[mschuster91]

> All else being equal you're generally safer being exposed to stable things that don't break down than unstable things that happily react with all sorts of things

Unless the other thing is asbestos or generally any kind of mineral/anorganic material - pneumoconiosis [1] is nasty in all its variants. There is no mechanism at all for your body to break down or expel anorganic contaminants in your lungs.

> If you get to choose between breathing tires and milk jugs pick the milk jugs every time.

Well, plastic, glass or metal, no matter what the jugs are made of, they'll hurt your lungs just like the tire dust will.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumoconiosis

[webstrand]

> There is no mechanism at all

I think that's somewhat misleading, the lung has a mucus layer and cilia to move particles caught in the mucus up and out. But I'll agree that it's not a completely robust system. Anything that gets past or can't be moved by the mucus layer is going to be a problem, especially particles that can't be broken down by the macrophages.

[potato3732842]

>Unless the other thing is asbestos or generally any kind of mineral/anorganic material - pneumoconiosis [1] is nasty in all its variants. There is no mechanism at all for your body to break down or expel anorganic contaminants in your lungs.

Yup. I was thinking of heading off comments like yours by mentioning silicosis or lead poisoning but didn't want to clutter up a simple clarification.

Anyway, still mostly safer than "happy to react with things" compounds which is why people like you get to make comments about it here and now vs it simply being a thing everyone has accepted is not good to breath for hundreds of years (like certain wood dusts)