this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 78 points 7 months ago (36 children)

Do you remember when Sun Chips changed their chip bag material to a more environmentally friendly compostable material? People lost their minds. Why? Because the bag crinkled a lot. All of the boring late night talk shows made fun of Sun Chips bags. So, they switched it back to the old bags.

Moral of the story is that people don't care if something is better for the environment if it inconveniences them now. If everything was in cans people would cry because they can't close them or whatever. In fact, many items that were previously sold in cans are now plastic. Also, money... Cheaper to wrap water in plastic.

You can still buy Coca-cola in glass bottles if you look hard enough. But they are pricey.

[–] dandroid 6 points 7 months ago (5 children)

At the time, I thought the Sun chips bag situation was hilarious. If I think back on it now, it's really sad. Yes, the bag was significantly louder than the original bag. But I feel like we're going to need to make some sacrifices as a society for the environment. And that seems like a really, really tiny sacrifice.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Hearing loss is not an acceptable trade-off for a bag of chips.

[–] dandroid -3 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703960004575427150103293906

It is louder than "the cockpit of my jet," said J. Scot Heathman, an Air Force pilot, in a video probing the issue that he posted on his blog under the headline "Potato Chip Technology That Destroys Your Hearing." Mr. Heathman tested the loudness using a RadioShack sound meter. He squeezed the bag and recorded a 95 decibel level.

95 decibels is loud enough that you have to be concerned about hearing loss.

https://www.ncoa.org/adviser/hearing-aids/decibel-levels/

Prolonged exposure to sounds louder than 85 decibels can damage your hearing.
Sixty decibels is equal to the sound of normal conversation, 90 decibels is closer to a lawn mower or hair dryer, and 120 decibels is more like a siren on an emergency vehicle.

So yes... It WAS that loud.

[–] dandroid 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

From what distance away? Because I had them, and I promise they weren't as loud from normal use distance than a jet engine. Maybe if your ear/microphone is basically touching the bag, but your ear isn't normally that close. Plus, exposure time is pretty significant factor for hearing loss. Rolling up a chip bag once every couple of days when you have chips isn't going to cause hearing loss.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Rolling up a chip bag once every couple of days when you have chips isn’t going to cause hearing loss.

Go look up a video of these bags. Mere handling them is loud as shit. Not just when you roll them up when you're done.

NIOSH standards say that at 95db, you shouldn't be exposed to more than ~45 minutes of it. Where-as an alternative "loud" bag was 77 db, which is longer than 50 hours of exposure (exceeds the rolling period and is thus "safe").

Noise exposure is additive during a rolling period. So just saying "once every few days" is bullshit. This isn't something that happens or can be in a vacuum. It's adding to the total exposure that you're exposed to every day. On top of the rest of your day the 95db chip bag is a really stupid fucking way to damage your hearing. Because you chose to eat some chips while watching a movie one night.

As someone with tinnitus... Fuck people who downplay hearing loss/damage. You should be doing everything possible to keep your exposure to anything above 80db to a minimum.

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