Death by bathtub;
Vinyl shower curtains sold at major retailers across the country emit toxic chemicals that have been linked to serious health problems, according to a report released Thursday by a national environmental organization.
The curtains contained high concentrations of chemicals that are linked to liver damage as well as damage to the central nervous, respiratory and reproductive systems, said researchers for the Virginia-based Center for Health, Environment & Justice.
The organization commissioned the study about two years ago to determine what caused that “new shower curtain smell” familiar to many consumers.
“This smell can make you feel sick, give you a headache, make you feel nauseous or [cause] other health effects,” said Michael Schade, a coauthor of the report.
We need a famine.
Old George Carlin joke:
The Surgeon General has announced today that saliva causes stomach cancer…..but only when swallowed in small ammounts over a long period of time.
Canada could never have a famine. The USA would be in here to feed us like they do most of the rest of the world when tragedy strikes. If they couldn’t do it, you can bet Tim Horton’s or Wendy’s would would.
The point of our paper thin skin and our hair-trigger whining gun makes us the most undeserving generation I have ever heard of. the fact that all the things a person or even a complete society has to worry about are all more than taken care of.
We have decided to indulge in social cannibalism to give some meaning to our boring care-free existence is is currently is in the Nanny Nation.
When I pass by a smoker, I thank him or her for their extra tax donations and enjoy the scent of the cigar or cigarette. It isn’t a bad smell and the pathological fear of it is … well … a mental illness.
Intolerance is epidemic in Canada and I am sick of it.
just wait until the green-nazis go after the “new car smell”, Detroit’s death-knell
Puddin:
That’s OLD news.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9503413/
The organization commissioned the study about two years ago to determine what caused that “new shower curtain smell” familiar to many consumers.
It’s called off-gassing and, I suspect, any 10th grade chemistry student would be able to tell you that…
Let’s face it: The study was really commissioned in order to provide yet another scary angle to every day life…
Yeah,but what if you have cloth(silk) shower curtains? Do you know how many silkworms where put through labour camps to make all that silk!!Oh the humanities. Where’s PETA when you need them?
And Richard.The offgassing that really scares me comes from all the leftards. Now that should be outlawed!
Be careful what you wish for Kate. With soaring food prices here now and for the foreseeable future, famine may be just around the corner.
We soon will be starving if the eco-freaks have there way. Baths will become optional as we slide ever farther towards the new chic middle ages retro-hop of the Islamist call.
The next generation will be lucky to experience the dark ages with Mo & company. Plagues not optional ,nor indoor plumbing or running water.
It sounds like a good study. I’m glad the problem was identified.
The Capitalist marketplace works best when more information is available. Now that this info is, I hope companies either make changes to their products or competitors take the finding, develop safer products, and market the heck out of them.
Is there any particular reasons you super-conservatives feel a need to unnecessarily inhale and expose your family to toxic gases and sexual-hormone interrupting chemicals humans weren’t even expose to 100 years ago? Does it make you feel tough or something?
I am reading this report. It’s the usual enviro-mentalist slight of hand. Here’s a typical example, two statements, one following the other:
• The organotins dibutyl tin and monobutyl
tin were found in 3 of 5 or 60% of the shower
curtains tested (the Wal-Mart, Kmart, and
Target curtains).
• Some organotins affect the central nervous
system, skin, liver, immune system and
reproductive system.
Ah, but they don’t state that dibutyl tin and monobutyl tin “affect” all sorts of scary parts of our body. In fact, I’m pretty sure if they did, they wouldn’t have passed up the opportunity to say so.
Much is made of the Dreaded Volatile Organic Compunds; brrr, sounds scary already. They purchased 5 curtains but only tested the one from Wal-Mart. Why’s that? The scare potential of a headline: “Wal-Mart shower curtains cause cancer”; much better than “Sears shower curtains cause cancer”. They stuck with the bi-line: PVC shower Curtains Contain High Levels of Volatile Organic Compounds. They should have stated “A PVC shower curtain contains …” as that’s all they tested.
