Toxic Plastic--What A Gas!

[4theSNAKElady]

(my girlfriend told me its some lady that just had eight plastic surgeries)

Did they mention if it was a # "3" or a "V" plastic they used?

[CoolioTiffany]

I assume not everything we see on the Internet has to be true.

Meaning, that article is bull dump.

[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.

[angllady2]

Well, I don't know about toxic plastic, but EVERYONE knows cell phones give you brain tumors, I don't see the cell phone companies going out of business.

Really, you are just here to rile people, with nothing useful to contribute to this community at all.

Frankly, I find you childish and pathetic at best, and I have no further use for you or anything you have to say.

Gale

[David802]

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.

See the secret here is Mrs. Knowitall has a very very very very very very 1 of a kind rare morph! Its called the limbic Ball python. Its a special snake that developed a limbic system equal to a dog or cat, it has also developed rudimentary vocal cords so it can talk as well as the necessary cognitive functions to hold a basic conversation.

I said it before and I shall say it again a little less harshly because I was very harsh last time.

Arsinoe is obviously unwilling to learn about proper care for her animals. She has also proven that she is arrogant and unwilling to listen to any opinion but her own, she should there for have her animals taken away until she can at least learn about proper care of her animals!

@ the admins.. Technically I don't think there has been any rules broken. But is there ANYTHING you guys can do about these ridicules posts? This is the third topic created where Arsinoe has done nothing but be passive aggressive and preach her superior knowledge about something she has know clue about. This is a forum to help people and exchange ideas, and doing that is fantastic! What she is doing is not just exchanging ideas, she is preaching, being rude, arrogant, judgmental and irritating. I Come here to relax and continue my education on ball pythons. Not get infuriated because someone thinks she is better then everybody and continues to try flaunt and push it in everyone's face.

Probobly just going to get told not to read her posts anymore, but I thought I'd throw that out there, I don't know how many people feel the way I do, but this kind of crap is not the reason I come here and needs to be put to an end!

[WingedWolfPsion]

The fumes from PVC are toxic, and it leaches into our food and water supply. BPA got the most attention, but it's not the only toxic plastic we're using.

The problem is, when these things were tested, it was assumed that a large quantity of something would have a stronger affect on the body than a smaller quantity. That proved to not be the case with plastics. Minute doses can induce BIG changes.

Now it's too late, and we can't get away from them. They're pervasive in the environment--everywhere. They're causing an increase in birth defects such as hypospadias, and a variety of other problems that are still poorly understood. Cancer is just part of it.

If you somehow managed to remove all plastics from your environment, and had a daughter, her children will still be affected by these chemicals. Scary? Indeed.

They would never allow an unsafe plastic to be sold? BPA was used in baby bottles right up til just a few years ago, and it's been in production since the 1940s, so rethink that assumption. That's some seriously bad stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A

And it STILL HASN'T BEEN BANNED.

Here's an article in Time Magazine about phthalates and PVC:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...990361,00.html

Here's some very technical fun stuff about what phthalates do:
http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi...tract/kfm069v1

Our environment is just chock full of endocrine disrupters, and there's no way we can escape from them now. I doubt that the bins we keep our ball pythons in are any worse for them than the chemicals in the water they drink, or that are concentrated in the rats they eat.

The sterilite tubs we use are made of polypropolene plastic. My racks, however, are expanded PVC. Unless you buy special melamine, though, the particle board beneath the melamine coating is made with formaldehyde, so that's not a great option either. I see no reason not to keep using my racks, as I feel that the damage has already been done.

So what's the result? Maybe a few more males that are lazy breeders, or aren't very fertile. A few more problems with hatchlings. But it's always been that way, so we didn't really notice.

[Hulihzack]

The fumes from PVC are toxic, and it leaches into our food and water supply. BPA got the most attention, but it's not the only toxic plastic we're using.

The problem is, when these things were tested, it was assumed that a large quantity of something would have a stronger affect on the body than a smaller quantity. That proved to not be the case with plastics. Minute doses can induce BIG changes.

Now it's too late, and we can't get away from them. They're pervasive in the environment--everywhere. They're causing an increase in birth defects such as hypospadias, and a variety of other problems that are still poorly understood. Cancer is just part of it.

If you somehow managed to remove all plastics from your environment, and had a daughter, her children will still be affected by these chemicals. Scary? Indeed.

They would never allow an unsafe plastic to be sold? BPA was used in baby bottles right up til just a few years ago, and it's been in production since the 1940s, so rethink that assumption. That's some seriously bad stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A

And it STILL HASN'T BEEN BANNED.

Here's an article in Time Magazine about phthalates and PVC:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...990361,00.html

Here's some very technical fun stuff about what phthalates do:
http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi...tract/kfm069v1

Our environment is just chock full of endocrine disrupters, and there's no way we can escape from them now. I doubt that the bins we keep our ball pythons in are any worse for them than the chemicals in the water they drink, or that are concentrated in the rats they eat.

