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this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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I hope we also have a healthcare AI capable of researching the health impacts of 381,000 new materials before they just start showing up all over the world in unexpected ways.
We need to just make a materials white list. If it's not already studied and proven safe then we don't need to mass produce it. I
I don't give a fuck if it slows down innovation. We live in a globalized society, a new product can be created and spread across the globe before the health effects start to show.
Think about leaded gasoline. It was a proprietary formulation with deliberately misleading advertising. Regulators failed to act when they knew there was the potential for harm, and then years pass and the globe is contaminated with a heavy metal that is dusted across everything and now just a part of our environment, and we are measurably dumber for it.
And now the same thing has happened with plastics. It won't be identical to lead but we will be dealing with the consequences for at least decades if not centuries.
And the next dangerous material is just around the corner. Shit, it might already be here.
White. List.
It already is. It's called PFAS, it's everywhere, and we're only just starting to learn how it affects us.
Well, that is just a label slapped on everything that is like that, but yeah, I'm sure they are everywhere.
Plastic, foam and stuff; PFAS.
I mean, it's not like we were surprised that lead is toxic or that plastic doesn't break down, and we did it anyway. I'm guessing they would have gone on the whitelist.
I'm guessing these are mostly (hypothetical) new ceramics. It's not like these are going to be totally unlike anything we've seen before.
Neither of us like Reddit.
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