It's been known for quite some time that trichloroethylene is linked to Parkinsons. In fact the doctor that assessed my father a few years ago asked him "what was your job?", "engineer," "you used degreaser didn't you? Did you know that .... ".
Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease
161–170 of 344 posts
Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease
#162Also, infertility[0].
[0] https://academic.oup.com/toxsci/article/82/2/590/1656962
Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease
#163>"But in the 20th century, TCE was used for many purposes, including making decaffeinated coffee" ... This is exactly the reason I never touched decaf coffee until I found Swiss water process (SWP) decaf. It never made sense to me to use hydrocarbon solvents in a food application
I'm very curious about SWP. How does it taste compared to good light roasted single origins?
In practice, it's far easier to find good single-origin roasts than to find good decaf options. I've actually never been able to find anything lighter than medium roast in SWP -- not sure if that's for some functional or taste reason, or just because it's a sliver of a sliver of the market.
Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease
#164Widely used chemical *(that was generally phased out in the 70s) linked to Parkinson's. Still important, but you don't need to start searching product labels in 2023 for it.
Trichloroethylene is still used but less than before.
~20 000 tonnes today vs. 250 000 tonnes in 1970.
Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease
#165Can you put the chemical name in your title?
Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease
#166>"But in the 20th century, TCE was used for many purposes, including making decaffeinated coffee" ... This is exactly the reason I never touched decaf coffee until I found Swiss water process (SWP) decaf. It never made sense to me to use hydrocarbon solvents in a food application
Halogenated solvents should definitely be avoided at all costs but I'm generally not too concerned about how hexanes are used to extract cooking oil, for example.
Why not? I don’t know much about the topic, but I’ve wondered about it.
Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Remember all the talk about how we should all eat lots of anti-oxidants to prevent cancer? It turns out it's more complicated than that, and an anti-oxidant rich diet can actually increase cancer risk. Which is probably because Mitochondrial Complex 1 inhibitors work by producing radical oxides in the mitochondria. I definitely agree with you that it's inherently very risky to mess around with them, but I also don'…
I think their point was - don’t do something daily with potentially powerful but unclear effects until we have some evidence on it’s long term safety. Unless there is a pressing, specific need (like cancer that may be worth the risk). Which seems reasonable?
Which I agree with. I'm definitely not advocating that people take this stuff. Only pointing out that it's not completely obvious that it's harmful.
Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease
#168>"But in the 20th century, TCE was used for many purposes, including making decaffeinated coffee" ... This is exactly the reason I never touched decaf coffee until I found Swiss water process (SWP) decaf. It never made sense to me to use hydrocarbon solvents in a food application
It's volatile enough that it won't be present in the final product.
Volatile doesn’t mean harmful byproducts can’t be left behind, though.
Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease
#169>"But in the 20th century, TCE was used for many purposes, including making decaffeinated coffee" ... This is exactly the reason I never touched decaf coffee until I found Swiss water process (SWP) decaf. It never made sense to me to use hydrocarbon solvents in a food application
> It never made sense to me to use hydrocarbon solvents in a food application
I get your point, but isn't this kind of a broad statement? After all, ethanol is a hydrocarbon solvent, and it's been used in food applications for a long time.
Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine this headline A widely known basketball team wins NBA finals Clickbait?
Not to ruffle any feathers, but I notice this trend on HN also. People will post something the city they live in and drop all kinds of hints... except the name. Same for employers. Strange. It's like we need to play the old boardgame "Guess Who?"!
They don't want to deanonymize themselves.