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Permalink Reply by Felipe (Phil) Sarquilla on August 3, 2010 at 5:09pm

Wow Gayle, good perpective and one, frankly I haven't given much thought to previously. You make a good point and it does make us think...are we moving too fast with all the new technology that's available and not stopping to ask how will this affect us tomorrow? Then there are always differing opinions by the so called "experts" depending on which side of the fence you're on. We struggle with common sense caution verses the need to be innovated, cutting edge in the development of state of the art equipment and procedures. Your point on mining lithium is well taken...does this justify the need and use of these batteries used for equipment or devices that save lives such as artificial hearts or monitors for diabetics, etc? I don't know? Can we truly identify all the possible adverse effects these devices cause and when at some point do we decide when it's finally safe? In fact to this day I'm still not sure what effect my microwave will have on me twenty years from now since I have one for the past twenty five.
Please understand, I'm not disagreeing with you...especially when I hear about the latest new "miracle" drug that has just found to cause heart attacks, cancer, etc. and is now on the re-call list. I'm just wondering how we practically know when all or most of the issues of a certain product or device have been satisfied to be deem safe? I don't have a good answer.