Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease • Hacker News Board

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#341

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 » Thu, May 18, 2023, 4:22 AM UTC

anaisbetts wrote: post #24

Widely 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.

Did you read the article? Your comment almost made me dismiss this altogether, but imagine my surprise when I started reading the article:

> However, it’s detectable in many foods, in up to one-third of U.S. drinking water, and in breast milk, blood, and urine.

Yikes.

> Alarmingly, TCE vapor intrusion is widespread today and ranges from an elementary school situated on top of a former chemical facility in Shanghai, China, to multimillion-dollar homes built on a previous aerospace plant in Newport Beach, California,” the authors of an accompanying editorial in JAMA Neurology write.

Yikes.

Your comment was very misleading.

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#342

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 » Thu, May 18, 2023, 4:26 AM UTC

version_five wrote: post #2

That chemical is trichloroethylene. Even Science does clickbait now.

I disagree strongly. The article very quickly discloses the identity of the chemical the title alludes to, and including the full chemical compound in the title is a poor choice for a variety of reasons.

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#343

Post by uoaei » Fri, May 19, 2023, 12:44 AM UTC

dekhn wrote: post #325

uoaei wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/toxic-chemical-fou... > The Oakland Unified School district announced the temporary closure of the McClymonds to test for the chemical tricloroethylene (TCE), which was found in groundwater under the campus. > "This is West Oakland and so there is a history of environmental injustice, of racial injustice that happens in this community. So these are places where there are leak…

Cancer has a fairly high incident rate in the general public, so anecdotes about people getting cancer due to industrial solvents is often suspect. Most observations can be explained by a combination of base rates, and social determinants of health.

Two extremely athletic high-school-age people die within two years of each other of mysterious cancers, with an obvious presence of cancer-causing chemicals, and you want to pretend that cancer statistics that are heavily weighted toward the older and more obese somehow have any relevance here?

Honestly I am quite disgusted at this take. How many readers want to bet this take is informed by more than a little implicit racial bias, these being Black men at a primarily Black high school in a primarily Black neighborhood?

Re: Widely used chemical strongly linked to Parkinson’s disease

#344

Post by dekhn » Sat, May 20, 2023, 7:15 PM UTC

uoaei wrote: post #343

dekhn wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cancer has a fairly high incident rate in the general public, so anecdotes about people getting cancer due to industrial solvents is often suspect. Most observations can be explained by a combination of base rates, and social determinants of health.

Two extremely athletic high-school-age people die within two years of each other of mysterious cancers, with an obvious presence of cancer-causing chemicals, and you want to pretend that cancer statistics that are heavily weighted toward the older and more obese somehow have any relevance here? Honestly I am quite disgusted at this take. How many readers want to bet this take is informed by more than a little implici…

Well, I was trained as a scientist and medical researcher and did my phd thesis on cancer drugs. One thing you learn is that many people see patterns in cancer that are better explained by random numbers.

See this doc, including the section "Some important points to consider".

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/understanding-...

You can be disgusted all you want but I think you're making an error.