/me considers posting funny comments from the /. article. Decides to post trollbait on /. instead.

Is this one of those articles telling us stuff like "...the human body takes longer to decompose now than it did 100 years ago due to the amount of preservatives in food."?

Here comes the science.

/Off to RTFA.

It's funny how people see this as a bad thing.

All these pesticides and preservatives and flame retardants can only serve to make people stronger flame retardant pestless super long lasting super people (oh how I need to trademark this).

There's probably a downside somewhere. But I am not seeing it.

San Francisco-area women have three to 10 times as much chemical flame retardant in their breast tissue as European or Japanese women
You really don't want those going up in flames.

lesson learned...

let stuff rot, dont burn it

live like cavemen, without fire

then we can live pollution free...

"Everyone's exposed to substances and there's no evidence that the low levels people are exposed to are harming anybody," said Steven Milloy, author of "Junk Science Judo: Self Defense Against Health Scares and Scams." "It's a waste of time and money that only serves to scare people."

Someone's mother didn't take enough thalidomide. Please, Mr. Milloy, STFU.

All kidding aside, this is some scary stuff. Not a new worry though.

it seems unlikely that we are willing to go back to the bad-old days living in caves and hiding from the sun in the hopes of living longer lives that we would no longer be living in the firstplace without all of the things that are "killing us". I think a more realistic hope is that medical technology continues to advance and gets us to a point that these toxins can be taken care of on the backend.

This will of course screw the poor but I think they would be used to it by now after thousands of years of it.

Actually, it's only my mind that is polluted.

For me, a trip to Burger King will guarantee that I will be a delivery system for weapons of mass destruction for the next few hours.

yah
kill the poor
What other prupose do they serve
Except of course to shop at Wal-mart and keep all us Target shoppers rich and well fed

woo hoo

I couldn't concentrate on the article. My brain kept wanting to go back and stick "th" on the end of that organization's name.

Go long enough without something new to try and scare people and you'll start coming up with crap like this. This can pretty much be summed up as "Stuff in the environment gets into you. We don't know if that's bad or not, but we've decided to make you fully aware of that fact before we decide if this is bad or not." Just more sensationalism. Most of these things are in such low concentration in you that they'd never do any harm anyway. It's not exactly a breakthrough that what you put into the ecosystem eventually gets into humans. People seem to forget that we're part of the environment too, we're not special in that respect. First, see what the health risks are. Next, determine what can be done about the problem. Then tell people. What the hell are people supposed to do about it? It's completely useless information at this point.

Spanish_Inquisition "Most of these things are in such low concentration in you that they'd never do any harm anyway."

Depends on how many chemicals you're getting safe levels of. I doubt a man subjected to safe levels of everything on the EPA's list would fare well.

I don't think I would pass an emissions test.

Still, the organic-eating hippie is probably better off than the people who subsist on big macs and cheetos.

It's a good thing there's flame retardent particles in my body or I'd have to give up Mexican food. Do Mexicans have a higher percentage than other nationalities? Off to start a fire.

recockulous

That looks like something that came out of my ass yesterday....

and I think there is a big difference between thalidomide and what was stated in the article.

i fail to see the Christina connection?
do farkers know what she eats?
and Yoshidas gourmet sauce gives me something bad in the gullet :( but it tastes sooo good.

bash Christina all u want
i'd still toss her

Spanish_Inquisition: Most of these things are in such low concentration in you that they'd never do any harm anyway.

MikeWeath: Depends on how many chemicals you're getting safe levels of. I doubt a man subjected to safe levels of everything on the EPA's list would fare well.

You're right! The chemicals all together will get us! We should stop putting chemicals of any sort into our body, just in case!

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE - THE CHEMICALS ARE COMING!

is this a bad time to mention that Outback Stakehouse's Prime minister's Prime rib is succulent and perfect?

This piece of news on top of mad cow, what's next Daffy Duck? Oh, the humanity.

Had great steak Bar-B-Que in the snow for Christmas...Yummy!

The old thought was that vegetables made you less healthy than beef.

That was disproven way back in 500ish BC with Daniel's desire to eat vegetables over the king's meal.

Newsflash, folks, scientists have found out that everyone is going to die.
I might as well enjoy a tasty steak now and then.
I'm all for vegans, though, just means more bloody red beast flesh for me to chomp on.

2003-12-29 01:33:26 PM American_Draka
"Haw haw haw! All that scorn the vegans and PETA whackos throw at those of us of a more carnivorous bent amounts to nothing but self-righteous bullsh*t.
They're just as polluted as the rest of us."


