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ZSpectre t1_ivo3vfb wrote

Reply to comment by xiledone in How do medicines like Aspercreme work to relieve nerve or muscle pain if they are topical and not transdermal? by freakydeku

Ah, tetraethyllead. The anti-knocking agent used in gasoline that caused the whole world to get dumber. And hearing this explained while knowing how the inventor of leaded gasoline straight up inhaled the stuff for a full minute in front of the press in order to ease the public's concern of toxicity (his health didn't fare very well afterward).

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SharkLaunch t1_ivo7nll wrote

Don't worry, it definitely didn't affect him when he went to go work for Frigidaire. Nothing important, he didn't break anything, please ignore the hole in the Ozone layer.

(Anyone who's confused, please Google "Thomas Midgley Jr" to learn why many of our problems are his fault)

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ZSpectre t1_ivoc9eu wrote

Yeah, to those passing by, I recommend the video by veritasium that I think was titled something along the lines of " the man that accidentally killed the most people in history." And I just looked up the timeline and it turns out that you were correct on how he was still mentally functional enough after his stunt inhaling the gas (1924) in order to streamline and mass market freon / CFCs in 1928.

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[deleted] t1_ivo7lty wrote

[removed]

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open_door_policy t1_ivohx8z wrote

It's a valid theory. Especially when you realize that it gets released back into the blood as old people shrink.

So as they've gotten older, all the paint chips they ate and the gasoline they smelled is probably coming back to bite us.

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