> 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 _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