No, that just means that their pollutants are a subset of yours. You've got everything they have, plus all the fun toxins in meat! Enjoy!

p.s. meat is not bad for you and contains NO toxins.

see, i'm not fat - i'm polluted.

it ain't cellulite, it's 'body burden'.

First off, Milloy's book? Good. Second, yes we should be doing what we can to prevent harmful chemicals from polluting the environment, but most of the time, this crap is pure sensationalism. People seem to forget how amazingly efficient the human body is at removing/tolerating stuff. Our livers can process huge amounts of alcohol, but I'm going to worry I have a 1 part per billion amount of flame retardant in my teeter? Not really.

People tend to freak out over chemicals, especially those that are manufactured. A good example is saccharin. All these asshats shiated the bed because the saccharin in sugarless gum was a carcinogen and was going to GIVE US ALL CANCER! Do you know what is 750 times as carcinogenic as saccharin. Pepper. Regular, household table pepper. Where are the warning labels!? AAAAH!!

(This is not to say I don't think the EPA & FDA are good ideas. I worked in chemical regulatory affairs for a number of years, and they generally do a good job. It is sensationlist journalism and stories like these designed to scare the public which piss me off)

/pass the pepper

you know, with our skyrocketing life expectancy... maybe a little DDT is good for ya?

greenpants

but I'm going to worry I have a 1 part per billion amount of flame retardant in my teeter

More importantly, WTF is a teeter?

p.s. meat is not bad for you and contains NO toxins.

Toxicity is determined by concentration. To say that meat contains NO toxins is foolish. Meat might contain non-harmful levels of toxins, yes, but accumulation over time does occur. The human body is capable of gradual immunity in certain cases, such as arsenic or iocaine powder, but DDT and mercury are not so easily shrugged off.

That said, I can't imagine life without chicken sandwiches.

Pollution levels measured in humans... So how polluted is Ohio? 10 megahumans? That would make New Jersey 50 megahumans? What data accountant comes up with the number and from what kind of measurements?

- off to junkscience.org for the real story.

Are we too far gone, are we so irresponsible
Have we lost our balls, or do we just not care
We're terminal cases that keep taking medicine
Pretending the end isn't quite that near
We make futile gestures, act to the cameras
With our made up faces and PR smiles
And when the angel comes down, down to deliver us
We'll find out that after all, we're only men of straw

Marillion - "The Last Straw"

FoamingPipeSnake: In March, California researchers reported that San Francisco-area women have three to 10 times as much chemical flame retardant in their breast tissue as European or Japanese women.

Fireproof boobies?

That's to protect them from all of the flamers.

/hell

Others see political motives behind some of the tests.

"Everyone's exposed to substances and there's no evidence that the low levels people are exposed to are harming anybody," said Steven Milloy, author of "Junk Science Judo: Self Defense Against Health Scares and Scams." "It's a waste of time and money that only serves to scare people."

I'm a little skeptical, what with all the people I know who have/had cancer. A lot more than my grandfather knew by my age. Where did those silly carcinogens come from?

paranoidandroid -

Teeter = Teet = Ta Ta = Boobie = Submammarine = Bazoom = Breast.

/yeah, I know. . vulgar.

"what you do not smell is iocaine powder"

obligatory The Princess Bride quote taken care of... I see I have nothing to do here

Sweeby-Jeeby... Marillion on Fark? What is the world coming to?

And umm...something about pollution.

nice headline

My body is a temple. To Bacchus.

I'm a little skeptical, what with all the people I know who have/had cancer. A lot more than my grandfather knew by my age. Where did those silly carcinogens come from?

Ah yes. Anecdotal evidence... the strongest kind known to man.

Did you ever consider that maybe people are looking for cancer earlier and more often than back in your grandfather's day?

I'm a little skeptical, what with all the people I know who have/had cancer. A lot more than my grandfather knew by my age.

This tells me that we detect much more cancer today than we did then. Alas, this tells me nothing about whether there is more cancer than there was then.

Anecdotal evidence... the strongest kind known to man.

In this case, the anecdotal evidence is backed up by records. We do indeed record more cancer incidents per 1000 population than we did in pre-industrial times. But on the good side, the number of cursings and demonic possessions is WAY down...

theres women in san fransisco?

This is a puff piece for the chemical companies.

"Chemicals are good for you. Don't worry. Damn, that cancer has done wonders for your figure."