Deadly diesel

The world health organization has determined that diesel fuel is a carcinogen. This should come as no surprise when you stop to consider that it's processed from hydrocarbons containing many of the nasties found along side of oil products. We however never consider the minor changes to our production methods that have a huge impact to global health. On the plus side we tend to ban products that cause us harm to our health but usually not until after some damage is done. Why we lag behind other countries is due not by scientific evidence but by profit motives. Corporate control of our politicians has not helped the situation. Several chemicals that were once considered toxic have been de-listed (by what scientific study is anyones' guess) and it's odd that no other nation on the planet followed suit. But should we feel any lesser the lab rat we are doing the very same to some third world countries by producing and selling DDT while Canada still mines and sells asbestos not just to us here in the U.S. but to third world countries as well. In our case it's a matter of having a product that has no substitute as is with the production of gasoline, paper and other caustic chemicals. All well and good if you know how to handle it and treat it as the dangerous stuff it is. No so with developing countries who consume it as if it were the 1940s. Sad to see photos of workers shoveling the stuff unprotected in a third world country and this is happening today.
The attitudes of our consumer society has fallen back to something of the 1950s only worse. It used to take 10 years or better for a drug to make it to market after extensive testing. But at that time our auto industry was cranking out cars as fast as humanly possible with a simple business model of build them fast and cheap then make the profits in spare parts when they break down. The same now holds true of the drug industry now only with a human cost. Develop the drug and worry about the side effects later. No body reads the mouse print and the announcer speaks so fast and so low when divulging info that just might be important later. And they've managed to develop fixes for problems that don't exist too but that's another story.

Getting back to the meat of this post we find some 107 know carcinogens listed. In any given year between 30 and 40 new chemical combinations are added to our inventive army of product producers. The long term health effects from this will yet to be determined. I am no purest by any stretch of the imagination. I realize that in order to produce many of the things we enjoy today requires many chemicals that are not kind to living things, but what I take issue with is not being able to have a full disclosure on possible health effects later on down the road. I can deal with any chemical thrown at me if I have an understanding of it's dangers and necessary personal protection but not if that information hides behind some trade secret law meant to protect a corporate profit.

Now let me throw some facts at you that you may or may not have known. These are about things around you in everyday life that you might have not know are toxic. All gleaned from years of classes on the subject.

That wonderful creamy cheap store brand ice cream may contain:
Diethyl glucol - component of anti freeze - gives it creamy texture and a bit of sweetness.
Piperanol - artificial vanilla - also kills head lice
Adehyde C17 - cherry flavor - used in making dyes, plastic and rubber
Ethyl Acetate - pineapple flavor - used to clean leather
Butyraldehyde - nut flavor - part of rubber cement
Amyl Acetate - banana flavor - oil paint solvent
Benzyl Acetate - strawberry flavor - nitrate solvent
Mmmm sounds like the makings of a delicious banana split doesn't it? Oh and don't forget the maraschino cherry on top that's bleached white first with formaldehyde then dyed bright red.

Ladies don't forget to use plenty of eyeliner, cheap lipstick and maybe a touch of rouge all chuck full with heavy metals such as lead, chromium, cadmium, and titanium.
Not to forget the men that Grecian formula just might protect you from nuclear fall out as it too is full of lead.
Then for all the others there's Bisphanol A that chemical in all the plastic water bottles. With age it leaches out of the bottle and into your system mimicking female hormones. And they wonder why we have a gender identity crisis these days. Go ahead keep refilling the same bottle over and over and watch your breasts get bigger. Sorry ladies doesn't have the same effect on you. For that you'll need the cheap milk with bovine growth hormone. Utterly disgusting I tell you. :-)

So in our vane attempt to make things better and cheaper we land up poisoning ourselves in the process. As for the diesel it may just explain why so many firefighters die from cancer of late as nearly all the rigs now are diesel powered as well as the pumps and generators.