Lots of tables with scary chemical names and METALS! for goodness sake METALS! Where will the death threats end.
This is the continued irrational attack on PVC. The goal of the report is to demonize and shut down sales outlets for PVC: IKEA Sets Example: First to Phase Out PVC Shower Curtains
Oh, but, BTW, even they acknowledge that their “sniffers” recorded decrease to zero after 28 days of all these terrible things.
They could have got the same results, or worse, by sticking their sniffers up their arses.
Michael Schade is the PVC Campaign Coordinator for the Center for health, Environment and Justice.
Christoph @7.33
Well funded, multi-national enviro corporations have taken over the role of organized religion in the West. They are driven by ideology and self-interest, just like the old Western churches. They keep their flock in place with scare stories and non-science; of which this report is a classic example.
Anyone of these “chemicals” can be found in the natural environment. These multi-billion-dollar-funded multinational “charities” must be fought before they impoverish humanity and bring upon us an era of superstition that took the West hundreds of difficult years to crawl out from under.
Rather similar aims to the mozzies, really. Now THAT I find scary.
“Anyone of these “chemicals” can be found in the natural environment.”
Yes, duh. However, not in the quantities one receives in a 10-minute shower with hot water hitting a multi-square meter sheet of soft plastic… nor in the amounts received by drinking most of one’s liquid out of plastic or plastic-lined containers.
Christoph @7.50, read the report before you respond with something like that. My mind is armed and dangerous you know.
The report reports that all these horrible, scary things, disappear after 28 days. Yes, that delightful “new shower curtain” smell goes very quickly. You obviously suffer from organo-phobia, the irrational fear of organic chemicals….
…of which all life is made, strangely enough..
I expect not only do you want to rid the world of chemicals, but also radiation and CO2 and radio waves and humans.
I like the smell of new PVC shower curtains, along with memiograph paper (I’m dating myself now) and those markers for flip charts. It’s my little thrill without doing illegal drugs (but since PVC shower curtains may become illegal, I might have to change my stance on drugs!)
Taht is wy in teh cuontry taht is muslim,we donott take the shoower,we are moer smurt.
A study to discover that vinyl wrapped up in plastic might stink a bit and release chemicals when unwrapped?
Brilliant grant writing.
We need to mandate tub helmets (for slip and falls) with gas mask attachments for kids ASAP!
We need to mandate tub helmets (for slip and falls) with gas mask attachments for kids ASAP!
Control-F to find “The Climatologist’s Song”
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/adelaide_academic_alert/
I worked in plastics for over 10 years, maybe I’m dead already?????
Years ago,when I was a just weaned pup,my friends and I used to laugh at the tabloids that always featured the latest threat to our existence. Potatoes one issue,sour cream the next,sooner or later, everything was going to shorten your journey. We laughed because after all,these people had to sell their paper and only the fools bought and believed the drivel.I really hope that the new litter is still laughing,too bad it is our gov’t doing the publishing now.
*
i dunno… if you live in toronto… maybe you should
be a little more concerned about lead poisoning.
*
wallyj, don’t quite get your point, old chap. The report, source of this posting, is by an anti-PVC organization.
BTW Were you a just weaned pup that just became an unjust dog, or perhaps you were just weaned, then became a pup. Your work requires consideration of punctuation and syntax.
Enough already! I haven’t recovered from the news that I am slowly killing myself every time I open a bag of microwave popcorn. I haven’t gone back to the old way as I’m sure heating the oil in the pan was giving off something deadly and I’d have to give up my favourite food entirely. Actually, I find I am rebelling against the whole lot of them by taking a big whiff deliberately now when I open the bag.
Live dangerously, and give Dad a new plastic shower curtain for Father’s Day.
maybe the study is true… then we need to know…
people used to say the same about pesticide… now pesticide is known to give cancer and shall be banned.
this is science.
