21 Industries That Knowingly Sold Dangerous Products
When you live in a capitalistic free market economy, profits reign supreme over everything else, including safety and morality. That means that plenty of companies over the years have engaged in some pretty nefarious activities in the name of financial gain, and this list aims to highlight a few of them.
On the r/NoStupidQuestions subreddit, u/ShesGotSauce asked, "Other than big tobacco, what industries have been proven to have known their product was dangerous but covered it up/kept selling it?" Here are 20 answers.
The question, "Who was the most harmful person in human history," has been asked many times in many ways, and one under-the-radar answer that consistently pops up is Thomas Midgley Jr., the man who invented leaded gasoline. Not only did he pioneer chlorofluorocarbons, a compound that was largely responsible for the ozone layer's destruction, but his gasoline helped poison up to 100 million people. The automotive industry, along with oil and gas, covered up lead's harmful properties for years, and caused irreparable damage to a generation.
But big oil is not the only industry that covered up harmful materials. Ever heard of asbestos? Read about that and plenty more in this gallery of companies that knowingly sold dangerous products.
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Leaded gasoline on its own caused a worldwide drop in IQ, messed with scientific studies due to lead being found in places it wasn't supposed to be, and the guy who invented it, (or at least owned a major company selling it), knew it was terrible for people but did everything he could to make sure he could continue to sell it. -
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Asbestos insulation. They're still finding this on properties. -
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The cosmetics industry in the United States. Every beauty company puts talc in almost all of their powder products, and the risk of contamination with asbestos is incredibly high. -
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DuPont with Teflon. -
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The radium industry fought tooth and nail, including hiring scientists to lie about the danger of radioactive paint when their employees (known as the Radium Girls) started dying of horrible cancers. All so they could sell glow in the dark watch faces. -
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The NFL. Their cover-up and denial of the prevalence of CTE for several decades. -
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Arsenic Dye. The 1800s saw a ton of green dye made items: clothes, paint, wall paper, candy, etc. They didn't acknowledge the repercussions for a long time. -
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The sellers of high fructose sweetened soft drinks. -
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The notorious Ford Pinto whose gas tank would often catch fire after crashes. The lawyers at Ford Deemed it Cheaper to pay the victims families than to recall the cars and fix the problem. -
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Artificial fragrance like glade plugins and Febreze have known carcinogens and cause hormonal problems and respiratory problems and are still heavily sold and marketed. As someone with severe lung issues it disgusts me. -
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Alcohol. The effects of alcohol are really not widely discussed. Many types of cancers, heart issues, dementia, mental health issues, more early onset liver failure. -
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Match factories in the early industrial revolution is a big one. They knew white phosphorus had severe health problems and could melt deadly hot, but tried to prevent workers from talking to each other about it. -
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Let's not forget Nestle. Remember when they scammed the world into thinking their powdered water was better for a baby than their own mother's milk? I can't believe they're still in business.
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