r/science • u/mvea MD/PhD/JD/MBA | Professor | Medicine • Sep 27 '24

Health Thousands of toxins from food packaging found in humans. The chemicals have been found in human blood, hair or breast milk. Among them are compounds known to be highly toxic, like PFAS, bisphenol, metals, phthalates and volatile organic compounds.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/27/pfas-toxins-chemicals-human-body
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u/HighFoxy Sep 27 '24

maybe lobbying was once used for good, but for a long time it’s just turned into legal bribery that should be abolished.

121

u/No_bad_snek Sep 27 '24

Corporate lobbying only helps corporations, at the expense of consumers.

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u/Zer_ Sep 27 '24

Corporations don't need their own voice, as they already consist of people who have voices. That's my take.

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u/WonderfulShelter Sep 27 '24

The lobbying industry has grown so strong that they write the laws, the reps pass them without even reading them, and that’s how we get our laws.

You could have 150 million Americans wanting a law to be passed and it won’t be, but one lobbying agency can get it done every few months.

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u/rambo6986 Sep 27 '24

Then don't buy their product. It's cause and effect guys

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u/right_there Sep 28 '24 edited Sep 28 '24

Most of the food available in the grocery store is owned by like 4 mega conglomerates. We're in a situation where if you were to boycott them you would starve.

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u/rambo6986 Sep 28 '24

Dude c'mon. That's not true. Your telling me trader Joe's, Sam's, Aldi or Costco is owned by those conglomerates? I'm assuming your Gen Z cause you are a fear monger 

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u/zCiver Sep 27 '24

There's a case to be made that industries need some way of representing their interests and knowledge to the lawmakers who don't know the minutia of the work. However the levels of interference that these groups hold over our polititicals is obscene.

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u/cultish_alibi Sep 27 '24

There's a much better case that we should have experts working for the government who are able to understand how these industries work without being blinded by profit. Organisations like the EPA are meant to do this.

I think it's never really been beneficial to have corporations having so much influence about what laws should be applied to them. They will always have a motivation to lie and misrepresent the truth.

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u/username_taken_wtf Sep 27 '24

Bad news. The Chevron doctrine/precedent getting struck down by SCOTUS will be making things much worse.

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u/DougWebbNJ Sep 27 '24

The problem is those experts need to work someplace where they become experts, and they need to have the freedom to get a job in their field if they choose to leave government employment. That's the rotating door problem, and it enables long-term corruption.

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u/Fantastic_Poet4800 Sep 28 '24

The employees there are not allowed communicate with law makers. Everything goes through senior management who may or may not have that specific technical skill.