Shower Curtians – Shower Curtians? We don’t need no stinkin’ shower curtians. Glass and Granite tile for proper shower. Sheesh…
“Potatoes one issue,sour cream the next…”
You realize there’s a qualitative difference between a potato and the chemicals leached from plastic and heat, yes?
Tomatoes are the biggest issue now.. Today I went to eat a italian sub at Subway and I couldn’t get tomatoes on it… Subway banned all tomatoes.
I was hella mad.
Hi All,
Drew Curtis of Fark.com wrote a book on “Not News” and in it he included a chapter on the latest thing that will kill you. The reason why this stuff is reported is because we demand 24 hour news channels without 24hours worth of news. I blame anyone over 30.
That is all.
Christopher you must not have grown up when liquid paper was really liquid paper, I wish shower curtains smelled like that………
Don’t sweat the small stuff ……
REad Denis Avery’s book called “Saving the Planet with Plastics and Pesticides”
We as humans in the devloped world have never lived so long. Without plastics and Pesticides our life expectancies would go back to 50 years old.
The chemicals I inhale during a 10 minute shower is the least of my worries out of everything I encounter during a day. You can’t live your life worrying about every little thing you interact with that “might” harm you.
Here’s a little chart showing life expectancy at birth for people born in 1900. It’s American, so it compares Whites to Blacks, but in either group, the life expectancy is fairly dismal. The average life of a white male was 46.3 and a black male was 32.5. Women of both races were only slightly better – 48.3 and 33.5 years respectively. Kate’s article in the National Post deals with the death of several children in one family in 1898, all of whom were born in the 1890s. The short life of those children, whose death is attributed to a deadly communicable disease, for which, along with many such diseases, there was neither a cure nor a vaccine, contributes to a much lower life expectancy than we have today. What Kate was saying and what so many leftards too obtuse to understand whined and complained about, is that in today’s world what the hell are we complaining about if the average life expectancy is now in the 70s for both sexes and killer childhood communicable diseases and, yes, famine, are unheard of. The whiners have no clue how hard life can really be. Only those who have lived through such travails can truly appreciate it, and typically, those that do live through such tragedies, are not chronic whiners. Quiet, stoic acceptance of life’s hardships reflects a beauty and wisdom of character that no whiner and complainer could ever hope to achieve. Alas, such lessons are normally lost on the obtuse.
That’s cute. I forgot to post the chart.
do not use plastic curtain instead use glass door for your bath instead one
put two spray to wall after take the bath spray automaticlaly to clean the glass door curtain
if you insist to use plastic get new one every 6 month and first day hang it in outside the odor gone then spray it with antibatria or any dog spray nutrilze teh smell
put air fellow suck the air before and after take the bath and keep thw windowopen after take hte bath
—
we need the device for public washroom for seat change taht not all use teh same seat is not healthy
and washer spray inside each washroom to spray water to extra cleaning body not getsmelled
this is expensive and but cleaner
or at least use this in home usage
—
we need automatic wash room paper to come out not all touch the same rolls
—
we need automatic paper for dry hand and door open autoamtically with not touch handle of door for public washroom
every thing automatic
in big airport they do not put door for enterance for washroom ehy shape if private not need door for in and out
we need engineers and experts for home use to upgrade yearly
Is there any particular reasons you super-conservatives feel a need to unnecessarily inhale and expose your family to toxic gases and sexual-hormone interrupting chemicals humans weren’t even expose to 100 years ago?
Sure. It’s the same reason we moved out of sod houses, gave up on the horse and buggy, gave up on coal-oil lamps and wood stoves… It’s called progress! Oh, and the last time I checked, life expectancy has increased with all that progress stuff so I’ll take my chances…
The moral of the story is, Don’t suck on your shower curtains. I can understand working in a curtain factory that would emit toxic fumes and gases. But a shower curtan that’s been rinsed hundreds of time over?? Hmmmmm.
