You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Bentham in Yorks seeking funding for testing.
Can’t see them being the last. 😐
It's not surprising at all, testing industry companies like LabCare in the US are certainly working on bringing mass testing to market.
If you use the right test a very significant majority of people will test positive for something, this was certainly the case for organochlorine pesticides like DDT (tested in breast milk), up to a decade ago.
For me the interesting question then is what do you do with the information you obtain once the testing has been carried out?
For me the interesting question then is what do you do with the information you obtain once the testing has been carried out?
The question is who are the result for?
In a public health planning sense its valuable to know what pressures healthcare systems might be facing in future, how that might impact on employment as so on (so that sand we stick our heads in can be that little bit more appetising probably)
On an individual level it's potentially pretty awful. Tests that give you an incite to future risks if that incite isn't coupled with mitigating acts you can take are potentially very damaging.
As an extreme example: Theres a branch of my family that carries the gene for Huntington's Disease. For those family members they have to live their lives aware they've a 50:50 chance they'll succumb to it. A while back a test was developed to reliably detect and predict whether you'll be affected. If you were in their shoes would you take it?
In practice those that do, and test positive, face worse health outcomes, worse social and relationship outcomes, worse employment and financial outcomes than those that don't take the test and still go on to develop the condition. Taking hope away from people is devastating.
Even with a test where the outcome isn't as binary as that I still think its pretty damaging information to have
So for me personally I'd happily take a test like this for the benefit of science, to aid government planning for the future, should we have any worthwhile governments in the future - but only if it could be guaranteed that I'd never learn the result.
I've project managed a PFAS testing regime on site. It's essentially close to impossible to obtain an uncontaminated media to take a sample.
you need clean room manufactured glassware and clothing. Lab grown water and the only lab sensitive enough to pick it up properly is in the Netherlands.
Best bet is to assume it's in you, I can't see a commercially affordable way of accurately detecting a suite of POP's in a population.
Have you drunk tap water, worn clothes or eaten hot food? You'll have persistent organic pollutants in you.
Best bet is to assume it's in you, I can't see a commercially affordable way of accurately detecting a suite of POP's in a population.
Have you drunk tap water, worn clothes or eaten hot food? You'll have persistent organic pollutants in you.
This, quite frankly. The latest fuss about Apple Watch bands is another example; what’s going to happen, a bunch of people will start a class action case to win some burger money from Apple, when the reality is that 3rd party straps, and similar on every other smart watch will have exactly the same chemicals in them?
They are literally everywhere!
Roll back 70-100 years and it will have been smoke pollution.
The world is full of nut cases (unless it's like that case in America where people were poisoned - made into a film) and they have a medium to get the crap out there - X/Instagram etc is virtually unusable, it's a pit of nutters. People are asking me will I stop riding my bike, as I've fallen off a bit (latest is fractured pelvis from a stupid slip on ice) - NO. I am not living in cotton wool wondering what might happen - I love the outdoors ! Plastic ingestion, rat wee (from road/path spray), what ever... Folks just a few years ago faced more pollutants. Folk now face terrible pollution conditions in third world countries.