Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 5:11 am
They make a "food grade" clear flexible tubing that should not impart odor. I don't know if it is pressure rated. I bought mine at a hardware store. I still use the original faucet pump so did not need pressure rating.
I would suggest using something like a camping pad or other nonabsorbant padding under the water bags. Seems like Carpet is just a future mildew headache.
Normal flexible tubing has a plasticizer chemical added. something like
Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (CAS No [117-81-7]) also known as di-octyl phthalate (DOP).
It is actually a liquid that sits in between the polymer strands to reduce intermolecular friction when it flexes. THis stuff slowly seeps out into water. not something you should be drinking. Normal garden hoses and flex tubing has lots of this chemical in it. The white hose they sell for RVs should not have it, or should at least have less.
Once in the body it has been theorized that it acts on the body like estrogen and some have linked it to the large declines in male fertility (drastically lower average sperm counts and motility) that have occured in the last 20 years or so. There was a documentary a few years ago that detailed the many common places where we are exposed to this chemical, (the plastic wrappers on american cheese singles, milk jugs, plastic lined cans of food like peas, etc) If it contacts something with lipids (fat) in it, the plasticizer leaches out exponentially faster, which is why plastic milk jugs were the highest exposure point reported in the documentary. But this should be FDA rated plastic, so I guess even the FDA allows this in food service, they may just be debating over different concentration levels of plasticizer to be FDA rated.
Studies on mice clearly show the effect, but they have not tested on humans for some reason. I guess it is hard to recruit people to test chemical exposures upon these days. So the result is that the entire population serves as the test, and you get sort of half-way protected by quantified, limited exposure to things which are very likely harmful in any concentration. It's like, "how much DDT would you like in your eggs this morning sir?" Uh, how about zero, yeah zero would be nice.
Here is a link to a public health warning about this type of plasticizer used in medical PVC devices.
http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/safety/dehp.pdf
I would suggest using something like a camping pad or other nonabsorbant padding under the water bags. Seems like Carpet is just a future mildew headache.
Normal flexible tubing has a plasticizer chemical added. something like
Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (CAS No [117-81-7]) also known as di-octyl phthalate (DOP).
It is actually a liquid that sits in between the polymer strands to reduce intermolecular friction when it flexes. THis stuff slowly seeps out into water. not something you should be drinking. Normal garden hoses and flex tubing has lots of this chemical in it. The white hose they sell for RVs should not have it, or should at least have less.
Once in the body it has been theorized that it acts on the body like estrogen and some have linked it to the large declines in male fertility (drastically lower average sperm counts and motility) that have occured in the last 20 years or so. There was a documentary a few years ago that detailed the many common places where we are exposed to this chemical, (the plastic wrappers on american cheese singles, milk jugs, plastic lined cans of food like peas, etc) If it contacts something with lipids (fat) in it, the plasticizer leaches out exponentially faster, which is why plastic milk jugs were the highest exposure point reported in the documentary. But this should be FDA rated plastic, so I guess even the FDA allows this in food service, they may just be debating over different concentration levels of plasticizer to be FDA rated.
Studies on mice clearly show the effect, but they have not tested on humans for some reason. I guess it is hard to recruit people to test chemical exposures upon these days. So the result is that the entire population serves as the test, and you get sort of half-way protected by quantified, limited exposure to things which are very likely harmful in any concentration. It's like, "how much DDT would you like in your eggs this morning sir?" Uh, how about zero, yeah zero would be nice.
Here is a link to a public health warning about this type of plasticizer used in medical PVC devices.
http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/safety/dehp.pdf