...which of course stands for: "Yet Another Rant About Stupid People"
The other day I was working as a TEV at an Environment Day when I got into an argument with a middle-aged couple who claimed that Tide was in fact, an environmentally responsible company. The woman claimed to be an authority on this subject as she's spoken to representatives from Tide and they "have to be good because they have a brand to protect". This should have been my first sign to just walk away, but instead I responded with something like "But of course! because Nike, Microsoft and Sony are all upstanding companies with the Public Interest first on their list of concerns". This got her husband mad, who then accused me of favouring a world without corporations: "What a terrible world to live in" he said. I shook my head.
It's at this point that you start to wonder why you do this sort of thing. I take time out of my day, time that I'd much rather be sleeping away, and stand around in a dorky hat helping people learn how to not-kill the planet as effectively as we already are. The people who clearly don't know shit about shit show up and make my day more difficult than it needs to be. ...and they're breeding.
The kicker though was that the woman claimed to have concerns about the propaganda pamphlets we were distributing. Of primary concern was our recommendation of boric acid over traditional chemical pesticides as the woman claimed the stuff had recently been classified as a carcinogen by the European Union.
Now, when someone makes a claim like that you have to take it seriously. It's worth checking out at the very least and so, I informed the annoying couple that I'd have my supervisors check into it and make sure that we're not promoting bad stuff.
It was at this point that the woman went on into a long speech about how we don't check our facts and that she, the well-informed person that she was already knew so much, how could I stand there and tell her not to trust an upstanding company like Tide...
I smiled, nodded and prayed for lightning to strike them as they walked toward their car.
Regardless, I just got confirmation from the research folk who made the pamphlets in the first place. I did, after all check into this as there was a possiblity that this woman was not completely retarded:
The permitted list under the Pesticide By-law is comprised of pest
control products that are largely naturally-derived and are recognized
by Health Canada and the United States EPA as being lower-risk products.
Borax is widely recognized to pose little health risks. With cancer in
particular, we have found no evidence that borax is linked to cancer or
mutations. Some animal studies have raised concerns about possible human
reproductive toxicity, but these are still under investigation.
That said, no pesticide should be considered "safe" and users should
minimize potential risks by carefully following label directions and
properly disposing of empty containers.
Why does vindication feel so empty?
