fine, fine. bad example. I grabbed gasoline out of a long long list of ingestibles that probably won’t kill you because I remembered an interview with someone who worked for a poison control center saying that it was generally not a problem in the amounts that people might accidentally ingest.
Jerry Brown’s Chief of Staff during his first stint as governor drank a beaker of malathion solution during the MedFly business.
1 Like
Makes me think of the B-52 hydrogen bombs crash on the Spanish coast in 1966.
They had publicity photos of the royal family at the beach to show it was safe. However, when not snapping happy photos, they had everyone wrapped in lead blankets.
2 Likes
Man exaggerates, reporter takes him literally.
News at eleven, apparently.
2 Likes
Haha, I’ve met her. She seems to be fine…so far.
I also have friends who work in CJD research. It appears the huge wave of beef-related cases that was feared has failed to turn up. I’m not sure why. That said, it’s such a horrible disease I think that even low risks of infection are unacceptable.
4 Likes
Ironically…
I grew up not far from Queniborough - the small village where 5 people died of CJD.
Also, I discovered that anyone who lived in the UK around that time can’t give blood in the US.
4 Likes
There are many different levels of “safe”.
This lobbyist made the mistake of saying that something was safe to drink, then refusing to drink it. Therefore, he is aware of two different levels of “safe”. However, he failed to enumerate these levels on TV.
He got played.
7 Likes
Clearly Monsanto is negligent by not putting a warning on their containers against using it for suicide. I’m surprised they haven’t been sued.
1 Like
Like darn near everything else in the world Glyphosate is poisonous in a large enough dose and not poisonous in a small enough dose. As Paracelsus said, “Poison is in the dose.”. The real question is whether the amount of glyphosate that ends up entering humans (and perhaps other animals) is poisonous.
2 Likes
But this gentleman was pretty specific about what would be a safe dose:
“You can drink a whole quart of it and it won’t hurt you,” says Moore.
If you tell the public that drinking a quart of something is perfectly safe then you shouldn’t say it’s “stupid” for someone to suggest you back up that claim by taking a sip or two.
18 Likes
I wouldn’t drink glyphosate either, because while it won’t harm your system it will probably cause an acute reaction in your stomach and will, even if diluted, kill a significant portion of your gut flora, because it isn’t harmless to your gut. I still prefer glyphosate to atrazine or 2,4-D, which is what we were using before. It’s not like the alternative to glyphosate is organic farming.
6 Likes
In small doses, Jack Daniels isn’t very bad for you, but I still wouldn’t chug a quart of it. Not to mention that would be a waste of booze.
4 Likes
I’m sure the lobbyist would rather be offered a quart of Jack Daniels over a quart of glyphosate, although I expect the tv show would end up like one of those Oliver Reed interviews
3 Likes
I’m not stupid … I’m not an idiot
The lady doth protest too much, methinks
6 Likes
Yelp, I’m one of them - I spent a semester in the UK in 1990, and now my blood is unwanted.
1 Like
[quote=“ActionAbe, post:24, topic:54445”]
Man exaggerates, reporter takes him literally
[/quote]Did you see the same video that I did? The reporter didn’t ask him to drink an entire quart. He offered him specifically one glass of it. That’s hardly taking him literally.
8 Likes
If you claimed that x ‘eco-friendly’ product could be consumed by people, up to a quart, you would be surprised if someone asked you to prove it?
5 Likes
First of all, I’ve been telling y’all glyophosates are bad for years now.
<phew!> Glad to get that out of my system. <wipes brow>
Anyway, I thought this would be a good time to remind y’all that if he had drunk it, that wouldn’t prove it was safe… it would merely prove he wasn’t a coward.
On October 30, 1924, [Thomas] Midgley participated in a press conference to demonstrate the apparent safety of tetraethyl lead. In this demonstration, he poured TEL over his hands, then placed a bottle of the chemical under his nose and inhaled its vapor for sixty seconds, declaring that he could do this every day without succumbing to any problems whatsoever.[5][8] … Midgley sought treatment for lead poisoning in Europe a few months after his demonstration at the press conference.[9]
[5] The Secret History of Lead, The Nation, March 20, 2000
[8] Markowitz, Gerald and Rosner, David. Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2002
[9] “The Poisoner’s Handbook” American Experience at 51:48 January 2014
Quote and cites courtesy of Wikipedia, but everybody around here (the Experimental Station is just over the river from me right now; they were still making TEL until quite recently) knows that Midgley was treated at least twice for lead poisoning.
8 Likes
I think you’re right in that it doesn’t prove anything about glyphosate but it does do a lot of damage to the claims it is safe. It backfired. For good or ill.
But yes, I agree this guy’s an idiot, I wouldn’t expect any chemical in a weed killer to be safe to drink.
3 Likes
…A question to which the answer keeps changing.
1 Like
