Some cancer (harm, in general) is acceptable. I am not a domain expert, so I can’t speak to the acceptable amount of harm caused to progress ratio. Do the math and make it public. With that said, I’d argue we’re too far to one side of the pendulum and need to find the middle close to less overall harm caused.

It’s not all doom and gloom. Switching from lead and MTBE to ethanol as an anti knock additive in auto fuel was an objective win. There are more wins like that out there I believe.