Dangerous Products: In the Home & In Our Stomachs - David Frank & Virginia Ng

Live event link: https://www.twitch.tv/sitp

The societal and scientific consensus says only irrational people fear things like WiFi, artificial sweeteners, and fluoridated water, but there have been legitimately dangerous products sold as safe in the past. ​Flammable, toxic, radioactive and generally bad for you, we'll look at products throughout history that killed, injured and poisoned, and the marketing campaigns that went along with them.

​Plus, we’ll explore some formerly dangerous things that turned out to be fine, and things we know are bad for us that we consume anyway. ​Come along. It'll be good for your health.

David Frank David Frank is a marketer, a writer and a former radio show host. He is a former event organiser for Perth Skeptics in Australia, and Edinburgh Skeptics here in the UK. Pre-COVID he has toured talks across a dozen Skeptics in the Pub groups here in the UK, on such topics as "how to market yourself on online dating", and "how big tobacco circumvents marketing restrictions" (the latter of which you can watch on his website). He has a Master's of Science in Marketing from Edinburgh Napier University, and is currently based in Seattle.

David is free range, organic, with no added hormones or unnecessary antibiotics.

Virginia Ng Virginia is a food microbiologist and is the Director of Regulations and Food Processing at the Seafood Products Association in Seattle. She has a Masters of Science in Biological Sciences from California State Polytechnic University – Pomona, where she studied toxin formation and sporulation patterns in various Clostridium botulinum strains. In her day job, among other things, she is a sensory expert using organoleptic analyses to keep good quality seafood on the shelves. She has previously given talks on food preservation.

​Virginia’s favorite vices include ice cream, the extra dose of cosmic radiation that comes with flying, and movie marathons.

About Skeptics in the Pub - Online We are a coalition of UK-based Skeptics groups. Formed as the Covid-19 epidemic brought our country to a standstill, we are working to deliver high-quality online events focussing on Science, reason, and critical thinking.

New to Skeptics in the Pub or Twitch or both? We anticipate that Twitch or SitP may be new for some of you so we will have early doors at 6:45 to welcome new attendees and answer any questions you may have.

A useful guide to Twitch here: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-twitch-4143337

You don't need a Twitch account to watch the talk only if you want to take part in the chat.

You won't need an account to ask questions in the Q&A though.

More details on accessibility, inclusion and safety here: https://sitp.online/online-safety