Was just on a meeting where I learned that movies like The Wizard of Oz, Its a Wonderful LIfe, and Miracle on 34th Street used asbestos to depict snow.
It was commonly used for home Christmas displays too.
The stuff was known to be dangerous back in the early 1900s.
I wonder what specific products we use right now that are known to be potentially dangerous, still heavily used despite documented danger, and will eventually be banned in a few decades.
Straight rolling in it.
Is asbestos that dangerous though? I know it's dangerous to work with because of particles being inhaled, but would one day exposure, in any form, really be noticeably harmful? I honestly don't know how bad it is but I woudl assume that if one day of exposure to it was noticeably harmful you wouldn't have had people work with it for years.
But to answer your question:
- social media - I'd like to think at some point giving a 13 year old a smart phone and access to social media will seem dumber and more horrific than handing them a pack of cigarettes and a lighter and telling them smoking will make them look cool and improve their lungs.
- microplastics is a good candidate, but probably only to the extent it is increasing in concentration in the environment. I would assume if using it as an individual was really hugely detrimental, you would see more of an impact in the life expectancy records by now. Been decades of people eating microwave dinners, drinking out of plastic containers, eating out of plastic containers, reheating in plastic containers, hell, wearing plastic, that whatever harmful effects must be relatively mild overall. Uptick in cancer rates, maybe? Maybe increase in autoimmune disorders? haven't seen anything on that, I'm just guessing because it seems like everything causes cancer, and autoimmune disorders (including serious allergies) seem to be on the rise.
- antibiotic usage? - With how important people are starting to think the microbiome and gutbiome are for a lot of stuff, maybe we'll find out that worrying about resistant bacterias was the wrong focus (again, just guessing here; all the stuff about micro- and gut-biome could be quackery for all I know).
- flame retardants - I'd put these basically like plastics. Probably not a huge deal but a lot damn more of them.
- sugar - I see so many fit parents with fat kids that I am having trouble believing we aren't 17ing up their metabolism beyond just letting them sit inside and do too many screens.
- marijuana - both smoke and non-smoke forms. I don't think it's going to be banned or anything, but lots of people are being delusional in thinking that none of the harmful effects from smoking cigarettes apply to marijuana and also in thinking that because smoking relatively low THC for decades didn't show major health impacts that much higher THC concentrations will have similarly manageable health effects.
