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What kind dangerous products or ideas are we still using every day?

I often tell my students that they should be careful with any product or idea supported by an almost unanimous consensus, because the existence of the consensus does not prove of the existence of the benefits, and the consensus often prevents any meaningful debate.

For that reason, I always tell them to be careful with any sentence that begins with, “We all know that…” or “We know now…” or “It has been proven that…” Sometimes, those sentences take a more impersonal approach, as in “Science (or the government, or the church) says…” Sometimes a celebrity is quoted in favor of this or that opinion.
The use of those sentences is a red flag, indicating that all dialogue, creative thinking, and dissent have been suppressed or kept to a minimum, and probably they have been replaced by some uncritically accepted and widespread habits, but of uncertain benefits.

For example, from the time of ancient Egypt five millennia ago to recent times (1970s), it was very common to use lead in paintings and cosmetics. In fact, from the Renaissance to the 18th century, the female ideal was a very white skin, so women applied a paste called ceruse (a mix of white lead and vinegar) to their faces, with lethal results.

The ceruse had corrosive effects on the skin of its users and many women died of lead poisoning. Others suffered from different skin diseases. To cover the diseases, women applied more ceruse. In the early years of the 20th century, several European countries banned the use of lead in paintings and cosmetics. The United States did it in 1978.

Sometimes, it is not the so-called “uneducated masses” that unknowingly use a deadly product again and again. Sometimes the experts are wrong. For example, in 1884, Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychoanalysis, published a paper about the benefits of cocaine.

Freud was so sure about the benefits of this drug that he experimented on himself; he sent it to his fiancé, and he prescribed it to some of his patients. To his credit, several years later Freud discontinued using and prescribing this drug, after seeing the harmful effects cocaine had on one of his patients.

In other occasions, the combination of new technologies and marketing strategies create harmful effects.

For example, in 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen began to study X-rays. Some years later, around 1920, this new technology began to appear in unexpected places: shoe stores in Europe and the United States.

More than 10,000 shoe stores installed primitive X-ray machines. The machines, called fluoroscopes, were constantly in use, so customers could see their feet within the shoes. It was said fluoroscopes allowed sales people “to better fit shoes.” By the early 1950s, researchers warned about the harmful effects of radiation leaking from the fluoroscopes. The machines were banned in the 1970s.

I wonder what other products or machines, perhaps as harmful as the examples presented, we are still using today just because it seems to be a consensus about their benefits.

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