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submitted 11 months ago by Jpopy@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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[-] keenanpepper@sopuli.xyz 222 points 11 months ago

This may be true but I hate the practice of referring to "plastic" as if it's a single substance. It's a bunch of different materials that don't really have that much in common with each other, especially from a health/toxicity standpoint.

For example, people treat it as common sense that "you shouldn't burn plastic" because the smoke is "toxic". For PVC this is totally true, it makes very nasty stuff like dioxin that will poison you. But on the other hand you can burn polyethylene (think milk jug) and it's no more toxic than burning a candle. Definitely way healthier to breath than wood campfire smoke, for example.

There's also such a silly pattern where people learn some chemical might have some effect on the body and suddenly everyone is up in arms about it. For example Bisphenol A in many applications was replaced by the very similar Bisphenol S just so things could be labeled "BPA Free". BPS probably has similar estrogenic effects to BPA.

I'd say the moral of the story is be wary of received wisdom about chemical toxicity from people who aren't chemists.

[-] sadbehr@lemmy.nz 41 points 11 months ago

Have you heard of Dihydrogen monoxide? It literally kills hundreds of thousands of people every single year all over the world, including young children.

You don't hear about it in the news though do you....

[-] islandofcaucasus@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

I'm confused about how it kills hundreds of thousands of people per year. How, by drowning?

[-] pieceofcrazy@feddit.it 26 points 11 months ago

It's an old (early-internet?) joke iirc. And yes, I think that's the answer

[-] islandofcaucasus@lemmy.world 27 points 11 months ago

Oh shit, I was thinking there was no way that hundreds of thousands of people did from drowning every year, but they actually do.

WHO estimates that every year over 200k people die from drowning

[-] sadbehr@lemmy.nz 10 points 11 months ago

Yea I did my 10 seconds of research before I quoted my number! I could have said '200k' but 'hundreds of thousands' sounds much more dramatic don't you think? Which is the whole point of the Dihydrogen monoxide thing.

[-] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 4 points 11 months ago

Wow, talk about preventable deaths...

[-] sadbehr@lemmy.nz 6 points 11 months ago

According to its Wikipedia page, this joke was first published in 1983! I suspect most people know it from the early 2000's when it made a resurgence again.

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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
703 points (97.6% liked)

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