wrote:
On May 28, 8:03 am, gwatts wrote:
AF6AY wrote:
...
The do-gooders done did too much with all those warnings and
attempts to protect us all from everything.

If a product is dangerous, why shouldn't it have warnings?
Particularly when there are known carcinogens and other health hazards involved?

It's not being a "do-gooder" or "doing too much" to discover hazards
and eliminate or contain them.

I think it a matter of magnitude.

Some items such as Benzene are pretty dangerous and have an established
track record of making people sick. Those should go whenever possible.

OTOH, the little bottle of Strip-X with it's foul stench is probably not
going to cause anyone harm outside of self inflicted (i.e. suicide attempts)

Of course, I'm not so sure if Strip-X was discontinued because of health
concerns or that it just didn't work any more on new generations of
enameled wire.


Sure, not everyone who uses Strip-X will get cancer. But some of the
components of it are known carcinogens, and a proven hazard. More
important,
we can't know ahead of time who the susceptible folks are.
Naaa, it's the people who think they should be rewarded for stupidity
and basic capitalism that took all that stuff off the market. Some
idiot did something stupid with the product and decided to sue. The
company looked at a long legal fight or settlement and settled.

Maybe. But I doubt it.

More likely, they looked at the *possibility* of such a lawsuit, the
scientific evidence of the hazards of the ingredients, the limited profit and
declining sales, and just stopped making the product.

Once a chemical is shown to be dangerous, the manufacturers can't
claim ignorance anymore.

They...decided it would be more profitable
to eliminate the product and concentrate on other things as they're not
in the business to keep consumers satisfied, just get their money and
keep as much of it as possible.

Profitability is what "capitalism" and "business" are all about.
Without profitability, a capitalist company just disappears.

Since the formula for Strip-X appears to be in the public domain,
anybody can make it and sell it. Would *you* be willing to set up shop to make
it and sell it, with all the risks that entails, and the very limited
market for it?

There you touch on the real issue with items like Strip-X. The
manufacturing side. While I might have my little bottle that I get out a
time or two during the day, the people making the stuff have exposure
issues well beyond that.

As an aside:

The butter flavor on your popcorn (diacetyl) has a nasty side effect
for the people who make it (and apparently at least one microwave
popcorn addict) when it vaporizes, it can pretty seriously impair lung
function. It is a natural substance, but the way in which it is used is
the problem

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacetyl

http://www.butterflavoringlunginjury.com/index.htm

http://defendingscience.org/Diacetyl-Background.cfm

But I digress. My main point is that while we might not get much
exposure, those who produce it just might be getting serious contact
with nasty chemicals.

- 73 de Mike N3LI -