Poisonous Diapers
Poisonous Diapers
Dec 14Those of you who thought disposable diapers are the best thing since sliced bread, think twice: disposable diapers are evil! Poisonous! Deadly!
I usually attack news articles, but today’s ostrich bash comes courtesy of a comment left about one of my blog posts. I am not a vindictive person, I swear. It just was too ridiculous to let be.
The headline: “Chemicals in Disposable Diapers.”
The premise: Disposable diapers are full of poisonous chemicals that could kill and maim your child.
The bottom line: “It’s is harmful for a baby to have a wet diaper on the skin for long periods of time.”
Best Ostrich quotes:
Have you’ve ever heard of Dioxins!!?? There are a lot of harmful chemicals in diapers that if left on long enough can lead to health problems. So the baby isn’t just safely sleeping soaking wet, the baby is also absorbing harsh chemicals.
A study published in the “Archives of Environmental Health” in 1999 states that disposable diapers should be considered to be a factor that may cause or worsen childhood asthma and respiratory problems.
According to the World Health Organization, exposure to dioxins may cause skin reactions and altered liver function, as well as impairments to the immune system, nervous system, endocrine system and reproductive functions.
Let’s bash!
I am not even going to bring out the Ostrich Scale for this. Let’s just say a child is more likely to die from a grand piano falling on his/her pram after being pushed by a coyote from the heights of a Grand Canyon cliff than from exposure to dioxins. Seriously. Read on.
Are Dioxins bad? Hell to the yes, they are. A reputable source (the World Health Organization, no less) describes their effects like this:
Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and also cause cancer.
Wait! Don’t run and throw all your disposable diapers away just yet! Let’s read a little more about what the WHO says:
More than 90% of human exposure is through food, mainly meat and dairy products, fish and shellfish.
Oh, not diapers? Are you sure diapers are not murderously high in dioxins?
Due to the omnipresence of dioxins, all people have background exposure, which is not expected to affect human health.
Sorry, did the WHO just say “omnipresence”? I could be wrong, but doesn’t that mean they are EVERYWHERE besides disposable diapers?
Prevention or reduction of human exposure is best done via source-directed measures, i.e. strict control of industrial processes to reduce formation of dioxins as much as possible.
I still don’t see a single word about diapers here. A proper Ctrl-F search confirmed that the word “diaper” does not appear ONCE in this WHO document. But the WHO might be wrong! What if they simply have not taken diapers into account? What if they are not thinking of our most vulnerable populations??
Cue Environmental Health Perspectives and their study “Exposure assessment to dioxins from the use of tampons and diapers.” (Oh yes, ostriches, I’m citing research. Published scientific research carried out in the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory. Take your sob-story elsewhere: This. Is. Science.)
And what did the National Health and Environmental Effects Research experts Michael J DeVito and Arnold Schecter have to say?
This is the “long” version (and by “long” I mean the abstract of the 6-page article.) I highlighted the important bits:
We estimated exposures to dioxins on the basis of a screening level analysis that assumed all dioxins present were completely absorbed. We also estimated exposures by using a more refined analysis that incorporates partition coefficients to estimate bioavailability. None of the products contained 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, the most potent dioxin, although other dioxins were present at detectable concentrations in all samples. We observed minimal differences in the concentrations of dioxins between 100% cotton and cotton/pulp products. The refined exposure analysis indicates that exposures to dioxins from tampons are approximately 13,000-240,000 times less than dietary exposures. The refined exposure analysis showed that exposure to dioxins from the diet is more than 30,000-2,200,000 times the exposure through diapers in nursing infants. Although dioxins are found in trace amounts in both cotton and pulp sanitary products, exposure to dioxins through tampons and diapers does not significantly contribute to dioxin exposures in the United States.
This is my translated summary:
Even if all the dioxins in a diaper were absorbed by a diaper-wearing baby, the amount absorbed would still be 30,000-2,200,000 times less than what a nursing baby gets from food.
Wanna reduce your kid’s exposure to dioxins? Leave my kid’s wet diapers alone. These are the recommendations from the World effing Health Organization:
Trimming fat from meat and consuming low fat dairy products may decrease the exposure to dioxin compounds. Also, a balanced diet (including adequate amounts of fruits, vegetables and cereals) will help to avoid excessive exposure from a single source. This is a long-term strategy to reduce body burdens and is probably most relevant for girls and young women to reduce exposure of the developing fetus and when breastfeeding infants later on in life. However, the possibility for consumers to reduce their own exposure is somewhat limited. (my emphasis)
If you must campaign against something, focus your energies on fighting for “strict control of industrial processes to reduce formation of dioxins as much as possible.”
I rest my case.
And now, if you excuse me, I have a very disposable diaper to change.
PS: All you cloth-diapering readers have my undying respect and admiration. I could never do it, but well done you! …as long as you’re not doing it out of fear of dioxins, because if so you must be feeling mighty silly right now.
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Sources: LiveStrong.com, World Health Organization (www.who.int), National Center of Biotechnology Information (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). If you want the list of the actual URLs, just ask!
Note: if you want to argue with statistics in hand, you are welcome. If you wanna wield your little cousin’s sob story, prepare to not be taken seriously. You’ve been warned.
