Me Not Chinese, Me Play Trick?
From the sound bites I heard on the radio, my first thought was “that’s it, the day Coca-Cola begins outsourcing its business to China is the day I switch to Pepsi.” Then, after reading the story and finding it has nothing to do with China, and everything to do with some kook fringe group that says, apparently with a straight face, that “The latest [uncited, natch] studies show there is no safe level of lead exposure.” Dude. There is a safe level of cyanide exposure. It’s very low, of course, but to argue that there is no safe level of anything is to remove yourself from anything approaching rational debate. Then again, you pretty well did that, Marky-Mark, by joining up with a group that calls itself the “Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice.”
Repeat after me: the dose makes the poison.
October 16th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Rather like how there is no minimum safe distance for secondhand smoke. Mind you, there is a minimum safe distance for nuclear weapons but not one for smoke.
October 16th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Any dose of cyanide which does not produce immediate symptoms does no permanent harm. It is metabolized and passes from the body. In that regard, long term exposure to cyanide is safer than long term exposure to lead.
If you want a really dangerous example of a chemical, consider how many are killed every year by dihydrogen monoxide.
October 16th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
I think the theory is that even very minute amounts of lead stay in you and accumulate. Still though, is one *molecule* supposed to be dangerous?
October 17th, 2007 at 8:51 am
They should adopt the the slogan of the anti-nuke campaigners of the 70s: every dose is an overdose. It’s memorable and wrong, thus likely to prove effective.
October 17th, 2007 at 9:51 am
If you want a really dangerous example of a chemical, consider how many are killed every year by dihydrogen monoxide.
Worse than that, it’s known to be capable of dissolving the earth!!!1!
October 17th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Not only is there a safe dose for everything, there is also almost certainly a beneficial dose for everything. Which is lower than the safe dose, of course.
BTW, as I understand it the safe dose for smoking is actually a usefully high quantity: about one cigarette per day. Of course this is much lower than almost any smoker actually smokes, but it’s not as it it’s only a theoretical number, like .001 cigarettes per date or something. It means that someone who is generally a non-smoker but has the occasional cigarette once in a while (when under unusual stress, or to celebrate special occasions) has no reason to worry.