Vaccines rarely cause serious reactions, overdoses of fluoride can result in stained teeth or worse, and over-reliance on GMO crops can have negative effects. But none are “harmful” in the sense that they’re a detriment to society - quite the opposite.
I’m unaware of any valid science* that shows genetically modified foods are harmful to animals, including rodents.
*spectacularly bad science suggesting otherwise has been thoroughly debunked.
Everything’s dangerous if not properly managed. The issues with all of these are about what constitutes proper management to avoid (as appropriate) excess dosage, not checking for allergies, and/or unintended consequences that could and should have been anticipated and thoroughly investigated.
Beware hydrogen hydroxide. Nasty stuff in all forms. And fish fuck in it. Ewww…
I voted 0, but there is an argument against GMO crops. It’s not highly visible in the popular media, where it’s obscured by ignorant and skeptical beautiful young women* who won’t eat GMO foods, but some of my intelligent and educated green/vegan/ecologist friends wouldn’t eat GMO foods because they didn’t approve of GMO crops.
*healthy living media targeted at women seems to be dominated by beautiful young women. Or is that just me? Similar magazines targeted at men seem to emphasize lean meat and protein shakes rather than vegtables.
I’m assuming all of these are going very fast…
There are plenty of people (including influential cranks like Joe Mercola, Alex Jones and Mike Adams, who make money off these fears) who fervently oppose vaccines, GMOs and water fluoridation.
They also have their own Facebook groups (example).
GMOs are dangerous if the modification allows, for example, a hazardous herbicide to liberally applied to the food.
I once trolled a MD I was seeing about the LD50 for Hydrogen Monoxide. The nurse behind him and out of his sight was peeing herself, trying to not laugh out loud.
What DaveRaver said. By far the most common form of GMO crops is “Roundup Ready,” which allows farmers to soak the holy fuck out of our food with an herbicide that’s banned or restricted in a goodly section of the world. I’m just not thinking glyphosate is a yummy harmless addition to our diet.
Vaccines can cause individuals to have bad reactions but the good derived from them far outweighs the harm.
Fluoride is fine for individual humans to consume but wholesale addition of it to water supplies is problematical in places (such as the Pacific Northwest, where I live) where fisheries are vital to the overall ecosystem. Salmon runs account for up to 90% of the nitrogen our forests depend on and fluoride is a fish sedative that harms young fish. No bueno. Take your fluoride pills as needed but if you’re too dumb to do that then the rest of the ecosystem should not be subjected to damage to make sure you have a nice smile.
I checked “one of them” but that’s because your poll options aren’t very flexible. I have no solid reason to believe any of them as practiced are harmful, but GMO has the inherent capacity of becoming very harmful and I don’t like the lack of responsible oversight.
I remember reading an enthusiastic article about the microorganisms in some dev lab that had been GMO’d to digest plastics. Jesus H Fucking Christ, do you think they’d stay safely ensconced in the landfill, cheerfully eating our plastic grocery bags? You don’t look around you at the world and wonder what would happen if we had plasticvorous microbes running around dissolving and digesting the world’s plastic willy-nillly? You don’t think the genes that enable that couldn’t end up crossing with some other things out there in the wild and spreading to other microbial species?
But as of today, 0 harmful out of all three categories, as far as I know.
A little perspective helps.
Glyphosate has a recommended application rate for corn of approximately one quart per acre. That doesn’t sound to me like “soak(ing) the holy fuck out of our food”, but YMMV. By contrast, atrazine, an herbicide in common use before glyphosate (and far more toxic) had an application rate of two gallons per acre.
For more perspective, consider all the chemicals farmers were applying (or dousing, if you wish) on croplands not so long ago. This is a list from a 1985 publication.
“The highly toxic insecticides in this publication are: carbofuran (Furadan 4F), EPN, fonophos (Dyfonate 4E), methomyl (Lannate, Nudrin), ethyl and methyl parathion, phorate (Thimet), propargite (Comite),and terbufos (Counter). Skull and crossbones and the appear in red on the label of highly toxic materials. Liquid formulations of these products are not recommended for farmer application. However, by observing and using proper precautions, as indicated on the label, farmers should be able to use granular formulations for soil application to control corn rootworms.
Moderately toxic insecticides are: (Dipel), carbaryl (Sevin), carbofuran (Furadan lSG), chlorpyrifos (Lorsban), diazinon, dimethoate (Cygon), ethoprop (Mocap lSG), fenvalerate (Pydrin), lindane, malathion, oxydemeton-methyl (Metasystox-R), permethrin (Ambush, Pounce), phosmet (Imidan), trichlorfon (Dylox), and trimethacarb (Broot lSG). They must be used with special care. Familiarize yourself with all warnings given on the label.**”
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5595&context=extensionhist
Furadan (a popular herbicide in the past) is a name I remember from when I was a college student in Iowa. Their radio ad jingle went “I’m a Furadan ma-an.” Thanks, but I’d far rather have traces of glyphosate in my food than of the herbicides commonly used before it.**
And if you think food was lots safer for our grandparents, great-grandparents etc., you should look into what was applied to crops as recently as the 1940s-50s. Arsenical pesticides/herbicides were in common use. I have a book published in 1942 that advises Victory Gardeners about using arsenic for pest control.
The problem with glyphosate is not toxicity to humans (claims which not accepted by the vast majority of published science). One could argue that overdependence on glyphosate has speeded the development of resistant weeds. Of course, that was a problem with previous herbicides, long before GM crops were developed.
Every single objection to genetically modified varieties applies to pre-GM crops as well - a very limited genetic basis for major crops, “corporate control” of seed sales including restrictions on replanting hybrid seeds, requirements for herbicide/pesticide application etc.
*I’m not crazy about 2,4-D Ready crops on the horizon. Glyphosate looks really good by comparison.
**that list of toxic chemicals includes Dipel (a.k.a. BT) which is approved for organic farmers, and permethrin, which is a synthetic version of another organic-approved chemical, pyrethrin.
“FOOF: a description of the atoms forming the molecule – fluorine, oxygen,oxygen,fluorine.
Also, the noise it makes when it blows up your laboratory (and, sooner or later, it will).”