BLOG Assignment 8

I learned that only very few chemicals have been rigorously tested for hazards. There's a present dispute between Chemical Manufacturer's, their consumers, Environmental Enthusiasts, and everyone whose health is effected by these Chemicals in circulation. Notice how some people don't even have to make choices to be effected by this, much like Second Hand Smoke. That's one problem; the other health problem is that Consumers of these chemicals often times aren't introduced to the negative side effects of these chemicals, or at least not the important stuff; but it's these very ingredients that Chemical Manufacturers would argue that are made to benefit the consumer. One Example that I know is Red-40; Red-40 has been proven to be a carcinogenic, among with other food dye's. Red-40 is used in some medication to give a brilliant Red Color, so that consumers can intake the medication without any hesitation. Because without Red-40, the medication will look very gross (yet still effective) and the consumer might even believe that it is rotten, and thus the consumer will probably hesitate and even refuse to intake the medication putting a delay in their recovery. In this light, Even though Red-40 is a carcinogenic it is also used as an "enticing" additive, and thus "good".

One other problem is the synergistic impacts of any chemicals that are pushed into circulation. According to Annie Leopard, there is no such chemical that has been tested completely for synergistic effects. Meaning that chemicals haven't been tested to show that they will not produce a harmful chemical if they were to interact with other chemicals already in circulation. Synergistic Health Impacts testing is good because people can live freely, mix their favorite concoctions of food, consume all kinds of medicines, and take all kinds of vitamins and will hardly ever have to worry about "Spontaneous Human Combustion." Many Environmental and Health threats can be avoided even, Global warming could've been avoided completely if synergistic health impact testing (and Regulation) had been implemented and enforced. However Synergistic Health Impact is likely impossible. In the 1970s there were about 62,000 chemicals in commerce, It would take literally a "bagillion-Zegafagillion" years to test all the permutations and combinations of just THOSE chemicals, not including the ones that came into circulation AFTER the 1970s. The Horror is not that it can't be done, the horror is that things have gotten this horrible.

http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/newscience/synergy/mixtures.htm

http://dev.storyofstuff.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/annie_leonard_footnoted_script.pdf