• ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I hate how every time we come up with a new “miracle” chemical that solves really big issues it ends up being either carcinogenic or devastatingly harmful to the environment.

    It’s like how we almost made bed bugs extinct in America but the chemical being used was causing cancer and birth defects.

    Why can’t we have nice chemical things!?!?

    • reksas@sopuli.xyz
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      2 hours ago

      that would require us to be in control of our own lives, instead of rich owning us. thorough research costs a lot of money and resources. it would cut into profits and some rich guy might not be able to buy third yact.

    • EddoWagt@feddit.nl
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      22 hours ago

      We discovered plastics, which pretty much is a miracle chemicle, they’re mostly not even that harmful unless you make a gigaton of it and just kind of dump it absolutely everywhere

      • Bluewing@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        First there was just cheese. Then we refined that cheese into plastics. Because cheese is just a mere handful of polymers away from plastic. And you wonder why you get constipated when you eat too much cheese…

        Then we got better and developed celluloid to make exploding billiard balls and false teeth from. It also got used to make pocket knife handles because you could make the most beautiful tortoise shell handles and Mother of Pearl, (the tortoises and oysters were very happy about that). And colored handles were bright and vibrant and stayed that way. But the off gassing would often rust the blades to dust in short order.

        Today, we have a thousand different plastic formulations for a thousand different uses. And it’s everywhere from soda bottles and cell phones, to cars, airplanes, artificial hips, and rocket ships. And even your balls.

        It’s a brave new plastic world.

      • Ferroto@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        they’re mostly not even that harmful unless you make a gigaton of it and just kind of dump it absolutely everywhere

    • cmhe@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      H2O is a pretty nice chemical, that makes people drinking it less thristy, and is good for plants and animals as well. Just be careful that you don’t have too much of it, and you are good.

      • sudoer777@lemmy.ml
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        19 hours ago

        ⚠️Stay away from dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO).⚠️ This dangerous chemical shows an 100% fatality rate for those who have consumed it, and can cause instant death when inhaled.

    • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      We can. Plenty of good stuff. Or at least, not terrible stuff. But it makes more profit to get something out quick and see how it goes than do long, serious, costly research before releasing a product.

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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        16 hours ago

        Well that and there’s always the manufacturing issue wherein you could make something that does everything you want but it’s a bitch to manufacture, maintain, or install. A good example is lead pipes were a known issue but the hope was that calcium buildup would help solve the problem before it became a problem, galvanized steel technically existed at the time but manufacturing it in the quantities needed was a bitch and Iron pipes would just burst constantly so that was dead in the water.

    • lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      Why can’t we have nice chemical things!?!?

      Because we live by the p-value today. We’d rather get eaten alive by bed bugs every night for the next 60 years instead of having up to a 20% increased chance of developing cancer when we turn 73.