[HN Gopher] Agent Blue - Arsenic-Laced Rainbow [pdf]
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       Agent Blue - Arsenic-Laced Rainbow [pdf]
        
       Author : limit499karma
       Score  : 31 points
       Date   : 2024-11-20 00:05 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (11thrru.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (11thrru.org)
        
       | dwroberts wrote:
       | > Until 2012, chickens in the U.S. were given compounds of
       | arsenic to prevent certain diseases and to make the meat plump
       | and pink
       | 
       | I was curious exactly what happened in 2012:
       | 
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20111229174314/https://www.fda.g...
       | (2011)
       | 
       | > FDA announced that Alpharma, a subsidiary of Pfizer Inc, will
       | voluntarily suspend sale of the animal drug 3-Nitro (Roxarsone)
       | in response to a new FDA study of 100 broiler chickens that
       | detected inorganic arsenic, a known carcinogen, at higher levels
       | in the livers of chickens treated with the drug 3-Nitro
       | (Roxarsone) than in untreated chickens. FDA officials stress that
       | the levels of inorganic arsenic detected were very low and that
       | continuing to eat chicken as 3-Nitro is suspended from the market
       | does not pose a health risk.
       | 
       | > 3-Nitro(r) (Roxarsone) is an arsenic-based animal drug,
       | manufactured by Alpharma LLC, a subsidiary of Pfizer Inc. It is
       | approved to help prevent coccidiosis when used in combination
       | with certain animal drugs. Coccidiosis is a parasitic disease
       | that infects the intestinal tracts in poultry and can lead to
       | death in poultry
        
       | redprince wrote:
       | "The bottom line is that arsenic is a heavy metal, like lead, and
       | all heavy metals are dangerous and carcinogenic."
       | 
       | Gold, iron, tin are are all "heavy metals" and are certainly not
       | carcinogenic or dangerous.
        
         | hobs wrote:
         | Those are not considered heavy metals in toxicology.
        
           | 1970-01-01 wrote:
           | That's their point. Heavy as in "has some gravity to it" is
           | an unambiguous term in all other sciences except toxicology.
        
             | amluto wrote:
             | Go ask an astronomer what a "metal" is :)
        
           | cozzyd wrote:
           | I guess Iron Maiden should rebrand as Cadmium Maiden
        
         | gus_massa wrote:
         | I remember from a video of Cody's Lab that metallic gold is
         | safe, but oxidized gold is toxic.
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Toxicity But it's very
         | difficult to oxidize gold, and even gold the salts try to go
         | back to the metallic form, so most of the times it's not a
         | problem.
        
       | bottom999mottob wrote:
       | The US owes it to the Vietnamese people to clean up the arsenic,
       | but of course they're never going to do that. I know several
       | elderly Vietnamese who developed leukemia after serving in the
       | war.
       | 
       | If you eat rice, please eat white not brown, parboil it with a
       | ratio of 4:1 water to rice, and dump the water afterwards [0].
       | 
       | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972...
        
         | yapyap wrote:
         | If the US was gonna absolve itself of it's past sins for all
         | countries they'd double or triple the national debt a few
         | times, just trying to rectify what they did to Vietnam & the
         | middle east would be near impossible, then you also have Cuba
         | and probably a bunch more countries I'm forgetting cause this
         | is just off the top of my head.
         | 
         | Not that you're not making a great point but sadly as you said,
         | it's never happening
        
       | knotimpressed wrote:
       | Does anyone know how elevated bladder cancer rates were/are in
       | Vietnam vets?
       | 
       | Every time I read a piece like this or a Wikipedia article on a
       | similarly messed up topic I feel sick to my stomach, wondering
       | how on earth any of the men at the top were morally okay with
       | such horrible acts. I get they weren't aware of all the negative
       | effects at the time, but cmon, dousing people in herbicides?
        
         | icegreentea2 wrote:
         | I mean, look at what their -intended- goal was. For agent blue
         | it was literally to cause a mass migration via induced
         | starvation. When you've broadened your choices to include that,
         | what's a little long-term cancer risk.
         | 
         | Oh also, we should remember that the US dropped more bombs in
         | Vietnam (Laos and Cambodia) than in WW2.
        
         | jajko wrote:
         | Have you ever interacted knowingly with sociopath/psychopath to
         | observe them in action and understand things better?
         | 
         | Top brass of any large enough corporation or government body is
         | infested with high functioning variants of such people, its a
         | tough place to even get to, even harder to survive so that's
         | hardly surprising. Don't expect much empathy from such people,
         | if it ain't for their own PR in some way.
        
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       (page generated 2024-11-23 23:01 UTC)