• atzanteol@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    A red dye was recently banned because it was found to be carcinogenic.

    That is very oversimplified…

    Carcinogenic is not “true/false” it is probabilistic. The EU has a lower standard of evidence required for banning a substance than the US. In the EU if there was any evidence at all of it being carcinogenic in animal studies (whether in realistic quantities over realistic time periods or not) means it will be banned (I’m over-simplifying some here as well). The US standards are different.

    You could say that this is a better standard as it is more cautious. I may agree. But you can’t say “it was banned because it was carcinogenic” without a lot of qualifiers.