The fire retardant in the seafood chain
insideclimatenews.org
insideclimatenews.org
Does anyone remember the 90s when as a laymen it seemed like an open debate whether humans would occasionally combust spontaneously? I guess it stopped happening once falling asleep with a cigarette lost popularity
But my point is I wasn’t aware that “spontaneous combustion” was a real thing one has to worry about it. Linseed oil rags will do this too, and that’s why patent leather shoes are coated in plastic now instead.
It might help that concrete is not combustible to begin with. Vs. (say) linseed oil definitely is.
https://www.universalhub.com/2026/mulch-fire-brings-all-jake...
Commonly happens in grain silos, mulch piles, etc.
It really doesn't take that large of a pile of grass clippings or wood chips to get some steam coming out and a lot of steam if you disturb the pile.
Anything even slightly warm and moist will "steam" (you're actually seeing condensation but that's beside the point) if it's cold (or at least not warm) and fairly humid out. Nobody's wood chip pile is steaming in the august sun (well it is but you're not seeing it condense but once again, beside the point). And even if it was boiling it'd still be a couple hundo degrees away from anything catching on fire and even then the same containment that let the heat build typically precludes oxygen. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it does it make a sound? If the core of some material pile reaches combustion temperature but there is no oxygen for it is it on fire?
Perhaps more lax safety around easily combustible substances like linseed oil would also contribute to this effect. The sun heating up that linseed oilstain on your sleeve from last week, and whoosh. Bystanders would never know, and if you're burnt up, who is going to point out the cause?
> Ethoxyquin (EMQ) is a quinoline-based antioxidant used as a food preservative in certain countries and originally to control scald on pears after harvest (under commercial names such as "Stop-Scald").
but hey whatever, it's not like fish meal is going into dairy and chick en, oh wait
and it's not like interfearing with oxidative processes would be messing with THE primary biological funct ion, oh wait
sorry sorry to disturb the muney optimisation process.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/24/1194759...
It's always important to check the quantities detected and the corresponding safe limits.
Meanwhile you're making a nonsense claim about the capabilities of the sort of mass spectrometer used for this sort of study (like you know anything about mass spectrometers), while also ignoring the well established evidence these chemicals are causing harmful effects to human health.
Probably because you didn't bother to actually read the study summary, yet you felt qualified to whine about it being misleading while hiding behind weasel words like "often" and "seemingly."
Skepticism not a substitute for being informed and educated. Stop doubting and questioning things you're not qualified to doubt or question...especially when you clearly haven't read the material you're so smugly questioning.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02697...
"A significant body of research supports the conclusion that current exposures to BFRs are having an adverse effect on human health and that early-life exposures are of greatest concern. PBDEs have been particularly well-studied and human exposure has been associated with harm to neurodevelopment, especially reduced IQ, as well as reduced fecundability, reduced birth weight, reproductive abnormalities, reduced fertility, papillary thyroid cancer, and alterations in thyroid function (Chevrier et al., 2010; Goodyer et al., 2017; Hoffman et al., 2017; Kim et al., 2014; Lam et al., 2017; Stapleton et al., 2011; Zota et al., 2011). Bromophenols are structurally similar to thyroid hormone, and evidence from in vitro, in vivo, and epidemiological research indicates that, like PBDEs, bromophenols can affect thyroid function (Michałowicz et al., 2022). The effects of brominated flame retardants on thyroid homeostasis may explain their ability to harm neurodevelopment, particularly via disruption of thyroid-hormone mediated development that occurs during fetal development. Several mechanisms for disruption of thyroid homeostasis have been elucidated. In human liver microsomes, 2,4,6-TBP and hydroxylated metabolites of PBDEs were found to inhibit deiodinase, key to regulating levels of active thyroid hormones (Butt et al., 2011). In vitro binding assays found 2,4,6-TBP bound transthyretin (TTR), which transports thyroid hormone, with ten times the potency of the natural ligand, T4, and that a number of BFRs, including some PBDE congeners, increased the response to T3 (Hamers et al., 2006). Results from a placental cell line found that among BFRs, 2,4,6-TBP was the most potent inhibitor of thyroid hormone sulfotransferase (TH SULT), which regulates intracellular levels of thyroid hormones (Leonetti et al., 2018). Mice exposed to 2,4,6-TBP had lower thyroid activity and levels of free T3 and T4 (Lee et al., 2016). Epidemiological research suggests sex-specific effects on thyroid hormone: in placenta samples from 95 North Carolina, USA women, accumulation of 2,4,6-TBP in the placenta was significantly associated with higher levels of T3 in females (Leonetti et al., 2016b). Male infants with higher levels of 2,4,6-TBP had lower T3, though the association was not significant. Evidence indicates that other BFRs affect the endocrine system, including antiestrogenic and antiandrogenic effects, increased production of testosterone and estrogen, and disruption of thyroid function (Chen et al., 2019b; Johnson et al., 2010; Mankidy et al., 2014; Saunders et al., 2013). Because of concerns regarding persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity, along with high production volume, BFRs have been the target of regulatory efforts. These include a ban on their use in enclosures for electronics displays in the European Union and in New York State and in all enclosures for indoor electric and electronic products in Washington State (European Commission, 2019; State of New York, 2022; Washington Administrative Code, 2023). A number of product manufacturers, including Apple and HP, also restrict the use of organohalogen flame retardants in their products."
The quoted study found median concentrations of ~1ng/g of dry samples, so far below any reasonably dangerous levels.
I can very easily fear-monger too: "There's detectable URANIUM in every tested sample of mothers' milk!" And this is true, most of this uranium is from natural dust.
> Meanwhile you're making a nonsense claim about the capabilities of the sort of mass spectrometer used for this sort of study (like you know anything about mass spectrometers)
I worked with mass specs.
> while also ignoring the well established evidence these chemicals are causing harmful effects to human health.
In what quantities? And how do they compare with the detected ones?
re: spontainous combustion, there is a biological process called 'the heat of evolution" that is used to describe the heat given off by ALL ripening and oxidising biological materials, and MANY foods will combust if packed too tight and insulated, case in point are bannanas that must be kept seperate and refrigerated and the whole bannana industry was built on specialy designed refrigerated ships, as there was no good way to ship them before refrigeration. as for 'heat of evolution' there are charts that give the btu's/ton per hour used in refrigeration design, as the heat is substantial and will overwhelm the systems, with fire a real possibility. this is different than dusts and powders exploding due to the 'right' mix and a spark, which might just possibly coincide with a decomposition fire, if a ship was that unlucky. but with so many ways that things can go wrong, it is astounding to find out someone got the idea to prevent food fires by covering everything in poison.