[yung234]

More generally there is way too much crap in the environment and it is past time for people to start protesting this. We are likely paying a price for this in rising rates of obesity and deteriorating mental health. It's time for cleaner outdoor air, better indoor air quality and ventilation and a tighter rein on the proliferating number of chemicals that surround us. As the item notes, Parkinson's rates have been increasing for some time and are expected to continue to increase in the coming decades.

[CuriouslyC]

Good luck getting any laws on this passed if Republicans control any branch of congress, or not struck down if they continue to leverage their judiciary control for blatantly political ends.

[cwkoss]

Stop giving democrats a pass for doing nothing. Look at how ineffective Buttigieg has been on rail safety re: east palestine.

Tribalist myopia enables this status quo.

[tohnjitor]

Good luck heating your house or feeding your family if the Democrats continue their blatant political goals of depopulation.

[angst_ridden]

People are expendable. There's a new crop every year. Corporate profits, on the other hand ...

[algoatecorn]

[Environmental contamination] is way less of an explanatory variable of obesity and mental health than [dietary choice and activity level]. Its effect resides in the error term.

[pjc50]

The (extremely long) blog argues otherwise: https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2021/07/07/a-chemical-hunger-p...

I don't entirely agree with what they have to say, especially when they search for a possible target chemical, but they provide a whole bunch of contradictory evidence against the naive laziness hypothesis. Of which the most convincing argument is lab animals: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2010...

Lab animals do not have control over their diet and activity level, and yet are becoming more obese.

[outworlder]

> dietary choice

Is it really a choice when 75% of all food found in the supermarket has been spiked with sugar and 88% of the US population is suffering from metabolic issues? And sugar has been linked to a host of degenerative neurological conditions.

> activity level

We can't outrun a bad diet.

[outworlder]

> More generally there is way too much crap in the environment and it is past time for people to start protesting this.

Some of this crap is worse than others. Some we can destroy and maybe make our food supply and water safe. But others are really hardy, by design (Teflon!). There's no good way to get rid of them and this should have been treated as an emergency ages ago. In a sense they are worse than radioactive waste because they don't even decay.

[s0rce]

If teflon didn't decay it would be fine as it doesn't pose a health risk, its basically inert. Its the manufacturing chemicals and degradants (PFAS/PFOA) that are the problem and represent persistent contamination.