I did have a strange experience this spring. I bought a new coffee maker at Superstore under the brand name “Betty Crocker.” It was black plastic, when we plugged it in, it gave off a really strange odour, much like the odour of the herbicide 2-4-D. The whole house reeked. Even after we’d used it a dozen times or so, the odour persisted. Could it be that the coffee maker was made of recycled chemical containers. They gave us our money back, the Black and Decker we replaced it with is OK.
Apologies for the long article but this is how all this crap starts. In the case of the water bottles apparently it all started with Cheryl Crow using her new found PhD in biochemistry to edge-ma-kate the vacuous morons who watch those daytime group masturbatory sessions on TV. (Christoph try not sitting up front of the audience, the incontinent dribble from your shrivelled weenie is a dead give-away).
Risks of re-filled plastic water bottles not true – industry
30/11/07: http://www.industrysearch.com.au/news/viewrecord.aspx?id=29556
An email currently circulating in Australia and claiming that consumers who re-fill plastic water bottles with drinking water risk exposure to potentially cancerous chemicals has been dismissed as an urban myth propagated by Hollywood celebrity chat shows.
The email claims singer Sheryl Crow said on a celebrity chat show that she developed breast cancer as a direct result of drinking water from plastic bottles left sitting in the sun.
However, the industry body representing the plastics industry says such claims are simply not true and rely on the credulity of the audience rather than any scientific information.
Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association (PACIA) Chief Executive Michael Catchpole says the claims made in the email are an “urban myth” that first surfaced several years ago.
He said this and previous claims were based on a misunderstanding about the make-up of plastic (PET) bottles.
“The claims of several years ago were tracked back to a Canadian bottled water manufacturer which appeared to want to do nothing more than promote the purchase of bottled water and to discourage people from re-using plastic bottles refilled with tap water,” Catchpole said.
“PET* is a very safe plastic used worldwide for bottled water and for many popular soft drinks.
“While it’s only natural that any of us would pass on information that might be seen as protecting the health of our family and friends, we shouldn’t be too easily sucked in by these urban myths, just because a celebrity makes an unsubstantiated claim on a TV chat show.”
Catchpole said when the earlier emails were circulated, the Federal Government’s food safety standards body Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) issued a statement saying that a plasticiser used in some plastics to make them flexible posed no danger to human health.
“In fact, this particular plasticiser is not used in PET bottles anyway, so the claims that have been made in this email are wrong in every way and could cause people to worry unnecessarily about their health and the health of their families.
“People who re-use a PET bottle to carry drinking water are in no danger from any chemicals leaching from the plastic into the water, as has been claimed in this email. It’s an urban myth.
“Rather than worrying about inaccurate claims based on bad science, or on gossip, we would be better advised simply to use good hygiene measures to ensure that we’re not letting any bugs grow in the bottle or around the drinking or sealing cap.
Catchpole says health authorities recommend that all consumers avoid endangering their health from contamination by regularly washing and rinsing water bottles and other containers. Care should also be taken if the water we put in the bottle is not treated or potable water, that is the high quality water suppled by most urban and regional water supply systems.
*Polyethylene Terephthalate
Note Attachment: Statement from Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Fact Sheet: Plastic drink bottles FSANZ finds not a safety risk
It has been brought to FSANZ attention that there is an email circulating in Australia claiming that DEHA chemicals in plastic drink bottles may contaminate the drink inside. DEHA stands for di(2-ethylhexyl) adipate not diethylhydroxylamine as stated in the email. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has examined this claim and found that it is incorrect. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA Consumer, November-December 2002 (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fdacplas.html) also states ‘One chemical called diethylhexyl adipate (DEHA) has received a lot of media attention. DEHA is a plasticizer, a substance added to some plastics to make them flexible. DEHA exposure may occur when eating certain foods wrapped in plastics, especially fatty foods such as meat and cheese. But the levels are very low. The levels of the plasticiser that might be consumed as a result of plastic film use are well below the levels showing no toxic effect in animal studies.’
The Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association (http://www.softdrink.org.au/Acrobat/PetBottles2.pdf ) and the Australasian Soft Drink Association (http://www.pacia.com.au/Media/index_frames7.html) have also reassured consumers that PET* (plastic) bottles used for drinking water can be safely re-used subject to normal hygiene practices. This chemical DEHA is not used in plastic bottles.
