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High Levels of Banned PFAS Detected in Hershey's Packaging
- jprete 2y agoThe first thing I saw on the page was a phone-screen-filling disclaimer that everything they said was opinion. I didn't read any further.
- colordrops 2y agoIt's a news/reporting site, they should all have this. So you are discounting one of the few honest news sites for being honest.
- chiefalchemist 2y agoIf it's opinion then it's op-ed. That's not news. If they were truly honest they would not say they are a news site.
- tern 2y agoThey're probably being extra careful to protect themselves from defamation lawsuits. I have more trust in the information reading this, because I can assume they're willing to say things that put them at risk of being sued by powerful organizations.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- dmoy 2y agoNot just defamation lawsuits, but also the SEC
- Maarten88 2y agoIt's very worrying that consumer protection against poisoning in the US comes from a for-profit company that makes money by short selling companies they found to have issues and then covering their back this way against lawsuits, which any less aggressive reviewer would face.
- kyleee 2y agoOn the other hand it’s great to have them investigating all these companies and their widespread misdeeds
- Maarten88 2y agoThe investigating is great, the problem is who is doing it and for what reason. If the misdeed is done by a non-public or poor company there is no money to be made so they would never even investigate it. And not accepting a payoff that returns more than the short position would be ignoring fiduciary responsibility, so some investigations could disappear.
- race_condition 2y agoMost Newspapers are profit driven. The only difference is how the profit is derived. It seems to me that the choice is to have this information come to light or not have it all.
- chiefalchemist 2y agoYou can trust the information. That's a personal choice. But that doesn't make it journalism-driven news - in the textbook definition sense - for everyone else. As honest goes: "We are an op-ed oriented information sharing site. We do not adhere to normal journalistic standard."
- dialup_sounds 2y agoDefamation is when the information being spread is false. You're saying you trust them more because they're willing to say things that are false. That doesn't make sense.
- ziddoap 2y ago1,200 words of legalese, boiling down to "you can't hold us liable for anything we say here" is not "being honest".
- nohuck13 2y agoIt's also an activist short seller. They make money by publishing negative research reports on companies they've shorted. It's a valuable service. The disclaimer amounts to "we're not insider trading and we really believe this stuff" many different ways. Insider trading is illegal so they are scrupulously careful to stay away from MNPI (and want you to know that). Really believing this stuff is important because if they turn out to be wrong, it's sort of ok to be honestly wrong, it's not okay to be knowingly wrong and put out the report anyway to manipulate the stock. And so paragraphs and paragraphs of >"Reports are based on generally available information, field research, inferences and deductions" We're not insider trading >"Our opinions are held in good faith, and we have based them upon publicly available facts and evidence" We really believe this stuff, also we're really not insider trading. > "We conducted research and analysis based on public information in a manner that any person could have done if they had been interested in doing so." Did we mention we're not insider trading?
- kyleee 2y agoWell perhaps if these companies didn’t all have skeletons in their closets, they may be able to avoid the bad press, lawsuits, stock prices issues, etc. That is probably the best way to avoid all this
- nohuck13 2y agoAgree, that's why it's a valuable service to make it hard to have skeletons.
- nova22033 2y agoHindenburg published a report about Super Micro and their information/analysis turned out to be right. How is this insider trading? Do they have access to material non-public information?
- nohuck13 2y agoYou seem to think I'm arguing that they are insider trading. I'm not arguing that!
- tedunangst 2y agoIt's not a news site.
- fortran77 2y agoThat's why I flagged it.
- dialup_sounds 2y agoYou can't even click the button to not agree to their terms because it's not a button.
- fn-mote 2y agoThey commissioned the testing by independent labs. Scroll past the disclaimer. The results should be surprising & they are bad news. One interesting remark, although not nearly the most damning item in the article: > Our expert heading this case believes that HSY deliberately uses uncommon, harder-to-detect PFAS compounds to avoid detection and bans, while the negative health implications of such uncommon substances remain similar.
- AceJohnny2 2y agothat's literally FUD, though: Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt. Without proof, you can't conclude anything about intent.
- ceejayoz 2y agoIf I kick you in the balls repeatedly, you can't prove I wasn't possessed by a demon and am totally innocent of the act. In the real world, we're allowed to draw reasonable conclusions.
- gibolt 2y agoSo, the reasonable interpretation is that people at HSY were possessed by demons? Knowledge like that could streamline the court system /s, if unclear
- unsnap_biceps 2y agoYou can be sure Hershey will throw a supplier to the wolves if they can point a finger and be reasonably sure there's no way to trace the decision back to Hershey.
- Suppafly 2y agoThere is almost certainly no way this is Hershey's fault, they don't make packaging, they just buy it from suppliers.
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoPSA: Check your bike lube. I was shocked to find out mine was basically just PFAS I'm dumping into my garage/the forest trails. I have to think bikers care more than average about nature/where they ride, and apparently we don't care all that much.
- mtreis86 2y agoTry Boeshield instead, it's wax suspended in solvent.
- l1tany11 2y agoThere are much newer products than boeshield which have a lot higher wax content, preform a lot better, and don’t have the nasty stuff in them like naphtha. Silca ss drip, ufo drip, flower power wax are all drip on lubes that all test better than boeshield (last longer, less chain wear, etc). Boeshield is only 2.5% wax.
- teaearlgraycold 2y agoDo you know if Rock "N" Roll has PFAS in it? I don't see anything mentioned online.
- giraffe_lady 2y agoI looked into it a couple years ago and can't find anything. I believe it does though. It doesn't have the consistency (or price) of a ceramic and it's not an oil or wax. It's something suspended in a volatile liquid. If you spill some it evaporates quickly and you can inspect the residue which is the actual lubricant. I don't know what else it would be but PTFE or PFAS.
