What is Propylene Glycol?
Not as bad as it sounds from this article.
Yes, the main ingredient in anti-freeze is in all of these products.
Shocked? You should be!
Anti-freeze is something that lowers the freezing point of water.
That's not shocking; sugar or salt will do that.
Also, it is misleading to discuss anti-freeze without mentioning that
both propylene and ethylene glycol are commonly used for this purpose
(and that ethylene glycol is the one associated with the traditional
toxic effects of automotive anti-freeze).
PROPYLENE GLYCOL is used in:
Anti-Freeze * Brake and Hydraulic Fluid * De-Icer * Paints and
Coatings * Floor Wax * Laundry Detergents * Pet Food * Tobacco *
Cosmetics * Toothpastes * Shampoos * Deodorants * Lotions *
Processed Foods and many more personal care items.
Check out your body lotions, deodorant, hair conditioner, hair gel,
creams, and many more products!
So it's a common chemical. That's still not cause for concern.
By the way, many of those items also contain Dihydrogen Monoxide! See
http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html if you are not familiar with this
potentially-lethal substance.
Propylene Glycol serves as a Humectant - a substance that helps retain
moisture content, or simply -it prevents things from drying out.
Also not cause for concern.
A published clinical review showed propylene glycol causes a significant
number of reactions and was a primary irritant to the skin even in low
levels of concentrations.
The American Academy of Dermatologists, Inc; Jan. 1991
Studies like this _are_ worth pointing out. It would be a shorter and
more useful article if it stuck to references like this.
Has anyone or any company tested the long-range side effects from
constant use of these products? We haven't found any. Do these complex
chemicals build up in our bodies? If Propylene Glycol keeps things from
drying out - how? If it's absorbed into our bloodstream and into our
cells, what does it do? Does it affect any of the simple, natural
biological functions at the cellular level? You don't need a study to
say - it's possible, even likely.
Those are good questions. It sounds like it's worth studying. I expect
that many of the answers are known already (e.g. someone previously
mentioning that PG is metabolized to pyruvate). Here's a quick Google
result that talks about it:
http://yarchive.net/med/antifreeze_eat.html
You do need a conclusive study to make the producers stop using these
ingredients!
The previous paragraph was all about not knowing what PG did in the
body. The article now assumes that if the studies were done, the results
would support the hypothesis that it's dangerous. That's not good science.
The MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for Propylene Glycol says: May
be harmful by ingestion or skin absorption. May cause eye irritation,
skin irritation. Chronic exposure can cause gastro-intestinal
disturbances, nausea, headache and vomiting, central nervous system
depression.
There's an MSDS here:
http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/p6928.htm
It says for example
Ingestion:
Relatively non-toxic. Ingestion of sizable amount (over 100ml) may
cause some gastrointestinal upset and temporary central nervous system
depression. Effects appear more severe in individuals with kidney
problems.
So it's not harmless, but it's safer than something like ethanol:
http://www.herc.org/msds/chemicals/ethanol.htm
PG can have an anesthetic effect. Other side
effects on animals exposed to PG include heart arrhythmia, stunted
growth, decreased blood pressure, and even death.
Possibly valid points, but what conditions, concentrations, durations of
exposure, etc? Without sufficient context it's difficult to assess the
severity of these effects.
sheet (MSDS) and it may alarm you to find that this common, widely used
humectant has a cautionary warning in its MSDS that reads, If on skin:
thoroughly wash with soap and water! What? Aren't we putting this stuff
on our skins daily, sometimes in copious amounts over long periods of time?
That sounds like standard boilerplate for an MSDS. Sodium chloride
(table salt) carries a similar warning.
http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/S3338.htm
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