The copious amounts of sugar in our diets, antibiotics for livestock (or just factory farming in general), single-use plastics, and new pesticides/herbicides are today’s things that are “perfectly safe”…but not really.
With the exception of medicine, a big issue in the U.S. at least is that companies don’t have to proactively prove a new chemical/product is safe for the environment or public health before selling it. The EPA really only has the authority and staffing capabilities to step in once issues arise years or decades later. Just look at PFAS which are finally getting regulated decades too late.
Example:
Many pesticides contain PFAS, some directly, but the EPA has determined it was mostly from prevuously unreported chemical reactions between the pesticides and their PFAS laced containers.
The same chemicals that have now been rated as “not safe in any quantity.”
Gee, why are all the frogs and songbirds dying?