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by andersrs 861 days ago
What a joke. Companies like 3M and Dupont just switch up a few atoms. Teflon becomes 'GenX'. One has to conclude that the EPA are complicit in this.
4 comments

>just switch up a few atoms

What a silly statement. Adding a single oxygen atom to CO makes it far less toxic. Even among the class of chemicals we call PFAS, there are profound differences measured by the difference of only a few atoms.

Most of the regulatory agencies in the US exist to serve as anticompetitive moats around the largest industrial companies in the US. You see it in the FDA, the FAA, the EPA, SEC/FINRA, etc. Once you get big enough, it seems that the federal government places you under the umbrella of "national security" and decides to make sure you get to continue to exist (so long as you cooperate and play ball). Being part of the large supply chains for the military always helps, too.

Once you see it, you can't unsee it. The US is incredibly corrupt.

The food pyramid is what made me see it. The USDA decided to just fuck up the diet of the western world because the US happens to be great a growing corn.
Teflon is not hazardous, it's also not GenX.
It can be extremely hazardous to birds (https://www.ewg.org/research/canaries-kitchen) and can also make humans sick ("Teflon flu").
What should the EPA have done instead?
Doesn’t the DEA deal with the same thing with THC analogs? I could be wrong but I thought they got pretty quick about banning them. I want to look into this now…
Disallow any new chemicals that have not been tested. You shouldn't be able to just create some new chemical and use the public as guinea pigs. And none of this nonsense about stifling technological development. If there is life saving or otherwise groundbreaking use of some new chemical, they can work to get an exception or accelerate the approval process.