The advice from the Food Safety Information Council (www.foodsafety.asn.au) on the microbiological risk of refilling
water bottles is:
* Bugs can contaminate used drink bottles from your mouth or touching the top with unwashed hands.
* These bugs can multiply in the water and give you gastroenteritis.
* To avoid this, after every use, rinse out the bottle and leave to drain until completely dry.
* Refill the bottle and, if you are not using it in the next 2 hours, refrigerate it under 5 C.
________________________________________
Printed from industrysearch.com.au
http://www.industrysearch.com.au/news/viewrecord.asp?id=29556
PROVEN: Shower Curtain tests are PHANTASMAGORICAL
“Our toxicological experts took a look at the report and have many, many concerns with the credibility of the science involved.” … “As for the report overall — based on the sound science and information that the CSPC has — the claims that are being made on shower curtains are ‘phantasmagorical,'” Vallese said, adding that she doesn’t get to use such a word very often in her work as a spokesperson.
… Julie Vallese, Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC)
FACT:
* ONE shower curtain “died” for the test.
* Environmental testing equipment IS sensitive, into the parts-per-trillion.
* The amounts are, oh I dunno, 99.99 MILLION times smaller before small babies would notice.
* The scrapings off my teeth are more TOXIC!
CONCLUSION
* Our babies are not going to die from their baby bottles. … Oh! Which is this “It’s going to kill us!” is this again?
OK – PHANTASMAGORICAL
* phantasmagoric, phantasmagorical, surreal, surrealistic
* characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtapositions;
* “a great concourse of phantasmagoic shadows”–J.C.Powys;
* “the incongruous imagery in surreal art and literature”
100 KUDOS to ABC News – that’s where I got the CSPC quotes from.
* http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5057141&page=1
033 KUDOS to CTV – which had TWO separate web items, one quoted real researchers, guess which one was broadcast? So, CTV gets 1 out of 3
000 KUDOS to Globe and Mail – my posting (with ONLY the CSPC quotes) disappeared into the “semi-monitored” hole.
This is probably paid-for research of a Hedge Fund dropping down some company’s share price so they can buy-back the phantom stock they sold at a higher price.
REF: http://www.deepcapture.com/
Deep Capture Blog: Citizen journalists explore naked short selling and financial corruption, a widening scandal on Wall Street.
TODAY the US Congress ordered SEC investigations. I do believe it is about what the above blog is researching … collusion between named Mafia members, named Vancouver financial sites, named financial reporters (CSNBC, WSJ) and on and on. Unfortunately, the blog is written by a writer who is NOT an editor and NOT a web designer, so it’s really long and NOT a quick read – 3 hours and I’m about a third through.
Hey! If you really, really want to see a great web site, search for the “environmental investigation” web sites in the Globe and Mail article (the ones who put out the Killer Shower Curtains). The US site is really well done! The Canadian site is ho-hum. But somebody spent good big bucks on the US site – but don’t sign their petition.
If you do go to the Globe and Mail article, be sure to read the comments – a few are “strange”; but most commentators really enjoyed themselves about this very, very, one-part-per-trillion scare.
* http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080612.wshowers0612/BNStory/National/home
Hey, wait a minute! The comments had NO actual rebuttals like this one; and I posted twice. Hmmm, financial reporters, Wall Street Journal, and … NO, I dare not say it!
John V said
“Intolerance is epidemic in Canada and I am sick of it.”
I thought about this statement for a long time. I sense your frustration, and agree some of your freedoms have probably been taken away.
But that statement still troubles me. There’s something I can’t put my finger on. For some reason I think the case could be made there’s not enough intolerance.
When I was a youngster people didn’t tolerate others sticking their noses in their business. That kind of intolerance would be refreshing today.
