Friday, June 13, 2008

Snippet 6/14/08: Chemical Alert

My gorgeous daughter, Menggay,
Your stack of beautifully designed curtains have got to go.

If you haven't read yet the Philippine Daily Inquirer page A-7 dated 6/14/08, you should hearken to the article of Ms. Jocelyn Uy citing the harmful effects of PVC shower curtains which I am quoting herewith:

"The dangerous group of chemicals in PVC shower curtains was found to emit as many as 108 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air that were found to be carcinogenic and may cause damage to human liver, respiratory track, reproductive system and central nervous system (CNS)."

A member of the Eco-waste Coalition and Chair of the Mother Earth elaborated that aside from VOCs other chemicals, such as phthalates (yes, this is really the spelling of the chemical and I don't know how to pronounce it either) and organotins, can harm people and they are found in other household objects common to everyone's life--phthalates are found in soft elastic rubber, e.g., eraser on the end of a pencil or any other eraser. Hear this: chemicals such as touline, cyclohexanone, methyl isobutyl ketone, phenol, and ethyl bensene are found in the air within 28 days after a shower curtain was unwrapped and hung. Do you know that only ethyl is familiar to me? (From rubbing alcohol solutions, of course.)

By the way, phthalates, also found in PVC plastic medical devices have been linked to reproductive problems including shorter pregnancy duration and premature breast development in girls; sperm damage and impaired reproductive development in males.

Menggay, remember Amy's husband? The one who died of liver cancer, but detests drinking alcohol or smoking? I suspect the PVC as a culprit...

Also, I have observed nine year old girls are starting to grow premature breasts. At my time, we girls in the block experienced "growing pains" at the breast area at the age of eleven or twelve, and have to bandage that part to hide them when we wear P.E. t-shirts.

How now do we live in an environment filled with deadly chemicals? I shiver at the thought...

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

ma, u gotta do wat u gotta do...now we're wiser...get rid of those fast! don't wanna hurt those who most matter to me...but can u look for something as equally gorgeous-looking as those curtains but are nature-friendly or wat andromeda wud say, "green".

let's all think and go "GREEN"!