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Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#51

Post by FrustratedMonky »

elevaet wrote: post #12
FrustratedMonky wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"Benzene is everywhere, particularly in trace amounts in otherwise harmless products." Note -> Everywhere 'Today' because of your listed modern products. Not, Everywhere because it is some natural thing. Saying it is "Everywhere" seems to imply it is ok. The point is, we are all exposed now.

I didn't pick up on it being ok as the implication, rather that it's not ok because it's everywhere in otherwise harmless products.

Sorry. Think you are correct. I read word 'harmless' and associated it with entire comment indicating 'harmless'. But on closer reading, it could be as you say, and it is not trying to excuse it.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#52

Post by nomel »

Robotbeat wrote: post #46

Crazy how people just drive around in cars and fuel up with gasoline that contains like 2% benzene. And we let teenagers do this, with no personal protective equipment and no basic supervision.

Reference, for skin absorption of gasoline: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4067326/

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#53

Post by zinclozenge »

EatingWithForks wrote: post #24
zinclozenge wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took a standard DNP fat loss dose, the effects (weight loss and others) are vastly overstated. You'd have to take well in excess of any recommended dose to get to the point where the waste heat production would become dangerous. You're more likely to develop a cataract as a deleterious effect. I'd wager most of my weight loss came from the fact that I just wasn't eating because I felt awful.

According to wikipedia, the actual tolerance of the dose varies widely. Because of this I would strongly discount individual accounts of safe experiences.

Sure, although I guess to be clear I wouldn't recommend DNP to anyone because it's absolutely not the miracle weight loss drug it seems to be when you read about it on the internet.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#54

Post by mschuster91 »

Robotbeat wrote: post #46

Crazy how people just drive around in cars and fuel up with gasoline that contains like 2% benzene. And we let teenagers do this, with no personal protective equipment and no basic supervision.

> And we let teenagers do this, with no personal protective equipment and no basic supervision.

Gas pumps have mandatory vapor recovery systems for decades now. That problem is long solved.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#55

Post by pengaru »

Back in the late 80s/early 90s my elderly Italian-speaking grandfather lived with us in the states.

Whenever he'd watch driving my gas RC car, if the thing would die he'd motion with his thumb down (like a pouring spout) while saying "benzene?".

I don't know if it's an Italian language thing, his dialect, or just his knowledge of engines, but RC car fuel was "benzene". Makes me wonder what kind of benzene exposure he had in his younger days...

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#56

Post by piuantiderp »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #14
CommitSyn wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woah, did not know that. So can true 'fat burners' like DNP give you brain damage, or is that something the blood brain barrier protects against?

DNP doesn't actually target fat that I am aware of. It messes with ATP and makes it incredibly inefficient, so your cells burn basically everything including fat to try and keep up with energy demands. This also can kill you due to the heat produced. It's also an explosive.

Ooof, messing with ATP to "burn basically everything" sounds like a ticket to cancer or accelerated aging.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#57

Post by nomel »

mschuster91 wrote: post #54
Robotbeat wrote: post #46

Crazy how people just drive around in cars and fuel up with gasoline that contains like 2% benzene. And we let teenagers do this, with no personal protective equipment and no basic supervision.

> And we let teenagers do this, with no personal protective equipment and no basic supervision. Gas pumps have mandatory vapor recovery systems for decades now. That problem is long solved.

That doesn’t solve the problem of people splashing it on themselves, from faulty handles, which I’ve experienced and seen within the last decade.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#58

Post by milsorgen »

nimos wrote: post #38
refurb wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dose makes the poison. Currently chemical analysis techniques can detect compounds down to picograms/L. That's billionth's of grams per liter. So saying "this material has benzene in it", doesn't really tell you anything about the level of exposure or risk. Very few compounds are toxic at that kind of exposure.

A lot of chemicals seem to have effects on the endocrine system. I wonder if there is potentially an issue with them in aggregate. Such that the dose of any single chemical isn't problematic but all of them together with similar effects causes a problem.

>I wonder if there is potentially an issue with them in aggregate. Such that the dose of any single chemical isn't problematic but all of them together with similar effects causes a problem.

I've been wondering about this a lot in recent years. Particularly in regards to medications/pharmaceuticals but also environmental containments/traces (which can include pharmaceuticals of course), pair with this what we are just starting to understand about plastics exposure and pervasiveness and I really wonder why more health research and workplace safety resources aren't being directed to look at compound and long term exposures.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#59

Post by zinclozenge »

xkcd-sucks wrote: post #8
EatingWithForks wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something super dystopian that we look at a cancer-causing, bone-marrow-killing chemical and go "look, we can use this for weight loss!". I get fatness is a plague or whatever but thin == healthy is totally broken if you're using poison to get thin.

If you're into super ~metal~ dystopian weight loss aids that are available today, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dinitrophenol

"Available" is a generous word. It's actually pretty hard to find even from underground anabolic steroid sellers. The only reason I was able to get my hands on it was because a seller was getting rid of his stock. The main reason is that it's actually pretty crummy for fat loss. If you actually want to lose weight you'd probably be pointed to a low dose of hgh, which has a ton of other benefits to help you lose fat.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#60

Post by zinclozenge »

When I was taking organic chemistry my (mid-to-late 60s at the time in ~20010) teacher told us an anecdote about benzene when we started learning about aromatic molecules. She told us that they used to clean their lab bench with benzene solvent to make it sparkling clean. Of course, she also told us it was carcinogenic and then finished by saying a lot of her contemporary colleagues that went into organic chemistry research were now dead. Really drives home that a lot of safety precautions and practices are "written in blood", so to speak.
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