this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2024
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This is sort of a shower thought because this morning I was using some shaving cream and I thought, if it turns out in 5 years this was giving me cancer, I wouldn't be surprised.

Comes out a goo, ejected from a can with force, immediately becomes a foam?

Do you have anything you use that you think might be too good to be true?

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[–] [email protected] 88 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I work in hazardous materials handling and safety, and I studied chemistry. I've done a lot of soil remediation and I'm pretty up to date on how we (Europeans) handle the safety of our air, food and water.

So, good news: your air hasn't been cleaner since basically we started burning coal. Your drinking water hasn't been this safe since, oh, pre-agrarian times. Your food is probably less nutritious per gram thanks to faster growing food, but your diet is (potentially) better than any human has ever had (depending on your personal choices).

That said, there are some things I avoid like the plague:

  • Swimming in open water. It's (potentially) full of parasites, toxic algae, human and cattle feces and chemical runoff. Probably not all at once, but still. YMMV if you don't live near the sea, mountain streams are much cleaner then those at the river delta.

  • Home grown food from urban gardens. Your soil is probably completely untested, and the idea of "maybe I shouldn't just pour chemical waste out of the window" is barely 4 decades old. And that's counting the dubious quality of planter soil that is basically unregulated, and what people use as decoration. (Do NOT use wooden railroad ties or tires as planters for food). And of course what people use as pesticides isn't exactly closely monitored either.

  • Drinking water from wells, springs etc. see all the above.

  • Ordering anything with wish/aliexpress that comes in contact with food. You know that stuff is completely unregulated, why the hell would you lick it? Nobody knows what it's made of.

And there's one thing I don't avoid, but it's super unhealthy: wood fires. Yeah, a hearth or a campfire is awesome, but the smoke is super fucking bad for you. The carcinogens are stronger and last longer than in cigarettes, and its a hell of a lot more of them. I lie to myself and say it's worth it though, and that I don't do it every day, and other bad excuses.

[–] rational_lib 4 points 3 days ago

Home grown food from urban gardens. Your soil is probably completely untested, and the idea of “maybe I shouldn’t just pour chemical waste out of the window” is barely 4 decades old.

And let's not forget that any soil near a road had a ton of lead released nearby throughout much of the last century, and that just stays there. As well as lead paint chips from buildings.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Wood fires are bad? Does this have to do with the wood? What about charcoal? No more bbqs then?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Charcoal isn't as bad as wood, it creates less smoke and the most complex chemicals are already gone. Gas is better, since it burns much cleaner, and electric obviously doesn't create any gasses at all.

On the other hand, grilling and smoking red meat means dripping fat, which means smoke, meaning you create a whole new set of PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), which you breathe in and get stuck to the meat and those are carcinogens. On top of that, red meat is already not too great for you. Eating burned food (charring) is also really unhealthy.

But assuming you don't spend every day breathing mostly bbq-smoke and gasses, I wouldn't worry about this too much. If your main diet is home grilled beef over self-made charcoal, you definitely need to reevaluate your lifestyle choices though.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This was written by Hank Hill

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[–] PriorityMotif 4 points 3 days ago

There's cornfields next to airports where avgas still contains lead. The lead concentration in the soil around airports is very high. There's also fields next to old Air Force bases where they used firefighting foam that contains PFAS. They would run drills with the foam, so it was used fairly regularly.

[–] [email protected] 91 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Toothbrush. In one hand it scrubs food and gunk away and helps distribute fluoride toothpaste around. On the other it’s made of tiny plastic bristles that are probably disintegrating when in your mouth and growing a fun ecosystem when out of it.

[–] LilDumpy 56 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Ever since I heard of microplastic, this has been on my mind quite a bit. Although it might not be "ingested" if they are micro enough, it can probably still get absorbed every time you brush. Multiple that by every day of your life and, boom, now there's plastic in my balls and I'm 3D printing on my girl's face.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago

boom, now there's plastic in my balls and I'm 3D printing on my girl's face.

I’m stealing it

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago

This is a clever answer and now I completely agree with you.

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[–] Contramuffin 53 points 4 days ago (7 children)

Plastic food containers. I mean, we already know it's pretty bad, but I would not be surprised if it ends up being way worse than we think. That, and most aerosols. Febreze, hairspray, spray tans, things of that nature

[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

I just saw an article the other day that black plastic utensils are toxic. I'm right there with you.

