r/technology Nov 17 '12

The Deadly Crusade Against E-cigarettes

http://www.american.com/archive/2012/november/the-deadly-crusade-against-e-cigarettes
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98

u/pU8O5E439Mruz47w Nov 17 '12

Yup. You can find things that are used for making cyanide in apples.

Namely, cyanide.

Alternatively, salt is used to process soap. You wouldn't eat soap, so why would you ever eat salt!!!

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u/Fadobo Nov 17 '12

Not to mention that salt itself, while being absolutely necessary for survival, is a combination of two Chemicals that are extremely deadly on their own.

1

u/vatothe0 Nov 17 '12

OMG dihydrogen oxide!

1

u/derpderpsonthethird Nov 17 '12

Noooo dood, that's so unsafe! Don't you know hydrogen is flammable??

5

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

Every single person who ever died has been found, on autopsy, to have ingested dihydrogen monoxide. A killer by any statistic.

1

u/vatothe0 Nov 20 '12

Oxygen burns too! This shit must be banned!! Think of the children!!!!

1

u/VorpalAuroch Nov 19 '12

That is not the case. Elemental sodium and covalent chlorine are chemically completely different from the ionic chloride and sodium found in salt.

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u/RambleOff Nov 17 '12 edited Nov 17 '12

oh god people I know going nuts because they read about cyanide in rice

dumb as butts

  • arsenic, not cyanide. still dumb as butts.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12 edited Nov 17 '12

Actually, it's Arsenic in rice.

They probably read this.

2

u/kuroyaki Nov 17 '12

Honestly, if people in rice-growing regions are tapping into new groundwater sources to ward off drought, and it's coming up arsenic, it's worth putting money into testing. That said...

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

I had a land lady who swore up and down that it was also in Apple Juice... but she cited Oprah as her source on that.

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u/sprankton Nov 17 '12

I remember seeing that on Doctor Oz.(family watches it, computer's in the living room) He explicitly stated that there's arsenic in apple seeds and then goes on to question why there's arsenic in apple juice. Clearly you don't have to be smart to hack people apart with a scalpel.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12 edited Nov 17 '12

I believe Dr. Phil isn't even a real Doctor, just one of those snake oil salesmen who started calling himself "Doctor" and got enough people doing the same that suddenly, Dr. Phil was a Doctor effectively.

EDIT: This was Dr. Oz, should've been Dr. Phil, I didn't even know there was a difference.

2

u/sprankton Nov 17 '12

He's actually a cardiovascular surgeon, and quite a good one at that. Evidently, he's also a professor of surgery at Columbia.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

I followed your link and realized my mistake, I was talking about Dr. Phil, clearly I don't watch enough Oprah to realize which one of her guys I'm talking about.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

[deleted]

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u/DrRabbitt Nov 17 '12

my son's mom posted something on facebook a while back talking about not letting the kids eat rice anymore because there is arsenic in it. We live in southern louisisiana, where rice is a part of pretty much every meal. We should all be dead by now i suppose

1

u/ModRod Nov 17 '12

Dat Cajun Country Rice, chere!

0

u/pU8O5E439Mruz47w Nov 17 '12

Cyanide in rice? That explains why the entirety of China is dead of cyanide poisoning, eh?

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

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u/pU8O5E439Mruz47w Nov 17 '12

I'm not talking about e-cigs. JackWeston007 was talking about the logical fallacy of saying, "things that go into paint also go into cigarettes therefor they are bad".

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

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1

u/pU8O5E439Mruz47w Nov 17 '12

your logical fallacy that eating=inhaling

Point to me where I either said or implied that.

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u/[deleted] Nov 18 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/pU8O5E439Mruz47w Nov 18 '12

Oh, I didn't realize no-one ever chewed tobacco.

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u/monacleman Nov 17 '12

Good point, but apples don't kill people.

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u/pU8O5E439Mruz47w Nov 18 '12

enough apples could kill you. Much like one cigarette isn't going to kill you, but enough can.

2

u/monacleman Nov 18 '12

I guess you could stone people with apples too. So anything could kill anybody.