The sterilite tubs we use are made of polypropolene plastic. My racks, however, are expanded PVC. Unless you buy special melamine, though, the particle board beneath the melamine coating is made with formaldehyde, so that's not a great option either. I see no reason not to keep using my racks, as I feel that the damage has already been done.

So what's the result? Maybe a few more males that are lazy breeders, or aren't very fertile. A few more problems with hatchlings. But it's always been that way, so we didn't really notice.

How can you honestly attribute lazy males and problem hatchlings to the plastic tubs? Really?? Maybe I'm "stuck in the old ways of thinking" or whatever, but it seems like a bit of a reach.

[mainbutter]

Don't delude yourselves for the sake of convenience, or claiming that ignorance is bliss

PVC causes cancer. PVC fumes from melting/burning are extremely carcinogenic. I don't know enough about PVC in a solid state to comment on that.

I still use many items made out of PVC. it's a risk I take. I make soft plastic fishing lures out of a PVC material which requires heating. It creates carcinogenic fumes. I make sure to do it with EXTREMELY good ventilation. People have gotten cancer doing what I do, but ignoring the risks and heating/pouring soft plastic lures without ventilation. Luckily the one I've corrosponded with firsthand have been treated successfully.

I have also made didgeridoos out of PVC pipe. One of the techniques to make a PVC didj seem more like their natural wood eucalyptus cousins is to heat them with a heat gun until they become flexible, to add bends/twists/bulges/dents. I don't do this myself, because of the fumes that heating PVC gives off. Although I expose myself to the lure fumes, I do try to limit myself as much as possible.

I cannot stress this enough. PVC fumes have been proven to be extremely carcinogenic. PVC is also EVERYWHERE in our society, and we couldn't live like we do without it.

It's important to acknowledge risks, even if you choose to take them. Again, don't delude yourselves. Take precautions, keep yourself aware, and don't complain if it all goes to hell. Ignorance is only bliss until you die a horrible death.

[JLC]

@ the admins.. Technically I don't think there has been any rules broken. But is there ANYTHING you guys can do about these ridicules posts? This is the third topic created where Arsinoe has done nothing but be passive aggressive and preach her superior knowledge about something she has know clue about. This is a forum to help people and exchange ideas, and doing that is fantastic! What she is doing is not just exchanging ideas, she is preaching, being rude, arrogant, judgmental and irritating. I Come here to relax and continue my education on ball pythons. Not get infuriated because someone thinks she is better then everybody and continues to try flaunt and push it in everyone's face.

Probobly just going to get told not to read her posts anymore, but I thought I'd throw that out there, I don't know how many people feel the way I do, but this kind of crap is not the reason I come here and needs to be put to an end!

You're right in that no rules have been broken here...although if I wanted to get extremely nit-picky, I might think calling her a "Ms Knowitall" might be construed as name-calling.

Yes, it IS very annoying at times when someone gets on a really big soapbox about a particular issue they are passionate about...most especially when their position doesn't seem to be backed up by anything but personal opinion. But...do you ("you" being anyone reading and participating in this thread, not necessarily just the member being quoted)...do you really think that the overall participation in this thread has been beneficial to the site?

We get complaints that so-n-so really shouldn't be starting such an annoying thread because it doesn't help the site....but at the same time, the same folks making such a complaint spend their time mocking and otherwise deriding the points made in the original post. Which is more harmful to the overall atmosphere of the site? The original post? Or all the mocking scorn that comes after it?

Seriously....I don't agree with her position. And I don't mind anyone offering up an attempt at a logical, reasonable rebuttal. But all the negative posts made AFTER the original offending post are just as bad, if not worse.

So yeah....I'll just tell everyone who doesn't like what she has to say to simply skip her threads or put her on Ignore altogether. But so long as she respects the site and the rules of the site, she has just as much right to express her opinion here as everyone else.

[Bruce Whitehead]

Basically what you have cut and pasted (I would need to go back and check to see if you actually properly cited the original source?) is an editorial.

I have graded academic papers, edited a book, worked as an academic researcher and have published in peer-reviewed journals (journal of psychology and human sexuality for example - shoddy little publication but they told me it was prestigious)... so I am going to go out on a limb and say that I may be able to evaluate your resource and conclude the article would not be acceptable at even a tenth grade level as an appropriate resource?

I have not written a tenth grade paper, well... since the tenth grade, but I understand there is a push now for preparing young adults to write a proper paper?

Nor would recycling companies, Greenpeace, Time Magazine, or Wikipedia make the grade...

Sorry, I would have to negative mark you on that.

This does not mean that your points are not true, it simply means your sources are not credible, nor have you made a compelling arguement.

And in your previous thread/poll your language (descriptive and emotive) attempted to portray a negative slant to one side (not yours) and a positive slant to the other (yours).

So in addition to actually writing a compelling and engaging arguement you need to work on your choice of wording and let your facts make your point. Manipulating language and using negative desciptors is a cheap way to try and make your point (and exactly why Time and Greenpeace are not credible sources).

Good luck with it.

I am looking forward to reading something a bit more substantial from you on the issue.

Bruce

PS: Citations. Citations. Citations.