<
https://theconversation.com/we-think-we-control-our-health-but-corporations-selling-forever-chemicals-fossil-fuels-and-ultra-processed-foods-have-a-much-greater-role-227776>
"You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your
hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is a common story we
tell ourselves. Unfortunately, it’s not quite true.
Factors outside our control have huge influence – especially products which can
sicken or kill us, made by companies and sold routinely.
For instance, you and your family have been exposed for decades to dangerous
forever chemicals, some of which are linked to kidney and testicular cancers.
You’re almost certainly carrying these chemicals, known as PFAS or forever
chemicals, in your body right now.
And that’s just the start. We now know exposure to just four classes of product
– tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods and fossil fuels – are linked to one
out of every three deaths worldwide. That is, they’re implicated in 19 of the
world’s 56 million deaths each year (as of 2019). Pollution – largely from
fossil fuels – is now the single largest environmental cause of premature
death. Communities of colour and low-income communities experience
disproportionate impacts. Over 90% of pollution related deaths occur in low
middle income countries.
This means the leading risk factor for disease and death worldwide is
corporations who make, market and sell these unhealthy products. Worse, even
when these corporations become aware of the harms their products cause, they
have often systematically hidden these harms to boost profits at the expense of
our health. Major tobacco, oil, food, pharmaceutical and chemical corporations
have all applied similar techniques, privatising the profits and spreading the
harms."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