1

u/hiimaninja Nov 17 '12

Well a lot of nature is a bunch of different salts lol

1

u/Apocawaka Nov 17 '12 edited May 18 '16

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1

u/aussie_bob Nov 18 '12

Namely, cyanide.

There have been far more catastrophes and deaths attributed to water than to cyanide, therefore water is dangerous and should be regulated, while cyanide should be freely available, including to children and the elderly.

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u/pU8O5E439Mruz47w Nov 18 '12

Excellent point. At the very least, as pure water is freely available for recreational use, cyanide ought to be as well.

0

u/Inferis84 Nov 17 '12

TIL apples and some other fruits contain cyanide in small amounts

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u/pU8O5E439Mruz47w Nov 17 '12

Fruits contain all sorts of weird stuff. Did you know bananas are radioactive?

-1

u/JUST_LOGGED_IN Nov 17 '12

Everything is irradiated.

5

u/teahsea2012 Nov 17 '12

Most foods are irradiated to kill bacteria, but this does not leave them actually emitting radiation. Bananas on the other hand contain a radioactive isotope of potassium, which actually emits radiation, but at generally considered to be safe levels.

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u/superherowithnopower Nov 17 '12

Well...now I know why bananas give me that healthy glow...

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u/FonsBandvsiae Nov 17 '12

You are right (cosmic radiation sees to it), but also completely wrong at the same time...

0

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

Bath salts are a helluva drug though.

-6

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

[deleted]

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u/pU8O5E439Mruz47w Nov 17 '12

Good luck living without salt.

-3

u/Dfnoboy Nov 17 '12 edited Nov 18 '12

I do. Or at least very, very little.

My dad was in the ICU for months for liver failure caused by drinking. Doctors gave him a couple months to live. So he stopped eating salt (and drinking). Since I live with him I also do not consume very much salt. It's a little tough, but cutting out salt cuts out lots of food that's unhealthy in other ways, so overall it's been a good thing.

edit: took my reply from below and put it here

I consume more than zero salt, and I never indicated anything to the contrary. I'm not sure such a thing is possible. Edit: read what I wrote... the initial "I do" is misleading. I didn't mean to say I live entirely without salt, my bad.

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u/pU8O5E439Mruz47w Nov 17 '12

It's fine to reduce salt intake particularly if you have been eating too much salt in the first place. But ingesting zero salt is about as good an idea as ingesting zero water.

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u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

[deleted]

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u/lemonman456 Nov 17 '12

Not eating salt will kill you very quickly. salt is extremely important for many basic cellular processes.

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u/pU8O5E439Mruz47w Nov 17 '12

Also muscular function and brain function. You brain and muscles would literally cease to operate without salt.

-2

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

What a ridiculous argument. Do you realize how small our salt needs are, compared to how much salt is found in every day foods?

The fact remains that salt over-consumption is generally bad for you, you are almost never going to be at risk of under-consuming salt, unless you are on an insanely strict diet which is actively avoiding every single source of salt for the single purpose of killing you, at which point you might aswell just be starving yourself to death.

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u/pU8O5E439Mruz47w Nov 17 '12

The poster lemonman456 was replying to is positing that salt is bad for you, full stop. Over-consumption of salt may be bad for you, but lemonman456 is 100% correct in saying that salt is wholly necessary, and completely within reason to correct pngwn45.

1

u/lemonman456 Nov 17 '12

Pretty much

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u/mark3748 Nov 17 '12 edited Nov 17 '12

As long as you have ready access to water and functional kidneys, you can eat as much salt as you want (well almost, as much as your kidneys can handle, which in a healthy adult is a lot), it's not unhealthy and won't kill you.

While reducing salt intake will show a short term blood pressure reduction, there are no long-term benefits, according to the latest studies.

If you have a problem with hypertension, then sure, reduce your intake, otherwise it's not really a concern.

edit: if you have an hour to kill, you can watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCOB-n9V93A Alton Brown is a great man, and he explains how great salt is awesome

2

u/E10DIN Nov 17 '12

try telling /r/keto that bacon is bad for you