Editorial by T. Washko - Staff
Writer for The Diaper Jungle
If you visit the web sites of the popular disposable
diaper manufacturers you will find little
information about what exactly is in a
disposable diaper. Instead you read information
about why they are not compelled to make this
information available to you...the consumer. When
requesting MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) on
disposable diapers products you may be met with a
response such as this:
Dear Customer,
These consumer products are exempt from the MSDS
requirement under the Hazard Communication
Guidelines of the federal Occupational Safety and
Health Administration. More importantly though, all of our
paper products are composed of non-hazardous
substances.
We go to great lengths to ensure that our
products are safe for workers, consumers, and
the environment. All of our products have been
proven safe through many years of extensive testing
and consumer use.
Please be assured that there has never been a need
for MSDS for these products.
Sincerely,
A Large Disposable Diaper Company
So this inclines us to ask...what is the big secret
and what are you trying to hide? Perhaps they know
it would be unfavorable for them to tell consumers that
they are in fact buying
polyethylene and polypropylene plastic with bleached
paper pulp, AGM (a gelling substance),
petrolatum, stearyl
alcohol, cellulose tissue, elastic, and perfume. Instead they would rather consumers
subscribe to the ideas they present on national
television...that you are diapering your baby with
materials as soft and inviting as cashmere.
Even when contacting them to determine if your child
might have sensitivities to the "ingredients" in
their diapering products, you will not get you any
closer to the truth. Instead they tell you that this
information is proprietary due to the prevalence of
diapering spies out there and that if you want
further information about the contents you must
submit a letter from your Dr. explaining what
allergies or product sensitivities your child might
have and they will either confirm or deny. The
extent of the security that exists around the
contents of a diapering product is not only baffling
but alarming. Millions are children adorn these
products for anywhere from 1-4 years and yet parents
are not permitted to know what is in them. Even more
alarming is the fact that many parents blindly trust
these companies to make products that are safe for
their children, never questioning the content of a
diaper or their health and environmental impacts.
Did you know that
scientific studies have linked disposable diapers
and their harsh perfumes and toxic substances to the
increase of asthma in society today? Laboratory rats
exposed to disposable diapers straight out of the
package have suffered increased eye, nose and throat
irritation, as well as bronchial constriction
similar to that of an asthma attack. These findings
appear in a scientific report concluded by Dr.
Rosalind C. Anderson of Anderson Laboratories, Inc.
in Vermont. The report went on to say that "Chemical
analysis of the emissions revealed several chemicals
with documented respiratory toxicity. The results
demonstrate that some types of disposable diapers
emit mixtures of chemicals that are toxic to the
respiratory tract. Disposable diapers should be
considered as one of the factors that might cause or
exacerbate asthmatic conditions."*
Not only are these large disposable
diaper manufacturers producing products laden with
chemicals to diaper our children with, they are
polluting the earth our children will inherit. In one US
town, one such company is responsible for discharging
approximately 50 million gallons/day of wastewater
into a nearby river.** The chemicals being dumped
into this river have made their way into the well
water of the surrounding residents and have caused
mutations among the fish that live in it.
The water is so dark and murky that oxygen and
sunlight cannot penetrate it and the smell emanating
from it is noxious. Residents have been fighting for
close to ten years now to stop this company from
polluting their natural resources, all to no avail.
Not only do the "safe" ingredients used in these
diapering products have the potential to cause
asthma-like conditions in our children they may also
be polluting our drinking water and mutating our
wildlife in areas where they are manufactured.
So it would seem that when a diaper
consumer is prohibited from knowing the full
contents of the diaper they are using on their
child, the manufacturing company has a great deal to
hide. How many parents would buy disposable diapers
if you were to read something like this on the
company web site or diaper packaging:
Dear Customer,
Our diapers are
made from a
variety of non-child friendly products including
bleached paper pulp, petrolatum, stearyl
alcohol, cellulose tissue, sodium
polyacralate, and perfumes. Some or all of these ingredients
may cause adverse reactions to the wearer, including
reduced respiratory function so please exercise
caution.
Our products are not
biodegradable or environmentally friendly and they may contribute
greatly to environmental pollution. Although recycling
disposable diapers is a possibility, we do not at this time, use
any of these available methods as the monetary costs are too
great. Thank you kindly for using our products anyway.
Sincerely,
A Large Disposable Diaper Company
Now the question is....if upon
reading something like that would parents still
choose perceived convenience and use disposable
diapers anyway? We can only hope that cloth diapers
would at least merit a consideration for their
qualities of superior comfort and safety.
CREDITS:
* Acute Respiratory Effects of
Diaper Emissions, Archives of Environmental Health, 54, October
1999
**Geophysical Fluid
Dynamics Institute, Florida State University
© The
Diaper Jungle