When I was in grade 4 my dad went to town, and bought me a new lunch pail. Trouble was he went to the tavern first, and I ended up with a lunch pail with barbie dolls on it. To avoid a certain beating I grabbed the first can of paint I could find and covered the pail. For a year I ate sandiches from a pail with two coats of lead paint. The last thing I’m worried about is a shower curtain.
WE’RE LIVING LONGER?
Actually, NO – if you only include adults and exclude large scale plagues. And, yes, I’m talking about since the Doomsday Book. Today we’re doing a great job of keeping the kids alive (nutrition) and that’s why the “statistics” show longer lives.
Do ya figure Ronnie Regan died before his time because a shower curtain?
Posted by: Christoph at June 13, 2008 7:33 PM
Are you old enough to remember DDT? And the needless tens of millions of African malarial deaths resulting from the idiotic ban of same, due to the left’s ecological Saint Rachel Carson, she of the book “Silent Spring”? If there’s a hell, do you think she’s constantly warming her hands as her reward?
What about chlorine? And that “scientists” and greenpeace have declared the single most important advance in water purification – saving countless other millions of lives – taboo?
Doubtless, thousands upon thousands of years ago, when the first cavemen discovered fire, your ancestors were true to form, whining that “Oh yeah, it cooks your food and keeps you warm, but just look at the burns you can get and the smoke it causes!” If you want to live your life in fear of everything the self-proclaimed “experts” espouse, have at it, and enjoy yourself. But leave the progress of society and the enjoyment of life to adults, mm-K ?
mhb23re
at gmail d0t calm
at least we know that the eastern europeans and most of the germans will outlive us.
it would be hard to find one on any day that had showered.
Yes, PVC curtains smell bad when you first open the package. What else would it be than “off-gassing”? I figured that out with curtain #1 . Because the bathrooms in my home are rather small, I hang new shower curtains in the garage for a couple of days before installing them. Makes a huge difference. Figured out all by myself that maybe all that off-gassing might be better outside. Duh.
My favorite part of the article is the director of indoor air quality for the EPA stating “We don’t control indoor air quality period.” Hmmmm. So why are you employed then? And what of that department you oversee? I could use that job! Just sayin’.
My bad, she’s the indoor air quality program co-ordinator. But the statement stands.
“Quiet, stoic acceptance of life’s hardships reflects a beauty and wisdom of character that no whiner and complainer could ever hope to achieve.”
And I agree with that 100 percent Kate. I Just don’t need to experience a famine to appreciate that!
Kate, as I read the article I began to think about how wonderful it must be to be articulate, and I reflected on that wonderful scene in the movie Amadeus where Salieri bemoaned the fact that God had given him the love of music but failed to give him the ability to produce it. That’s precisely how I felt. I skimmed back to the byline and didn’t recognize the name (duh!) until I read the postscript. You have been blessed and thank you for sharing that talent in the way you have chosen.
So much for how you said it, now for what you said; it’s a sad but very wise sentiment. Kate, I’m afraid we are heading into bad times more quickly than we think. I’ve long since had the notion that our modern Western Civilization has always been as vulnerable to collapse as the Romans and Greeks were. Seems the world may have to rely on the inscrutable Chinese and their 5,000 years of culture to be the repository for all modern scientific advances as we in The West spin out of control.
That allegorical “famine” you refer to will happen, it’s beginning already. I wonder who will have the resources to survive ?
[X] OTHER (Canadian) @ 1:15 am, who or what are you referring to? Yes, the reason the average life expectancy today is in the 70’s and possibly getting higher, is because primarily because child mortality rates have, for all intents and purposes, been reduced to neglible levels. (Hence, researchers have to spend our money on stupid research like the risk of using shower curtains.) In the old days, when a huge percentage of children died in the first few years of their lives, that, by itself brought the average life expectancy down to something like 35 or 40 years. It does NOT mean that those who survived childhood were destined to kick the bucket around 35 to 40 years of age. If a baby dies at the age of 1 but her grandmother lives to be 100, the average life expectancy using those two stats is 50, yet neither of them croaked at 50.