In this day and age, you can hardly skim the news without reading something about how too much (fill in the blank) will give you cancer, diabetes, a heart attack or some other illness.
Water bottles made with No. 7 plastic contain polycarbonate, which is said to produce cancer if used frequently. An article from CNN states that the basic packs of water bottles, pacifiers and plastic chew toys may give you diabetes and heart disease. If you use too much artificial sweetener, you might develop a cancerous tumor. Televisions, cell phones and other electronic devices emit microwaves that interfere with sleep and can cause brain cancer.
So my question in this disease-ridden world was this: Can we take risks? It seems like anything we eat, use or touch will kill us. How can we possibly live a normal life in such conditions? Maybe we should all be hermits, grow our own food and stay away from technology. If we don’t interact with the world, it can’t hurt us, right?
But then my question became, how would we live? A world where people start cutting themselves off from everything and everybody to live longer? What kind of life would that be? Obviously, hearing about all of these potentially dangerous items can be a little scary, but if we don’t take risks life would be pretty empty.
Life really is about the risks you take, from choosing a career to asking someone out. If we’re too scared to eat anything in plastic or own a television, how can we possibly be willing to take bigger risks?
Life is full of dangers everywhere we look. You might die in a plane crash, a lit candle may burn down a house and a drunk driver may hit and kill someone. Yet that doesn’t stop people from flying, lighting candles and driving on holidays. People have to make decisions every day about what to eat, whether to walk or drive or use credit or debit.
Every decision we make is potentially life-altering; there is no way of knowing at that moment how it will effect your life. It may stop you from meeting someone or help you find that person. It might help you make money or go bankrupt. It might give you a heart attack or just be a tasty snack. We already take risks with everything we do, so why get so worked up over plastic or sweetener?
I can understand being cautious, but sometimes caution causes you to miss opportunities. We have to find a balance between caution and risk. We need to pick our battles, and if it’s between possible cancer from water bottles and being dehydrated, I’d rather not be thirsty. It’s not that I think we should ignore these warnings, but I think there are more important things to worry about.
The media and scientific community bombard us daily with new warnings of diseases, side effects and maladies. We can’t, however, allow those things to keep us from living our lives. One must choose between possible devastation and actual living. The point is that everywhere we look there are dangers, but if we don’t take risks, can we really get anywhere?
Hannah Kaase is a sophomore majoring in animal and dairy science. She can be contacted at [email protected] .