I believe people should be allowed to jump out of airplanes if they make an informed choice to do so. That doesn't mean I'm opposed to parachutes. It does mean I'd oppose a government ban on recreational skydiving. I hope that analogy is clear. — fishfry

Let me draw a picture on this analogy to what seems to be today's situation. We have many companies that are giving these airplane rides for you to jump. And overtime, to reduce their costs and maximize their market share, they are going into risky areas like choosing target jump spots like jumping over a volcano or over the poles. Data and stats (over multiple decades) are now showing that chances of survival of the person when they finish their jump and land at these places are slim; even if they survive they are hurt. Given this situation, what would you (say as a community) do on this situation? Do nothing? Ban? Something in the middle?

If you are concerned about health at the personal level, stop consuming any processed/industrial food. — apokrisis

This, I believe, is nonsense. Do you mean you have a solution in today's age to live with self-made foodstuff/produce? You suggest that to get a decent/safer meal, one must have their own cows for dairy, cocoa farm for chocolate or seed pressing machines for oil extraction, etc?

Obesity is a worse actual cause of cancer. — apokrisis

Sure, this only adds to my original point I think, except obesity is a symptom. Much like known carcinogens (like in processed meat) cause cancer, obesity surely could be tracked to increased sugar content in food processing or overall easy access to manmade high sugar foodstuff in the past century.

I'm not here to champion the cause of processed meat but being a "class 1 carcinogen" only means it definitely does cause cancer. It doesn't say whether that is a lot of cancer or just a little cancer. — apokrisis

Well, excess of anything is an issue for human body - I don't see what you want to convey here. Prevalence of processed meat, the ease of their access at insanely low prices in fast food joints seems like a huge issue.

I didn't intend to anyways limit to processed meat, it is simply a concrete example to discuss then general issue at hand. Thinking out loud for some solutions - may be for specific 'identified' harmful foodstuffs, enforcement of replacement with fresher alternatives might be a good option. This would likely increase the cost to the end customer slightly but would this not be a better option for the overall community?

No, the problem you mention is too generic - something like 'Technology - boon or bane' or etc. Development in industrialisation, globalization, engineering, free commerce, marketting, supply chain, etc.; coupled with growing population and material demands, have made processing and packaging essential. I don't think we can now live without it.
Without digressing there, the original point is given we are now down this path, doesn't the ground level data of prevalence of (in this case) processed meat which is already identified and confirmed carcinogen, seem problematic?

Sure I am pro for free choice. No doubt we want a free society and economy. Nonetheless, doesn't the 'informed or forbidden' plan of action deals with 1s and 0s/all in or fold? Are you saying it is always black and white and nothing in the greyscale?

Didn't get your point. Are you saying the above lists are incomplete? I understand it may not be fully feasible to test every foodstuff and the research relies on scientific methods of sampling/statistics. While that surely may be the case, what my original point is that once identified that xyz substance is hazardous, what should be the plan of action. Are we not at odds with this information as a society due to prevalence of class1 carcinogen?

That's like saying - people love the thrill of speed, lets remove brakes from cars. The evaluation, assessment and guidance of governments/society should be more thoughtful - don't you think?

Yes I do agree that traces of pesticides and other harmful compounds is also present in other food substances. As a matter of fact they are prevalent since few decades of human history, since we have engineered and industrialized our methods of agriculture/supply-chain. What now becomes important is the amount of these trace substances that is potentially harmful (hence we have regulatory bodies/FDA and also the rise of organic/non-GMO food stuff). The WHO list I mention is precisely that list of identified harmful substances - feel free to go through it (few links below).

https://monographs.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/OrganSitePoster.PlusHandbooks.29112019.pdf
https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-on-the-carcinogenicity-of-the-consumption-of-red-meat-and-processed-meat

Yes! I had this dilemma about concept of soul since quite some time but increasingly I find myself to discover that there isn't any special sauce or magic power or soul. It's all tied to the basic rules of universe like the 4 forces of nature (gravity/electromagnetic, strong & weak nuclear forces) and some few laws/constants (relativity, quantum mechanics etc.) that we as humans are still trying to uncover. We still are far from the 'theory of everything' but I'll try to paint a picture.

The way I see it is that everything in the universe moves towards a more stable state and increase entropy. The initial big bang triggered this motion based on a set of laws/forces/constants (The billion dollar question is why did this happen n etc.). Anyways, after the initial start we have all these particles which found stability to form atoms and then molecules. Fast forward and we have nebulae/stars/planets and in the soup of oceans on early earth, a particular chemical reaction(s) resulted in more stability/entropy. On that path the environment naturally moves towards repeating this reaction - the initial roots of replication or reproduction. Continuing further we have the first cell animals and then it is the story of evolution as Darwin discovered.

So from this viewpoint, all actions by living beings are simply a very complex process trying to simply move towards a stable state and increase entropy. The depth of the process can be seen to the level that these organism (or structures) evolved to have 'self consciousness' which is very interesting. We can think on our own existence with this power.

The complexity of the process is indeed astonishing - a slow but steady constant process over the 4 billion years of earth's life and ~13 billion years of the universe.

Would like to hear what others think about this.

Success is a relative term or state than an absolute. Everyone can find success in different things I think.
When it comes to schooling, the various experiences and structure of education with the transfer of ideas from teachers plays a key role. In schools, material tests, competitions and incidences help build the concept of right/wrong, good/bad, achievement/success/failure etc. Other general information like profession, idea of money/earning-a-living, cultural/society idols, personal interests/hobbies etc. help mold the concepts for students.

But I haven't seen a study to determine how effective they are in dealing with national emergencies like the current crisis. — Gnomon

Yeah, I was wondering the same. And not just the current crisis, but prevention vs cure of other long-standing health disorder. Say obesity as an example, it is well understood since quite some time that it is increasing and is harmful and junk food is a major cause. Yet there is an obvious gap in governance to acknowledge this (be it top-down or bottom-up or the varied kinds of all countries).

It just seems like till that gap is filled, everyone needs to educate themselves on 'ideal' nutrition/lifestyle and not become local collateral damage for the long term development/evolution of health sector.