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We cloth and love it, especially now that we don’t have a washer and dryer so my mom loves doing our laundry. She thinks its so cute! We are not scared of poison we are scared of having to waste money on something our son will simply shit on and throw in the trash I have too many needs for that!
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ofthesea Reply:
December 18th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
Oh, I SO would use cloth if I had your mom!
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Fuck, you’re smart. I would send this to my MIL, but she hates me and wishes I would die, so no point. Unless I want to be ostrich-y myself.
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ofthesea Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Thank you, thank you. I only aim to give you ammo so you can blast an ostrich if it crosses your path! ;)
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Well done. I wish these nuts would focus on the real issue – the amount of waste disposable nappies (diapers) make. I just couldn’t live with myself using that much disposable stuff so I used modern cloth nappies/diapers. So yes, I think there is a guilt trip to be imposed, but this kooky dioxins stuff is a load of bollocks.
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ofthesea Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 6:59 am
Agreed – the real problem with disposable diapers IS waste. But even then, guilt trips help no one. What we need is information and viable alternatives!
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I didn’t start cloth diapering out of fear of dioxins*, though I confess later I did get a little, “OMG why did no one tell me about these things?!” Which was after I had used some bleach to strip said diapers, so I was clearly killing my baby anyway!
This makes me feel better. :D
(* I started cloth diapering because my ass was broke.)
Ashley recently posted Ah- a 2010- Entitlement- with a hint of Resentment
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ofthesea Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 7:00 am
The soundest reason of them all! :D
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You and your science! Have you no shame? Citing sources? Dubunking myths?
The ostriches are coming for you, and there is murder in their beaks!
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ofthesea Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Science will protect me!
That, and a 5 foot 11 Dane.
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These types of articles and comments always kill me..does not one stop to think that if diapers were toxic they wouldn’t be on the market?! DUH!!! PS: you had me peeing my pants the whole time I read that!
How Does She Do It Mom recently posted How to “Do Something With Your Life”
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ofthesea Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
My point exactly. Why don’t they go worry about a REAL danger for a change? Silly people!
Hee hee!
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Trust me the crap I ate while pregnant are more likely to mame and injure my daughter than her disposible diapers.
Izzy.0 recently posted Booo time travel
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ofthesea Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
Lunch meat? Blue cheese? Wine? Rare steak? Sushi?
I was pretty ostrichy about eating while pregnant… until we started going over 40 weeks. Those 2 overtime weeks I ate anything and everything I wanted, and no harm done!
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I thought the whole dioxin issue came from it seeping into the water supply from industrial sources. I like how this one is basically targeting women for the guilt trip when it’s really the freaking FOOD SUPPLY. Geez.
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ofthesea Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
“Women”? She was targeting ME! Little did she know what she was getting into, the silly ostrich…
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anneisanne Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
LOL! I so have finals brain I didn’t even notice this came from one of your readers!! I thought you just skimmed the newspaper and got inspired. WHO ATTACKS MOMMY BLOGGERS FOR HAVING DIAPERS!! LOLOLOL!
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ofthesea Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Well, you were a good student, remembering how things were supposed to work. My sneak attack on that ostrich was not part of the plan, but DAM it needed to be said.
Hope you ace those finals!!
anneisanne Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 11:50 pm
Thanks! They’re huge projects, though that aren’t too shabby just taking over my freaking LIFE. Except for the essay I wrote in Portuguese, which was assy. But that was still taking over my life.
ofthesea Reply:
December 15th, 2010 at 7:00 am
Oooh, Portuguese, wooh!
Yay, science!
Serene recently posted Party pics
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ofthesea Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Science is the best. Can’t beat it!
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Right on !! This is just another example of the government trying to get into our homes, our business, and NOW our babies diapers. My hats off to those that could do the cloth diaper thing too. I tried like hell myself. I just couldn’t get the things to stay around my baby’s little hips. But I breastfed, so I got the “points” back that I lost on using disposable diapers…LOL Every month, there is a new flavored “diaster” that they want to get us all worked up over, so that we will look to big brother to solve all of our problems for us. Bah, humbug !!! Pinch C for me !!!
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ofthesea Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
It’s not even the government, it’s a bunch of busybodies with nothing better to do than worry parents needlessly. Pisses me off.
Consider him pinched!
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Huh. Never heard of dioxins, I’m a – cheap (made my own diapers) and b – didn’t want to throw that much crap (haha) out. Oh, and c – the smell of ‘sposies makes me gag.
Neeroc recently posted Checklist and some pics
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ofthesea Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 9:35 am
I cannot argue with any of your reasons – especially the economic ones!
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Excellent BASHING!! I am very happy to see all the references and finally feel less guilty about having to switch to disposables after trying to launder a zillion cloth diapers on a single-mom’s budget. It’s not as cheap as everyone thinks… especially in the TIME department. I think my baby deserves a sane mommy rather than one about to go postal… Thanks M!!
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ofthesea Reply:
December 14th, 2010 at 8:41 am
No guilt! No guilt! We all do the best we can!
And heck yeah, there are only so many hours in the day!
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New Moms Against Ostriches Post:Poisonous Diapers. Read it now! http://1000reasonsimabadmom.com/poisonou...
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