Toxic Plastic--What A Gas!

[Charlie And Lucy]

The newer studies on plastics show that the smell emmited from them is toxic. See article below.

I can bet the bins you use are not ventilated other than a few holes. No fans or anything. So all the gasses are being concentrated in the boxes you're using and it's even worse cause you have heating pads releasing the toxins even faster.

BTW: I'm not talking down to the Tupperwere (See I can spell!) People here. I'm more concerned about the welfare of the creatures we all love. And the toxic gas thing just occured to me right now...So I Googled it and found out what is up about that stink we all smell from plastic stuff.

So what do you think now?




Toxic Plastic 3 - Turn Over the Bottle and Look!

Guest author Miriam Ellis-Loraditch spends half of her time birding, and the other half acting as the CEO of Solas Web Design.

I strive to keep my home environment as natural as I possibly can. We eschew as many big commercial products as possible, knowing that this is step one to avoiding many toxins. However, shopping 'natural' or shopping 'organic' is no guarantee that you've weeded out the bad stuff. For about a year now, I've been using Giovanni Tea Tree Triple Treat Shampoo, because I was impressed by its short list of ingredients and claims of using organic botanicals. No animal bi-products, no animal testing. I thought I was making a good choice.

And then I learned about Toxic Plastic 3.

You've probably heard of Toxic plastic 3 by its other name, PVC, or Vinyl. PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) is considered by many experts to be the most dangerous, carcinogenic plastic ever created by man. It cannot be recycled. It will sit in our landfills until kingdom come, emitting carcinogenic chemicals into the air, water and soil. And despite the studies showing the incredible toxicity of this substance, the FDA approves it for use in the packaging of our food, our health care products, and our medicines.

Where will you find Toxic Plastic 3 in your home?
Turn over any plastic container you have around the house. If you see a '3' or a 'V' stamped into the plastic, you are holding PVC in your hand. As you've guessed, I found that ominous '3' on the bottom of my organic Giovanni shampoo. You will find it on products manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, and Sesame Street bath products. Emeril's Salad Dressing, ACT fluoride rinse, and a host of other health and food items are packaged in this plastic. The carcinogens leach into the products they contain, resulting in your eating PVC and lathering it into your hair, teeth and skin.

Children's toys feature rampant use of PVC. A child chewing on his rubber ducky in the bath is being exposed to levels of cancer-causing chemicals which have led to such items being banned in many European countries. Yet, here in the U.S., you will not even be told that the toys your children play with, the shower curtain in your bathroom, or the pipes under your house contain PVC. PVC causes cancer and kidney damage, and when burned (as in the case of a kitchen fire or house fire) it results in long term respiratory damage.

Greenpeace has written some excellent articles regarding finding alternatives to PVC for your home, and more than 50 environmental groups in the U.S. are currently petitioning numerous stores to stop selling vinyl-containing products. Unfortunately, as with so many consumer product hazards, PVC vinyl continues to receive scant media attention, despite its well-documented harmfulness.

Make the first step toward ridding your home of PVC
Look for the '3' or the 'V' on any plastic or vinyl product in your house. PVC products are often somewhat rubbery and flexible, but not always. PVC gives off a distinct chemical smell (you know, that new shower curtain/new car smell). What you are smelling is toxic gas being released when you open up a new PVC-containing home product. Even if you don't find a '3' or a 'V', but are concerned that an item in your home might contain PVC, please contact the manufacturer to ask. Because our government continues to authorize the use of toxic PVC in the manufacture of homes, cars and products, you are unlikely to be able to completely avoid exposure to it, but you certainly don't need to have it in your shampoo or in the toys your children are playing with. Your first step is to dispose of offending items, and when buying plastic is essential, to choose an alternatively numbered substance. If you'd like to do more, visit Greenpeace for further information.

•For further reading, the Grassroots Recycling network provides access to several extensive reports on PVC toxicity and recycling.

What do I think now? I used to work for S.C. Johnson (think Ziploc). I know for a fact that none of this is true. I've seen the true lab and test results. You didn't really do that much research on this, did you? This has been an urban legend circulating on the internet since around 2002.

Your crusade isn't going to change how people do things. Look at the HUGE breeders, the ones that have their snakes in gigantic racks of plastic bins. Their snakes are some of the healthiest out there.

Guess what? Beanie Babies were made with PVC pellets! I collected them as a kid... and I'm still alive! No cancer, diseases, anything from PVC.

Anyway, if plastic was so terrible for snakes, wouldn't they be dying like crazy? How do you think breeders stay in business? They don't keep each snake in a glass habitat.

Where did you get your animals from? What does your habitat look like? I mean, you obviously know some secret of snake keeping that we don't, since your snakes are so much happier than ours. Your really gaining a lot of enemies, here. There are a lot of other ways to make your point known than by the way your doing it. What is going to happen when you need all of us for something some day and we all ignore you because of how arrogant you are towards us for how we do things? After all, we wouldn't want to give you advice that your just going to stick up your nose to, and then just start another thread about how we're wrong for using a certain bedding or something.

You don't have to agree with how we do things around here. We all get along fine, we have some debates, and we get over it and move on, while accepting each others point of view. That really isn't happening in your case.

Edit: I forgot to add, if something is toxic for birds, it will specifically state that. Birds have extremely sensitive lungs, which is why they die so easily. Birds are also made up differently than snakes. Check out the things in your house, a lot of it will specifically state birds.