You know what else we played with when I was a kid? Mercury. Yeah. It was common to collect blobs of it from old thermostats or whatever, and roll them around and watch their blobbing antics. Kids would rub the stuff on coins with their fingers, all sorts of activities. I never heard of a single case of mercury poisoning from this. But now, let a single drop of mercury be found in a school, and they literally evacuate the entire place and send in the hazmat team.
@lauren Yeah my understanding is that public perception of the safety of mercury saw a pendulum swing from too little concern to too much concern. And a similar thing applies to public perception of everything from lead through radiation.
And I'm sure there is philosophical disagreements within different parts of society as to whether they should be aiming for accurate public regard or rather feeling that maybe it's okay to err on the side of making people extra cautious, even if that means a little fibbing.