A couple places near me still use styrofoam. I can't get past it.

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[–] NJSpradlin 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I stopped microwaving plastic containers like 15-20 years ago. Hopefully that’s enough.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Yep, I never could get past the taste of plastic in my food.

Only microwave in glass and ceramic!

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[–] PriorityMotif 10 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Air conditioning. All kinds of bacteria, dust, mold, algae, who knows what else is going through the evaporator, through the air ducts and blasting right into your lungs. Yeah, there's a filter, but it's on the intake side. It doesn't account for what has built up in there over the years and it doesn't catch everything. The one in your car can be equally as gross.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

you get Legionnaires' disease from air conditioners. It's called that because it was figured out after a bunch of people died from improperly maintained air conditioners at a hotel hosting a Legionnaires convention in the 70's!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

That's why I use a mini split ductless unit. A lot easier to clean.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The internet and all electronic equipment. I think they are doing something much more sinister than whatever is reported so far.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Not really "secretly" bad for you, but all the plastic in our lives. I wonder how we'll ever replace it cause everything you buy at the supermarket (in developed countries) is wrapped in plastic.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

Warfarin blood thinners.

Wouldn't be surprised if we find later that after decades of use that someone's body can gain resistance to it. I'd be fucked since I'm on the blood thinner train for life*.

*or until we can start printing human cells to recreate human parts

[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Probably my asbestos fake snow.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Our phones are probably doing something to us

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I read somewhere that the existence of the internet massively stifles our ability to reason. For every question I have, spending a few minutes to ponder what the most plausible answer is provides a small workout for my brain. If everything I'm curious about is answered within seconds, I don't get those mental workouts.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I think that comes down to your desire to learn. One person might just repeat a google answer but another person might spend some time thinking about why it's the right answer.

Google is how people get degrees after all, it's the modern day version of hunting down books in libraries

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I think there are many questions where it's very easy to convince yourself the solution is obvious after you've been shown it, but it's less obvious for someone who is taking the time to try to figure it out on their own.

I teach college math courses (usually around calculus-level), and for every exam I give I will write a practice exam to post online a week before, and I'll devote the lecture prior to the exam to reviewing those problems. I try to make every problem that appears on the exam very similar to one that was on the practice. The students who attempt the problems before the review session, even the students who get incorrect solutions in the process, will bulldoze their exams and will say it was essentially identical to the practice, while the students who just watch me give the solutions and copy down what I'm writing will tell me the practice was easy but this was barely similar at all.

When you see an obvious solution immediately, you completely bypass seeing potential stumbling blocks which might have tripped you up.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I get what you're saying about how people establish stronger pathways when they discover something on their own rather than copying something down but at the same time, that's how education works. You have something explained to you simply first, whether that's by human instruction like a prof or written instruction/visual demonstration like doing your own research on google. Of course there are low quality/high quality internet sources just like there are low quality/high quality professors and that goes back to how much of a desire the student has to learn, whether they just want to copy and paste answers or actually understand why it is that answer.

As a math teacher I'm sure you can agree that high level academics depends on having a understanding of the fundamentals. If I don't understand algebra or polynomials then It's going to take me a while to get a hang of derivatives or calculus and that doesn't mean I'm stupid or lazy, I just haven't devoted my life to that specific field because I have 9 other courses to study at the same time. Graduation numbers would be insanely low if we expected kids to figure everything out on their own without access to previous knowledge like the internet. Having the world's library at your fingertips gives you the ability to copy and paste but also the ability to be an autodidact, it really depends on that specific person's desire and goals.

I had a lot of foreign students as TA's for my calc courses, I know it's not their fault but it was really difficult for a lot of us to understand their accents and we didn't want to be rude by asking them to repeat themselves all the time. If I didn't learn google-fu for explanations on concepts I would have failed those classes easily.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I was trying to use an example from personal experience to illustrate the benefit, but my point is that immediate answers wasn't an option not too long ago, so curiosities you actually did want answered would necessarily have that delay. Being able to learn things well in spite of this shift is becoming a skill not everyone has. It's something that needs to be nurtured, and it's now easy to neglect, which really can affect everyone, although obviously some attitudes and lifestyles will be hit harder than others.

