ewg
8Have you ever thought about how many chemicals are in the things you use around the house or the food you eat everyday? Not to be serious or anything, but I came across this website called ewg.org (Environmental Working Group) which have ratings on things I've been using on a daily basis. Check out food scores and cleaning stuff, maybe you'll be surprised! 
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Now is not the time to be concerned:
@narfcake Winco FTW!
yolo
@galmaegi This cancels out, right?
@narfcake Oh, I've never seen it. Soymilk with pearl... is it good?
@galmaegi It's just their branding.
http://www.kikkomanusa.com/homecooks/products/product_sub_list.php?dep=1&fam=110
It's $1.18/qt. at my local WinCo. Way better than the "soymilk" that's sold at the 99-cents store.
The closest WinCo to me is about 30 minutes. On the rare occasion I go, I stock up!
Oh. That's a useful website I never want to look at again. THANKS.
I clicked in here expecting to read about External Wastegates.
@jsh139 I have no idea what that is. :)
@galmaegi It's a device to relieve excess pressure on vehicles with positive pressure on the intake side of the engine.
@narfcake no wonder why.
@jsh139 That's not the external wastegate I had in mind.
@cinoclav HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
@cinoclav
It's a great site, but there are some drawbacks. Not all of the ratings are as accurate as they could be - due to lack of information. They also seem to negatively weight grades for substances and chemicals that need more information or research. I still use it and have found a lot of reliable information there, but think there is definitely room for improvement in their method.
@Thumperchick Good point! I know it's almost impossible to avoid chemicals these days so I'll have to let go at some point.
Glad to see this type of website exists though.
@galmaegi Everything is a chemical. Yay science!
Stay away from anything containing dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO). Companies use it without disclosing it. It's a major component of acid rain. It kills thousands of people every year. Despite the known dangers of DHMO, it continues to be used daily by industry, government, and even in private homes across the U.S. and worldwide.
Dangers include:
- Death due to accidental inhalation of DHMO, even in small quantities.
- Gaseous DHMO can cause severe burns.
- Leads to corrosion and oxidation of many metals.
- Contamination of electrical systems often causes short-circuits.
- Studies have shown that even after careful washing, food and produce that has been contaminated by DHMO remains tainted by DHMO.
Anyway, please be careful because the government doesn't always require DHMO to be listed as an ingredient. Your food could be contaminated by DHMO and you don't even know it.
@cengland0 My eldest brother, who's very anti-establishment and a bit of a quiet smartass and especially loves messing with witless management (and is in those ways and others very much my hero) works in a manufacturing facility for a very famous company. He once had his immediate supervisor running around like a chicken with his head cut off because their shop lacked an MSDS for dihydrogen monoxide, "probably our most commonly used solvent. And a serious danger."
One of the other line managers joined the panicked frenzy. To their boss's credit, when he saw my brother's memo, he laughed and said, "W------'s just fucking with you." (name obscured to protect the guilty)
@joelmw I love that. I love the fact that the big boss knew he was fucking with them.
So what you are saying the dollar ribeyes at dollar tree aren't good for me.
http://abc13.com/food/would-you-try-a-dollar-store-steak/869260/
@rileyper Idk...I'm skeptical about this.
I can guarantee your food is 100% made of chemicals. Thousands of different compounds. So is your body. Cooking is chemistry in disguise.
Everything is a chemical. You are made up of chemicals. Naturally occurring doesn't mean good for you. Cyanide is naturally occurring in peaches.
@CaptAmehrican And those peaches were put in a can, by a man, in a factory downtown.
Millions of peaches, peaches for me, millions of peaches, peaches for free.
@narfcake He's Caspar Babypants now. But Chris is awesome no matter what he's doing.
Also, not everything is a chemical, y'all. Jeez, I thought knowing that was elemental!
Looks like EWG has a pretty good sales plan. Try and get people worried and then sell companies your "approval stamp" for a fortune. Brilliant.
The problem with focussing on individual chemicals is that, once they are combined with other chemicals, they can have completely different properties. A bunch of safe chemicals when combined can be dangerous, and a bunch of dangerous chemicals combined can be safe.
Also a substance that is dangerous in high doses can be beneficial, or at least not harmful, in low doses.
@katylava Stop being so goddamned rational.
@katylava For instance, Benzene C6H6 is carcinogenic. However, it is the building block for all organic chemistry, and Benzene rings are found in all sorts of delicious food chemicals.
Vanillin, one of the naturally-occuring chemicals in vanilla extract, is relatively easy to synthesize. It contains a Benzene ring. That does not make it cancer-causing. It makes it aromatic and delicious.
@katylava Sodium: kind of explosive in a surprising number of circumstances. Chlorine: reacts with just about everything as an oxidizer. Put them together and you have common table salt, vital to human and animal life.
The Universal Label
https://m.xkcd.com/1123/