Quote Originally Posted by Zincubus View Post
Soooooo

I've heard on the grapevine that there may be cause for concern as regards the heating of plastic rub/rubs wether it's UTH or heat /ceramic bulbs!?!?!

The suggestion is ....

Plastic when heated to a certain level will always release VOC which have apparently been linked with Respiratory Tract Infections ( more commonly known as RI ) in snakes and other reptiles ..

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are extremely hazardous. The EPA explains VOCs, and the dangers they pose to our health. According to the EPA, VOCs cause eye, nose and throat irritation, frequent headaches, nausea, and can also damage the liver, kidney and central nervous system .


Any thoughts , ideas , concerns or information on this topic ??

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I'm SO glad you brought that up. I am not a fan of PVC/plastic cages for that very reason- I don't trust the health & safety (mine OR my snakes) to constantly
heated plastics, no matter how "convenient" they may seem to be. Granted, I'm not a BP-keeper either, so glass tanks are very suitable for my snakes (mostly
colubrids) but you can also make glass tanks "work" for BPs/ & boids in general. Even more concerning to me has been the use of plastic storage bins that were
NEVER designed for living creatures (unlike the harder plastic cages) & which off-gas to the extent that is obvious even to me (a mere human) at normal room
temperatures, so I hate to think about enclosed snakes with a far better sense of smell & more importantly, a less-developed immune system & a smaller, more
fragile body, that cannot escape & are "serving a life sentence".

There have been a few threads about snakes obsessed with the air vents in their cages, & while we cannot prove it, it creeps me out on their behalf to think that
this may be what's going on. Many younger members keeping snakes have never lived in a world where plastics aren't literally everywhere, but I prefer to error
on the side of caution. Illnesses like cancer are not usually just a simple exposure but the exposure to more unhealthy things over time...and the more you can
minimize such exposure the better off you are (-not to mention the environment). Call me chicken if you like, but I think someday people will look back on this
era & say "what were you thinking!?" Proof will be a long-time coming though...it's hard enough to get funding for research on human health, let alone snakes.
I think we need to rely on common sense & apply what we do know to come up with the best methods for our non-human friends.