Something of a tangent but honestly I hate the way academia works here in general and I resent my role in contributing to math being used as a barrier to a better life. Unfortunately, I do need a career of some sort and there are worse things I could be doing. So I play by the rules well enough to keep my job and just try to do my best to be understanding.

I didn't even enjoy math myself until I took an analysis course because I thought a math minor would help with job prospects. I always had an easy time with math and when I took analysis I got a D the first time and barely scraped by with a C the second. Math is actually interesting when you feel there's creativity required in problem-solving, but it's not reasonable to demand that in a lower-level math course because it doesn't mesh well with a course existing primarily as a roadblock for students.

A hardworking student might still struggle to develop that creativity quickly enough to get through the course unscathed, which is fine if you're enrolled because you just want to learn, but not fine for students trying to get good grades or at least pass everything to get through as quickly as possible. A student might have the crazy idea that failing is a financial hit or something. The result is you're simply put through a grind until you voluntarily take on a course beyond the calculus sequence.

What I'm getting at is that I think your complaints all stem from the fact that, in spite of what we're all forced to pretend, education is not the main purpose of academia.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago

We know that depending on your use it can ruin your attention span. But I agree, it's probably worse than we know.

[–] Letsdothis 5 points 3 days ago
[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Those water flavor squirts, mio or crystal light type stuff. I'll drink plain water over just about everything else (egg nog is the weakness and exception right now...), but the various lemonades or fruit flavors are always nice to have around. I wouldn't be surprised if something in their composition is not good for you.

A slightly more titillating answer would be lube. You're putting something on a mucous membrane, and it's almost guaranteed that some will be absorbed or ingested.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 days ago (6 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I figure we may see documetaries in yhr next decade on how Vape industry was complicit like the tabacco industry was

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[–] andrewta 22 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

Air fryers.

Most of them are designed so poorly that it’s also impossible to get all grease out of them. That can’t be healthy. My sister has a ninja air fryer, you can’t remove the top grate. There is grease build up in there. A friend of mine has one he brings it over during the Super Bowl party, the moment he opens up the lid on it you can smell the old grease come out of it. That’s not an exaggeration. There’s no way in hell that can be healthy. So it won’t surprise me if years from now people go we should never have used those.

It also won’t surprise me too much if there’s some health hazard with them other than just the buildup of grease.

Sidenote, what are these companies thinking to make a product where they know there’s going to be grease that is going to build up, and make it in a way that makes it almost impossible if not completely impossible to clean said grease?

Unless their thought process is: use it three times throw it away go buy a new one.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago (3 children)

It also won’t surprise me too much if there’s some health hazard with them other than just the buildup of grease.

It’s an electric heating element and a fan, same as a convection oven except it exhausts rather than recirculates the air. Any issues beyond the grease buildup you mention would apply to any electric oven or toaster.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

I too have watched Technology Connection's video on the topic. :P

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago

Commercial yogurt. Yeah maybe it's just a tasty and healthy probiotic. Or maybe it's a way for food conglomerates to change our gut bacteria so that we crave even more foods with cheap sugar.

[–] seconded 13 points 4 days ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago

This is not really a secret. The sugar industry lobbied so hard to have sugar included in everything and well, we're seeing the damage.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That's not exactly secretly bad... It's just bad

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I think sugar by itself is not so bad. The fact it is in amost all types of prepared foods from the store is really bad. But I'm not a specialist.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago (6 children)

The electric heating pad I sleep on. I wouldn't be surprised if some study finds that something about sleeping on wires would be kinda bad long-term. Maybe something about residual currents or the minimal magnetic field from the wires, idk

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The fireproofing chemicals are pretty bad for you.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I guess, but fire isn't very healthy either I think

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Huel. I'm just waiting for some ~~random internet person~~ doctor to tell me how exactly I'm making my already shaky health significantly worse because I'm too ~~lazy~~ tired for anything more than powder in water.

Also, the decades-old radiator in my flat is probably just spewing all sorts of hazardous particles and nobody will know until they do an autopsy on me.

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[–] ChexMax 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm so nervous I'm going to find out aquaphor is bad. I've been spreading it on my baby's diaper area since they were born. I know she's absorbing it right into her little body. There's been so many articles about how diapers and tampons and pads are all just awful for us and full of lead and who knows what else and we're putting them right against our mucus membranes and just poisoning ourselves.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Bottled water. The plastic contaminates the fluid. Just drink straight from the sink if you live in an area that allows for it!

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