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A Sobering Christmas Reality: Cocktail of Hazardous Pesticides in Wine has Tripled (www.thecanary.co)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A French nationwide study published in the Environmental Research journal suggested that agricultural practices and pesticides used in vineyards could have been linked to the occurrence of Parkinson’s disease.

According to PAN UK’s findings, there seems to be a rising trend in the occurrence of pesticide combinations in food. The total percentage of fruit and vegetables with residues from multiple pesticides has consistently stayed below 48%, but this year it unexpectedly spiked to an astonishing 53%.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This isn't the appropriate way to analyze health policy. If alcohol is bad for you, but we as a society have decided that it is ok for people to poison themselves, then when some unscrupulous capitalists makes it even worse for you, you don't say "who cares it's already bad for you, lol." and then moralize about how if everyone doesn't consume the exact same substances you do, they somehow deserve it.

It is ok for a certain level of toxicity to be permitted, but additional or different unwanted types of toxicity to be a public health concern.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

you don’t say “who cares it’s already bad for you, lol.” and then moralize about how if everyone doesn’t consume the exact same substances you do, they somehow deserve it.

I think you got that wrong.

The idea to share this information is to empower someone to make an informed decision about the potential consequences that their actions could have on their health.

I can't possibly blame someone for not knowing better, as I'm certain that their local wine shop doesn't put cancer warning labels on the bottles.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

The idea to share this information is to empower someone

This also doesn't seem desirable. Societal health isn't achieved by a group of individual decisions. It is created by regulations on how much pesticide should be in consumer goods or how much risk various consumables should pose to an individual.

Caveat emptor isn't a desirable public policy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

However what he showed is that regulators do not reflect the reality of the threat of alcohol consumption on the regulations that are meant to protect the people. Hence the need to inform the individuals who otherwise blindly consider that the current set of regulations leaves no hazardous substances available on the market.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Individuals can work with what they can control, while also pressuring their government to regulate what they can't.

Can you avoid all pesticides? No.

Can you avoid all alcoholic beverages? Yes.

Edit: clarification