Apparently everything that is yellow coloured could be poisoning you and will kill you in your sleep shortly. They may be leaching PCB-11 from their yellow dye. They don’t know how much PCB-11, or what the health risks are, or how much PCB-11 you need before any damage is done, but they’re pretty sure that this is one more thing that you should be afraid of.
To be fair, it seems like reasonably sound science; it’s the overreacting fearmongering that’s a problem. It says right there in the article that we don’t know yet how much exposure is happening - obviously, since this seems to be a pretty preliminary study - but that doesn’t stop the media from yelling at us about how scared we should be.
Yeah, hate junk science reporting, not junk science.
And that’s junk [science reporting], not [junk science] reporting.
edit: No, hate junk science too. Hate junk science reporting, not science where the junkosity is yet to be determined. This comment is losing its snappiness.
OK, can you explain to me why this is junk science?
One of my colleagues is the state’s PCBs expert. For years he has been working to raise awareness about PCB-11 in our office supply products. He only works with laboratories that are careful in their use of recycled paper since the yellow dye shows up everywhere. Just a little can contaminate his legal samples. Since the concentration threshold for PCBs that we use to determine if a waterbody is polluted is so low (think a drop in a swimming pool), contamination is a serious issue.
PCBs are nothing to play around with. They are linked to everything from neurological deficits to immunological effects.
I know every day we hear about yet another everyday thing that’s killing us, and we start thinking that it’s all a buncha shit. But there is no “harmless” amount of PCBs. There are some congeners that are more toxic than others, but all of it is pretty bad. These substances can also degrade into more toxic by-products. And they take forever to go away.
In my great state of Virginia, PCBs are responsible for the majority of our fish consumption advisories. And I’m guessing this holds for pretty much everywhere else.
I’ve always suspected yellow … even when everybody was saying it was mauvish vermillion, mauvish vermillion, mauvish vermillion … I knew there wasn’t something right about yellow, especially on the cream side of light yellow. I’ve made it a point to never turn my back on yellow, figured I’d get knifed. It’s kinda like the middle child syndrome, yellow is the middle color among the primaries; red, yellow, blue. Red and blue get all the attention, leaving yellow out in the cold. The parents, black and white, just didn’t spend enough time with yellow when he was a lad.
Shouldn’t surprise anyone he’s trying to kill us now.
Because, yellow! Grrr, Arrrgh! May contain PCBs! At levels we aren’t certain of, or what levels can harm you, or what harm they do! I think smeghead was right - the science might be just fine, but the news story was garbage. The news story I heard on the noon news included talking to a Mommy Blogger - 'nuff said?
I got more out of your post than I did from the news story I heard or the one I read to link here. A news story like your post would have been informative and educational, rather than just telling us that everything coloured yellow might be killing us (or our babies) now.
What the shit? “[A]ccording to a new unpublished study,” how do I get national (well, Canada) coverage for something that hasn’t even been completed? I have something that I’ve been sitting on for awhile, can someone give me press coverage so I don’t have to peer review it?
As far as junk reporting, I’ve seen worse. It would’ve been better if they said “linked to [some] yellow dyes, inks and paints.” The story it links too is even worse, though, in the lots of questions with no answers front.