The balance of benefit versus harm of an activity, device, technology or substance.
Questions tagged [safety]
158 questions
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Fighting fire with electricity. Plausible?
The article "Fighting fire with volts: How water hoses could be replaced with electric wands" gives exciting news about possible new way of extinguishing fire, researched by Ludovico Cademartiri, Ph.D.:
Scientists connected a 600-watt amplifier to…
Egle
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14
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Is fluoride toothpaste dangerous?
Is there any proof that the amount of fluoride that commonly used in toothpaste is unhealthy?
Christian
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14
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Are there any toxic or dangerous food pairings?
Are there any foods that are harmless when eaten alone yet are dangerous or toxic when eaten together with another otherwise innocuous food?
There can obviously be problems if you combine acidic foods with basic foods. I'm looking more for pairings…
ESultanik
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Is there a huge gas bubble below the Gulf of Mexico floor ready to wreak havok?
I was sent the video HERE a bit back, which gave me pause. It was sent by a family member who at least grants plausibility to 9/11 conspiracies and some other, shall we say, "fringe" theories about various topics.
Some of the claims about such a…
Hendy
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Is aluminum foil safe to use with food?
Prompted by comments in the family, help me clear this up. A Google search for is aluminum foil safe yields articles that claim it's dangerous, as well as articles that claim it's safe. So which one is it?
The above search has among the top results…
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
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Has olanzapine (Zyprexa) caused 200,000 deaths?
In an editorial titled "Should journals stop publishing research funded by the drug industry?
" in the British Medical Journal the authors make the following claim:
Another dire example is antipsychotics. Many recent drug industry
crimes are…
Mad Scientist
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Does wearing a helmet cause/aggravate hair loss?
A person I know (and his colleagues) does not wear his civil engineers helmet because they believe that it causes or contributes to hair loss. An ehow post also makes the same claim regarding motorcycle helmets.
Is there any research done to back…
Nav
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Is Mephedrone as dangerous as UK government advice claims?
Mephedrone is an amphetamine-like designer drug that was, until recently, not strictly illegal in the UK. . See Nature news story here which also covers the controversy around the original ban in the UK.
Recently the head of the government's…
matt_black
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Will increased speed limits on motorways (or highways) cause significant harm?
The UK government has recently started a consultation on increasing the speed limits on motorways (roughly the equivalent of highways in the USA) in England.
So it seems appropriate to pose the question about whether this is a good idea. The early…
matt_black
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Can eating a few cherry pits lead to cyanide poisoning?
In 2017, a Serbian news station reported a UK man was hospitalized after eating cherry pits.
[Google translated]
Matthew Krim (28) was eating cherries and out of pure curiosity swallowed three along with the pits. [...] Ten minutes later he got…
Ivana
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Are American standards on automotive turn signals demonstrably less safe than European ones?
In most countries outside North America, vehicles have separate turn signals which are amber rather than red. In the USA (and probably Canada) this is not part of the standards and a flashing brake light is used as the turn signal in the majority of…
matt_black
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Does lowering the legal BAC make driving safer?
Lower legal blood alcohol concentration limit laws are passed under the assumption that a lower legal limit will reduce the number of accidents.
For example, the U.S government lowered the legal BAC for driving from 0.1% to 0.08%.
Is there any…
GBa
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Are you more likely to suffer a head injury walking than cycling?
An Olympic cyclist, Chris Boardman, recently made the claim that people are more likely to suffer a head injury walking, rather than cycling.
[...] cycling is safe. You would have to wear a helmet walking, you are statistically more likely to have…
Brendon
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Are annual physical examinations valuable?
It seems to be commonly accepted that having a physician do a physical exam every year is beneficial. However, others seem to have concluded otherwise, for example see the Oct 17, 2012 article in the Washington Post Are general physicals pretty much…
Brian M. Hunt
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Does wearing a mask on the back of one's head protect against tiger attacks?
Today while visiting the tiger exhibit at my local zoo, I read that in areas where tiger attacks on humans are common, people will often wear a mask on the back of their head to ward of tiger attacks, as tigers only ever attack from…
Flimzy
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