There have been over the years a number of poor keeping practices. Tanks so wet they would from mushrooms for example. nightrainfalls has a point just because a few keepers have been doing the same thing for a long time doesn't mean it is the best option.

However there is a of weight of evidence. In this case I believe that there are enough keepers with enough animals and enough time to say that a high quality pine bedding is likely fine and will have no issues.

The simple truth is clear, there are too many diligent successful breeders using pine bedding for too long to say that there is an major issue. It maybe discovered that there is some odd connection between phenols and some undiscovered mystery disease. Currently there is no proof of anything.

There are so many phenol containing products that are almost certain to have more phenol levels than pine. Chemically extracted and refined phenols are in tons of things. Perhaps they should be of greater concern.