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Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#61

Post by mschuster91 »

nomel wrote: post #57
mschuster91 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I don't doubt your experience, but I'd rather put that one on abysmal lax standards in the US... here in Germany, myself and a couple of friends I just asked never have witnessed such a thing outside of freak accidents where someone knocked over a jerry can.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#62

Post by jacobwilliamroy »

refurb wrote: post #34
hammock wrote: post #3

Benzene is everywhere, particularly in trace amounts in otherwise harmless products. Benzene is a building block for the production of many chemicals, including plastics, synthetic fibers, rubber, resins, dyes and pharmaceuticals, and residual amounts may remain in the final products. Benzene is used as a solvent and cleaning agent in printing, paint manufacturing, electronics, etc. Benzene contributes to the overall…

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.

Just for clarification (because I had to look it up) a picogram is 10^-12 grams.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#63

Post by refurb »

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.

That would require some interaction between the chemicals, that potentiates their effect. Or they act through common pathways.

But if the threshold effect is 1 microgram, and you're exposed to 1 picogram of 10 different chemicals all working through the same pathway, you're still below the threshold effect.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#64

Post by EatingWithForks »

mrguyorama wrote: post #43
EatingWithForks wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah frankly I'd rather fat people stay fat and focus on lifestyle changes to health, fat or not, than eating life threatening explosives to get thin.

I agree with your opinion, but the other way to look at it is that most fat people know they are fat, "want" to do something about it, but just don't because losing weight is really hard, from a human level. Millions of years of evolution are working against you to lose fat stores, because 99.99% of people who have ever done that starved to death. If sketchy drugs are the only ACTUAL way to get the 3/4ths of the coun…

> If sketchy drugs are the only ACTUAL way to get the 3/4ths of the country to lose weight and be healthier, shouldn't we try it?

Well the thing is, I actually am super skeptical that eating explosive poison is healthier than being a fatty. I am way more optimistic for wegovy and other hunger-regulating hormone treatments that don't seem to cause you to die from overheating, and I'm all for fat people taking them if it helps them be healthier. But like, I'd rather a fat person stay fat and work on doing runs (even though exercise doesn't help much in losing weight, exercise is still good for fat people) than change nothing about their lifestyle besides eating poison. Skinny isn't always == healthy and shouldn't be treated like an "at any costs" measure. A great way to lose 25% of your body weight is to chop off a leg, but chopping off legs is obviously a stupid way to get healthy.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#65

Post by nomel »

toss1 wrote: post #21

[flagged]

All of these studies come to the very obvious conclusion that a good hood fan, that vents outdoors, isn’t optional. The scary numbers, as in this study, come from not using a hood fan, with “good hood fan” numbers being somewhat negligible.

I think a good middle ground (since you can’t ask everyone to rewire their homes for electric) would be some sponsored program to install heat detecting hood fan switch, so they can’t be left off by mistake.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#66

Post by nomel »

mschuster91 wrote: post #61
nomel wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't doubt your experience, but I'd rather put that one on abysmal lax standards in the US... here in Germany, myself and a couple of friends I just asked never have witnessed such a thing outside of freak accidents where someone knocked over a jerry can.

I believe the standard here is to change the handle once enough people complain about it splashing them. That was the case for the faulty handle that splashed me.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#67

Post by specialist »

nomel wrote: post #57
mschuster91 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

My father (and me) washed engine parts with gasoline. And occasionally degreased our hands (followed by dish soap and sugar). We practically bathed in the stuff.

Then my father discovered Goop.

My father also dumped engine oil into storm drains. Then into the ground when that was banned. Yes, he was an idiot. (Becoming a treehugger was probably an act of rebellion.)

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#68

Post by specialist »

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.

Is that only for urban areas? I dimly recall old style nozzles still in use while driving cross country.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#69

Post by sidewndr46 »

zinclozenge wrote: post #50
mikeodds wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

were you training at the same time? any noticeable effects if so?

I tried, but DNP basically gave me a perpetual fever (aka pyrexia) so I didn't train. I assume it would have had a pretty noticeable effect though.

what else did you expect to happen? The only place I can see it wouldn't be a problem would be in the arctic or antarctic. Air temperature is so low you might not have any issues.

Re: Benzene Exposure Alters Endocrine Activity

#70

Post by specialist »

davikr wrote: post #22

Benzene also causes aplastic anemia when exposed to chronically, like in the case of some gas station workers. This is a pretty well known phenomenon.

Yup.

I had aplastic anemia as a kid. (Fixed with a bone marrow transplant.) I previously had a summer job cleaning a small PCB mfg (1983). It was fucking awful. I read that company was later fined for improper use, storage, and disposal.

Can't prove cause & effect, of course. But childhood aplastic anemia is pretty rare in my area (vs agricultural areas). So it's plausible.

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