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Who wouldn’t know the cult Czech series „Woman at the Counter“. Shelves full of all kinds of delicacies, sandwiches, pastries, chocolate, meat straight from the slaughterhouse and other consumer goods for everyone.
What it was really like is known only to witnesses of that time. There was a queue for meat, often very long and no one could get in, oranges, tangerines or bananas that we didn’t know at all, and eggs were a surprisingly Spanish village. Mostly, milk in a bag was always plentiful.
Nevertheless, in recent years opinions have appeared that it was better for mosquitoes. Mostly this relates to food, its price and quality. Unfortunately people have forgotten what else existed at that time; an almost zero awareness among the population of anything that did not concern the annual congresses of the Communist Party and similar events.
It was deliberately misleading that everything around was healthy and did not contain harmful substances. However, if someone discovered that a dangerous substance existed in a product (not only food), that information was swept under the rug.
These reports are especially important for non-smokers, teetotalers, athletically minded people and others who care about their health, but have experienced colon cancer or an arterial and vascular blockage that caused them to lose a leg. “How is that possible?” they ask. „I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t drive badly, I exercise and I don’t have such a terrible disease“.
Yes, all of this is very likely not to tell the truth about what was added to „quality domestic products“ at a time when there was a regime in which everyone put everything together and everyone had everything together. Here you can read about some of them.
Benzene
Long after its discovery it was considered a preservative with excellent effects, so it was administered, for example, in mustard. Further research on benzene showed that it is definitely not beneficial to health; it is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen and primarily causes leukemia and lung cancer.
Polychlorinated biphenyls
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) began to be widely used as additives in paints and varnishes in the 1930s in America, from where they gradually spread worldwide. Again the idea was that it would not harm human health or nature.
In the 1960s the first signs began to appear that PCBs might not be as good as they seemed. Detailed examination revealed that although acute toxicity is low, chronic toxicity is very dangerous due to their persistence and bioaccumulation. It has been proven that they accumulate in meat, milk, eggs or even butter and fish.
The reason PCBs entered the food chain was their use in silos and cow coatings, where these toxins were transferred into feed for cattle and chickens. After ingesting contaminated food the animals showed bioaccumulation, i.e. poor excretion and accumulation of toxins in the body. It has been proven that PCBs are excreted in milk, which is a risk for future generations. They are established carcinogens that mainly attack the liver, pancreas and immune system.
DDT
This amazing discovery really thrilled many people; after all, it killed insects and was healthy at the same time! The opposite is true however; research again showed that DDT is a great insecticide, but it has harmful effects on nature and humans.
It is highly bioaccumulative, stored in plants from which it gets into the bodies of small mammals and from them to predators at the top of the food pyramid. The human body takes this chemical into its interior by consuming contaminated meat, vegetables and water. DDT is a proven carcinogen and disrupts the hormonal system.
