That fact that so many people still believe that they could handle any chemical formula that they want without significant consequences speaks to the fact how poorly educated so many people are as it relates to toxins, the handling of poisons and product chemistry in general.
Ideally this would be standard knowledge people would learn while growing up as teenagers.
This comes down to learning how to read labels.
This is ultimately the job of parents and other caretakers.
To me this is one of those topics that pertains to the basics of mentoring.
As usual, we should not be relying on regulations.
You make a great point about taking on the responsibility pf reading labels. The first thing which crossed my mind when reading this article wasn't parents and caretakers. I thought of institutions which highly value sanitary environments for safety. My first thought was about hospitals, clinics, and medical schools. Biocides are usually used in these environments to prevent the spread of infection and disease. Healthcare practitioners take an oath to do no harm and its important to maintain practices which uphold patient safety. At the same time if biocides are harmful then it may be time to develop new options or make it mandatory for everyone to wash their hands in between patients using non-biocide soaps.
ReplyDeleteIts interesting to me to hear you say "we shouldnt be relying on regulations." While I agree that personal responsibility and self-governance are paramount, without regulation each of our personal responsibility could potentially stomp over other people.
ReplyDeleteThat is to say, without regulation, an inventor, chemist, or CEO could take responsibility for themselves while still marketing toxic products to the less educated.