Is anyone else getting culture shocked by California's Prop 65?

I was at a hotel in Pasadena recently and there was a Prop 65 warning at the breakfast buffet.

When everything is listed as dangerous the warning no longer has value.

Over the years in my career I handled dangerous chemicals. We jokingly rated them in 4 categories. OK, Nasty, Dangerous and F. Dangerous.
Then the Material Safety Data Sheet, MSDS, system came out and every chemical needed to have information associated with it. The books got bigger and bigger, the bottles were labelled with the MSDS number, and every damn thing was called dangerous at some level or another.
It devolved into a Prop 65 level of uselessness.
Maybe a totally ignorant person might benefit but, honestly, a totally ignorant person should not be handling F.D. items.

Is there anyone on the planet who does not know that swallowing a lead fishing sinker can cause cancer and lead poisoning? And if there is, are they capable of reading the MSDS for lead?

I read up a lot on pollution and the ecosystem and what we are doing to our world, so frankly, no, it does not surprise me. I think it’s the reason that so many young kids have lots of allergies that would have been very rare in our day. It’s probably why a lot of people end up with cancer.

Not so much. This stuff is generally ignored by me. They have diluted the effect of this to the point it is now a worthless warning.

^Agreed.

Let’s be honest water can kill you if you’re stupid.

What do you have to do to metal (and how much) to have it increase your cancer risks, and by how much?

Metal’s been used for thousands of years without a whole lot of cancer correlation.

The sun’s a cancer risk.

It’s a question of how much.

I’m feeling more mortal and worried about things in recent years, but I’m not worried about metal.

Well. With the Sun. It’s radiation. The Earth itself emits Radon too. Which is radioactive.

With metals. It’s the chemicals involved. Or exposure to the metal itself. The process of metal working has toxic gasses.
Then you have heavy metals. Like mercury. Manufacturing processes produce toxic waste, that makes it’s way into the oceans, lakes, rivers, and all life within. Then. It rains on us too.

@LuckyGuy could probably contribute some about such things too.

@Lightlyseared . Fucking love that…

I’m reminded of an old George Carlin joke from one if his albums. This is probably not verbatim, ”studies have shown that human saliva can cause cancer. But. Only when swallowed in small amounts, over long periods of time.”

Along the same lines “There’s a plant in my garden that’s so dangerous if you stand under just 1 of its leaves you will be dead in less than 10 minutes.

Its a giant water lily.”

Context is important. And the problem with Prop 65 is that its written so badly that for most companies its safer and cheaper to include the warning just in case. So the warning becomes meaningless.

Prop 65 is a poster child of why the California direct proposition system is a stupid joke. I once saw a sign outside my accountant’s office saying they were using hazardous materials (I assume printer toner or something?) My general default on all propositions is to vote “no” unless there is a compelling reason to vote yes.

Prop 65 is stupid because they are not required to tell you what the offending material is or how much is there. Dose makes the poison so if there is not much of it, it’s not much to worry about. There’s a Prop 65 warning on my package of Christmas lights. I suspect it’s the lead in the solder. Since I won’t be touching the solder, it won’t be a problem for me. Gas stations have Prop 65 warnings because gasoline is bad for you – duh.

@RocketGuy Wait! What? Gasoline is dangerous? Here hold this match to give me some light while I look it up in the MSDS binder.

It’s overkill.
But it’s also handy.

In the context of a medical office, I will probably ignore it. Because that’s kind of a given. But for things like kitchenware, I appreciate the reminder. Easy enough to find a different product with better materials.

@MrGrimm888 I have a very sensitive radiation detector. It is fun to walk around and see what is radioactive. If you want to scare an uniformed individual you can crank up the sensitivity and act surprised.
We are surrounded by naturally occurring radiation.
A banana emits about 0.01 uSv/hr from its 400mg of potassium. A bunch of bananas is 0.05 uSv/hr or so. (Potassium naturally has a radioactive component.)
A typical human emits about 0.05 uSv/hr. Most of that radiation is stored in body fat. I can set the sensitivity and alert vibration level at about 0.10 uSv/hr. Then I can walk through a crowd and it will silently buzz in my pocket when I pass a person with larger body mass. That makes me smile for some reason.

Cool. Don’t most metals at least hold absorbed radiation?

Some metals have radioactive isotopes but are in very low concentrations. To read down to those level I need to sample for a long time. I am too lazy.
Natural background radiation where I am sitting in my kitchen is 0.06uSv/hr.
I can bump it up if I move the detector closer to my body.

^I guess I was thinking more about metals holding absorbed radiation. Or. Metals hold radiation longer than most materials. Don’t know if anyone here has read “Alas Babylon.”

Those fancy granite countertops are radioactive due to minute amounts of Uranium. Nice to take some uppity folks down a notch.