The dose makes the poison though. Tartrazine is already in cosmetics, but that doesn't mean a ton of it is still safe.

Another reason to avoid tartrazine. Who knows what its doing to our insides.

That isn't remotely what I was saying. You can die from drinking too much water, that doesn't mean you should avoid drinking water for fear of what it's doing to your insides.

Of course. My comment was based more on this study. It’s concerning that it has this effect.

Why is the effect concerning? If you pour water on undyed cloth, it has the same effect and makes the cloth much more transparent, but that doesn't mean that the water is damaging to the cloth.

> already in cosmetics

Rendering transparent rather than covering up would be kind of an anti-cosmetic use.

Yep, which is one of the reasons why this discovery is so weird.

The reason I mention cosmetics, is it means that it's at least in theory skin-safe for humans up to at least some threshold. The next questions would be: what's the threshold at which it's not skin-safe for us anymore, and is that high enough for this effect to happen? Neither are foregone conclusions though.

$25 and an Amazon order and posterity awaits.

https://a.co/d/gJ1MQG3

Did the article imply you need red light to see the effect though?

Looks like someone took you up on it, instead of a showing a price the Amazon link shows out of stock.

Haha got to jump fast if you want to see your organs!

blue #1 would like a word.

Also basic human biology: just because something's safe to consume (which keeps it isolated from the rest of your body until it's been through the digestive tract) in extremely low doses doesn't mean it's safe to expose yourself to a highly concentrated dose via external exposure.

> if you can eat it you certainly can put it on your skin

That doesn’t always follow. There are (organic, large-molecule) substances that your mucus membranes will protect you from, and which you’ll then digest (denature) and greatly metabolize (non-leaky intestinal absorption routes through the liver) and so render harmless; but which would greatly harm you if left on your skin, as the substance can potentially absorb from there all the way to your bloodstream, without any digestion or a chance at first-pass metabolism.

Think, for example: testosterone gel. Eating it wouldn’t result in much if any testosterone entering your bloodstream — but rubbing it on yourself sure does.

That's not a safe assumption. There have been cases where food flavourings have been tried in e-cigarette liquids and caused irritation in the users' airways.

Irritation and/or the often fatal, incurable, and horrifyingly named "Bronchiolitis obliterans"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronchiolitis_obliterans

To be clear, there are no documented cases of bronchiolitis obliterans caused by vaping. Historically, there were cases among workers in a microwave popcorn factory who were exposed to large quantities of the flavoring chemical diacetyl. Some early e-liquid flavors contained diacetyl, and while the level of exposure was drastically lower than that of a popcorn factory worker, people were concerned about it, and that concern led e-liquid manufacturers to stop using it.

Welcome to the Habanero’s Ulcer, a state-of-the-art aesthetics clinic that rubs patients vigorously with the world’s spiciest peppers, until they say the safe word, or we can see right through them!