lead too.
I feel like if asbestos was banned today there'd be a huge pro-asbestos movement
Submitted 4 days ago by philz@lemmy.world to showerthoughts@lemmy.world
Comments
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee 2 days ago
It is actually astonishing it took so long for lead to be banned in the US. Even Ben Franklin railed against the use of lead in daily life and he was someone who lived and died in the 18th century.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Even Ben Franklin railed against the use of lead in daily life
whoa, TIL. 1786 NO LESS
environmentaleducation.com/…/Ben Franklin Letter …
TY!
Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 days ago
We DoN’t NeEd VaCcInEs We’Ve GoT aSbEsToS!
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Old car guys are still bitter over unleaded gas. Some will drive to airports to buy the leaded stuff.
sxan@midwest.social 3 days ago
Old car drivers drive cars that need additives in the gas. The lead was a lubricant, and old engines ran better, and longer, on leaded gas.
They didn’t just add lead because it made the gas prettier; there was a reason. I would suppose that today there are other additives that can reproduce the lubricating effects for those old cars, but old car hobbyists are niche and you’re not going to find those products at Walmart, whereas there’s always a local airport somewhere nearby.
I’m not defending leaded gas, but I think vintage car enthusiasts do it not because they’re being stupididly misinformed and contrarian, but because they’re trying to keep their engines running well.
KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 3 days ago
The reason was TEL stopped engine pinging.
sugarfoot00@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Thomas Midgley Jr is the same guy that invented leaded gas and also invented freon (chlorofluorocarbons). Imagine being the architect of not one but two of the greatest environmental calamities of the industrial age.
HelixDab2@lemm.ee 3 days ago
The lead was a lubricant, and old engines ran better, and longer, on leaded gas.
There were two issues. First, tetraethyl lead increased the effective octane level. That, in turn, reduced the probability of pre-ignition, e.g., the fuel-air mixture igniting before the compression cycle was completed. Higher octane allows for higher compression, which is more efficient. The other issue was the valves specifically; the lead provided a ‘cushion’ between the valves and the valve seats, which minimized valve wear.
The octane issue is easily solved by both better refining or by adding alcohol. It was known that you could add alcohol to gas to improve octane rating even when TEL was first added, but TEL could be patented, and alcohol couldn’t. The valve issue has largely been solved by better metallurgy and manufacturing.
The one are where it hasn’t been solved is small aircraft. Some small planes still use leaded gas, and it’s mostly for the octane boost. TEL can give them a better octane rating than alcohol or better refinement can, which allows them to operate at much high compression. Take that away, and the engines are too underpowered to keep the plane in the air. Over 150,000 small airplanes still use leaded AvGas; thankfully, newer turboprop planes and all jet planes mostly use Jet A or Jet B fuel, which is closer to kerosene.
In theory, I think that you could convert older cars to run on unleaded fuels, but you would need new parts rather than OEM.
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I ones I know are putting it in new generators.
popcap200@lemmy.ml 4 days ago
Wasn’t Trump literally trying to bring it back last time?
Opinionhaver@feddit.uk 3 days ago
The use of asbestos in the US was only banned in 2024.
VerbFlow@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Back when asbestos was banned, everyone trusted the government. Nobody trusts the government anymore because of its constant foreign wars, corrupt candidates, and human rights abuses. We cannot do things like mandate vaccines and ban cars if the very government that would enforce that ban is this tyrannical and shitty.
mogranja@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Also, there are people who make money (or even just fake internet points) off of telling gullible people the opposite is true.
They should be held accountable for what they claim online.
mogranja@lemmy.world 2 days ago
And I mean someone who claims cigarettes don’t cause cancer are financially responsible if anyone who smokes a cigarette gets cancer. No need to prove they watched the channel or started smoking after seeing their video.
CanadianCorhen@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
In Defense of Asbestos: The Mineral We Love to Hate
Look, everyone’s got their vices. Some people sip whiskey to “relax,” others puff cigars to feel “distinguished.” But heaven forbid you mention asbestos—suddenly, you’re the villain in a 1980s PSA.
But let’s be honest: asbestos walked so modern insulation could run. Before we had fancy synthetic fireproofing and high-tech soundproofing, asbestos was out here doing it all. Fire-resistant? Check. Insulating? Absolutely. Durable? Like the cockroach of minerals—won’t burn, won’t break, just vibes.
“Oh, but it causes health problems,” they say, as they light their third cigarette of the day and sip their third oat milk IPA. Everything causes health problems if you inhale it long enough. Ever tried breathing in glitter? Death trap.
And what happened to personal responsibility? You don’t see us eating asbestos sandwiches. We just want a little cozy, non-flammable nostalgia in our ceilings. It’s not like we’re snorting the stuff—though, let’s be real, if someone did that in the 70s, it was probably the same guy who invented disco.
Let’s stop pretending asbestos was some mustachio-twirling villain and start recognizing it for what it was: the gritty, misunderstood hero of 20th century construction. Sure, it had a dark side—but so did lead paint, and we don’t see that getting canceled on social media.
So here’s to asbestos: May your fibers be forever airborne in the halls of history, and your reputation just slightly less shredded than it deserves.
bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net 3 days ago
Did you llm this
CanadianCorhen@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
yea, there is a disclaimer at the top.
