurodevelopmental-like symptoms which won’t be able to compare with either lead or asbestos.

        And the environmental consequences? The majority just doesn’t worry about that.

        It definitely won’t be as bad as asbestos where inhaling just a single fiber can cause cancer. Lead, maybe, but lead is still widely used. Just not in normal fuel. We still use it in some aviation fuel though.

        • bizarroland@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          4 hours ago

          I imagine it’s gonna give people hormone problems more than neurodevelopmental problems.

          We’re probably going to see more giant babies and kids that are going into puberty younger and younger, and more instances of acromegaly in organs that are hormone responsive, like breasts and genitalia, and an increased predisposition to obesity since body fat is also a hormone soak.

          There’s probably gonna be more issues on top of that, probably with stress on the liver, kidneys, and heart to process the increased and more variable hormones that human beings are exposed to.

          And I imagine there’s going to be a mean regression in human lifespan due to all of these factors combined.

        • filcuk@lemmy.zip
          2·
          9 hours ago

          There are also many types of plastic with very different chemicals.
          I wonder if the next asbestos is carbon fibre, as it’s a popular infill for 3d printing, yet it is also made of nano needles that can destroy people’s lungs (at least large scale, it’s why it’s usually cut underwater).

          • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
            1·
            4 hours ago

            If the needles were the issue then people would have to stop using fiberglass insulation and gypsum board drywall too.

            The abrasiveness is a completely separate concern from the toxicity.

  • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
    112·
    12 hours ago

    As it so happens, asbestos is actually much less harmful when you drink it, because it doesn’t get lodged in your lungs. (Iirc) So having asbestos pipes is fine

    • papalonian@lemmy.world
      182·
      15 hours ago

      Did you know? Clean, fresh air has a natural tingling effect. Most places these days are so polluted with toxins that we never experience perfectly clean air anymore.

      That’s where asbestos comes in.