- colordrops 2y agoSame with some granite countertop sealer I bought in a spray bottle. Had to dig online for a while before I could figure out what it's made of, which is almost pure PFAS. Crazy considering we prepare foods near it.
- amanaplanacanal 2y agoThis report has already triggered new class action lawsuits.
- kyleee 2y agoBut doesn’t look to have affected stock price so far
- javiramos 2y agoIs there a way to flush my body of PFAS?
- code_biologist 2y agoBlood donation. Menstruating women get some level of this for free. Not much otherwise. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8994130/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8994130/
- ceejayoz 2y agoYou pee it out, too, but slowly.
- JasserInicide 2y agoGiving blood is also a great way to get rid of heavy metals like mercury.
- singleshot_ 2y agoThousand dollar idea: plasma donation center where they throw the plasma away. (Ten thousand dollar idea: technology that cleans up the area where they dump the plasma).
- nielsbot 2y agoWhy not clean the plasma of PFAS and put it back? Like dialysis but for biotoxins. (Actually, would the current dialysis process do this?)
- singleshot_ 2y agoYou’re definitely hired.
- triceratops 2y agoSo leeches?
- Eumenes 2y agoI dont think the consumers of cheap candy products care tbh. Hershey and similar tiered chocolate all have emulsifiers like polyglycerol polyricinoleate and lecithin. If something is sold at a gas station, its bad for you.
- bell-cot 2y agoNo level of "clean lab report" healthiness would convince me that the mediocre-at-best tastes and feel-kinda-crappy after-effects of cheapo chocolates were worth paying for.
- nixosbestos 2y agoLmao, how is this downvoted? I'm not even on the "all American food is bad" but Hershey's is disgusting. Full of butyric acid. I remember standing in a German chocolate museum, reading about post-war American chocolate and realizing why I feel like I have post-vomit "heartburn" after eating 2 whole squares of Hershey's. It's gross. I'll die on this hill.
- unsnap_biceps 2y agoWhat's wrong with lecithin? It's naturally occurring in eggs.
- bayareacommie 2y ago[dead]
- j45 2y agoMaybe the concern about plastic packaging that seemed to deeply resonate with few people, and has some merit to be more broadly considered.
- more_corn 2y agoWe are exposed to pfas largely through waterproofing and grease proofing. Things like the grease proof paper they wrap around a sandwich. The thing in plastics is something else (BPA which is an endocrine disrupter)
- j45 2y agoWith all the new information coming out, it seems like there really is no choice but to avoid everything you can't grow and package yourself... or ensuring your environment can be safer in terms of air cleaning, as well as food.
- cryptica 2y agoWe haven't come so far from the time of the Romans who drank from lead pipes. We're just wrestling with different chemicals and different physical, environmental and social effects.
- nielsbot 2y agoIn fact we still have lead pipes. Supposedly the water we pipe through them is treated to cause the pipes to be inert. https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/08/politics/lead-pipes-joe-biden/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/08/politics/lead-pipes-joe-biden...
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoJust phrase it as 'the government is providing poor people free mineral water instead of ordinary tap water' and it would get fixed instantly.
- dccoolgai 2y agoRecently, I've found myself trying to avoid any food that touches any plastic mostly for this reason. It's so hard to do - even aluminum drink cans are coated with plastic on the inside, apparently.
- unsnap_biceps 2y agoThe lining is better for you than the aluminum being directly in contact with the acidic beverage, but I totally understand your concern.
- esperent 2y agoI don't think this is true, the scare about aluminum came from the 70s/80s when it was thought to be linked to Alzheimer's. However, this was found to be untrue. Very high levels of aluminum can cause poisoning, for sure. But it has to be more than you can get from anodized cooking equipment or drink cans. It's around the 13th most abundant element in earth, it's in water and food, and our bodies are pretty good at getting rid of it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth%27s_crust https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Ear...
- more_corn 2y agoDon’t conflate plasticizers (such as BPA) with pfas. While keeping plasticizers and microplastics out of your diet is beneficial, pfas are a different beast. They accumulate over time and cause a whole host of problems such as organ failure. Pfas are used in waterproofing, grease proofing, and fire suppression. Paper straws, the coating of paper cups, the paper around cupcakes, takeout containers, waterproof clothing, lubricants, sealers. But yeah I hear you. I’ve been trying to stick to glass and it makes me feel like a weirdo-hippy avoiding so many common packaging materials.
- sevensor 2y agoPFAS has made me terribly suspicious of lubricants and waterproofing agents, and things that have been lubricated/waterproofed. “Compostable” paper food containers especially. Can it really be ok to eat bread that doesn’t spoil on a paper plate that doesn’t soak through?
- unsnap_biceps 2y agoI exclusively purchase wax coated paper plates and cups. They generally work just great for picnic stuff, but don't work at all for hot stuff like soups/coffee/hot chocolate. They're at least twice as expensive, but I think it's worth it.
- davekeck 2y agoTo work towards eliminating PFAS in everyday products, I envisioned a service where people could send in things they own to have them tested, and the results would be published on a website/app and searchable via barcode. Win/win: users get free PFAS testing, and the service gets free products to test to create a database. I researched how to perform rigorous PFAS testing but it looks like the best method is PIGE which requires a particle accelerator, which aren’t exactly easy to come by. Anyway just posting this in case anyone has thoughts or would be interested in working on something like this.
- djhn 2y agoI love the idea. Kind of like harm reduction through drug testing. Except the drugs are legal and don’t give you a high. I would probably rather advocate for Which (UK), Consumer Reports (US) and various similar organisations to work on this than start a new org. Unless you just use this as a marketing strategy for a commercial lab (in which case you will simply forget the noble initial goal and end up simply operating a testing laboratory business.)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]