Irelephant@lemm.ee 3 days ago
This is oddly convincing.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 days ago
It actually was just recently (a year ago) banned fully in the US. Before that, it was just prohibited to be used in new construction.
TON618@lemmy.world 3 days ago
What do you mean with fully banned? Pretty sure here in Europe there are also still plenty of cases where you’re not forced to remove asbestos, like old plumbing that’s embedded in closed shafts.
subarctictundra@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Well it can’t be sold anymore, but if you have it in your house then it’s not illegal in any way
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
LOL. Imagine seeing asbestos truthers coughing on their deathbed swearing that it’s completely harmless and that there’s a global conspiracy against it.
octopus_ink@slrpnk.net 4 days ago
I mean, we can probably just find/replace asbestos for Covid - it will be the same people making the same crazy claim.
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 4 days ago
Many crazy ideas seem to go hand in hand. If you’re into flat earth nonsense, there’s a pretty good chance you also oppose vaccines, drink colloidal silver and believe in intergalactic lizards.
Worx@lemmynsfw.com 4 days ago
They are probably coughing because of the
cigarettescar exhaust fumesair pollutiongoddamn libs
vrojak@feddit.org 2 days ago
I’m SO glad I live in a city with a decently functioning tram system. If something like that was proposed today, there’d be thousands of people complaining about being forced out of their cars or the city losing its charm or whatever nonsense.
OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
Texas just defunded their rail project
frezik@midwest.social 2 days ago
Implication is that there are things about as bad as asbestos that should be banned, but aren’t.
Taleya@aussie.zone 2 days ago
Cigarette, sir?
Mallspice@lemm.ee 3 days ago
Sponsored by the freedom initiative or something with a similar name to cover up it’s a social media campaign for a billionaire.
UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Of course he is for it.
It will make him money
And none of the thousands who will get sick and or die
Are people he knows personally
Heikki@lemm.ee 3 days ago
Opinionhaver@feddit.uk 3 days ago
The use of it in the US was banned only last year and I’m not aware of there having been such movement.
uienia@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Donald Trump has already called asbestos “100% safe”. His cultist followers will eagerly become pro-asbestos if he tells them to. And he will tell them to if someone pays him enough to tell them so.
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 3 days ago
They are already lead infested and thus dumb enough to believe anything Cheeto Benito says.
Dozzi92@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I love two towns over from Manville, which was the asbestos capital of America, and I can unequivocally say those morons would vote to bring asbestos back if they could.
467265654C75696769@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Because Russia, the number one exporter of asbestoes and the number one disinformation capital of the world.
elrecoal19_1@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Maybe not the number one asbestoes exporter, but that wouldn’t stop them from spreading misinformation if it means aweakening the rest of us.
itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml 4 days ago
I need my full lead gasoline
Ghostwurm@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
Like Transfats. I remember the idiots complaining, not realizing they were getting something inferior.
mko@lemm.ee 3 days ago
Something with trans in there? That should not even come up in his mind.
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
TRANSfats?!??!!!?? The wokes are trying to force us to be trans by putting ‘transfats’ in our food!!
3dmvr@lemm.ee 2 days ago
they didnt go away just lowered amount for servings, an annoying amount of food still has them, like costco dogs
eric5949@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Would be? My guy there is lol, just not huge.
MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
As long as it made someone money or kept them from losing it, yes there would be
UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I’m surprised there isn’t a “pro poison in food” If only for those who feel
“No one tells ME what to do!”
sugarfoot00@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
I humbly direct you towards the raw milk crowd
PolarisFx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
A friend of a friend is a dairy farmer, and we were at his place and I was introduced to raw milk for the first time, and I did not enjoy the experience, nor do I understand people who seek it out.
Stegget@lemmy.world 3 days ago
As if the processed food industry doesn’t already lobby Congress spendinf millions annually.
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 4 days ago
In America sure.
Rest of the world, it would be very much limited to a very, very small minority that would be lost to cancer.
shottymcb@lemm.ee 3 days ago
UK didn’t ban asbestos till 2000, 25 years after we knew it was mega cancer.
1993 for Germany
1997 for France
1992 for Italy
2002 for Spain
China still hasn’t banned asbestos.
cobwoms@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 days ago
i could see the same being dead about leaded gasoline
Grappling7155@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 days ago
Most asbestos is made in Russia currently so definitely
Babalugats@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Plastic is much more useful than asbestos ever was.
philz@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Cool bro. I guess we should bring asbestos back then
Babalugats@lemmy.world 3 days ago
My point was, as per OP, if we banned it now, there would still be a large portion claiming outrage. Either because they profit from it, or it effects a product they use or collect.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 3 days ago
'Bestos saved my buddy’s life in 'Nam, man.
madame_gaymes@programming.dev 4 days ago
We should just let them bring all these things back, make the southeast US a mecca for dinks that want raw milk, lead paint, asbestos insulation, and derailed trains pumping vinyl chloride into a biodome.
Inucune@lemmy.world 2 days ago
He’d drive a truck fogging asbestos dust out the back
hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
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