Go Back  Bike Forums > Bike Forums > General Cycling Discussion
Reload this Page >

Health hazards of chain lube

Notices
General Cycling Discussion Have a cycling related question or comment that doesn't fit in one of the other specialty forums? Drop on in and post in here! When possible, please select the forum above that most fits your post!

Health hazards of chain lube

Old 06-03-19, 08:09 PM
  #1  
willibrord
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
willibrord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Way Out West
Posts: 489

Bikes: carbon bamboo composite is the best

Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 540 Post(s)
Liked 50 Times in 36 Posts
Health hazards of chain lube

Was in my local lbs today and asked for a popular brand of chain lube that I had been using. Was told they no longer carried it because of health hazard, It gets into your blood through your skin and causes problems. I didn't find anything on line, so I am curious about this. I'm not going to name the brand because I don't want to be sued, but does anybody else know of this problem?

I think there are organic not pteroleum based lubes, (no, not olive oil) that are being marketed specifically for bicycle lube purposes.
willibrord is offline  
Likes For willibrord:
Old 06-03-19, 08:21 PM
  #2  
alcjphil
Senior Member
 
alcjphil's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Posts: 5,869
Mentioned: 16 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1792 Post(s)
Liked 1,671 Times in 955 Posts
Please, which chain lube are you asking about? Don't leave us in suspense. Vague references to unknown products that may or may not be hazardous are not useful information
alcjphil is offline  
Likes For alcjphil:
Old 06-03-19, 08:24 PM
  #3  
JanMM
rebmeM roineS
 
JanMM's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Metro Indy, IN
Posts: 16,216

Bikes: Bacchetta Giro A20, RANS V-Rex, RANS Screamer

Mentioned: 15 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 653 Post(s)
Liked 345 Times in 225 Posts
A different kind of chain lube thread.
__________________
Bacchetta Giro A20, RANS V-Rex, RANS Screamer
JanMM is offline  
Old 06-03-19, 09:14 PM
  #4  
FiftySix
I'm the anecdote.
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: S.E. Texas
Posts: 1,823

Bikes: '12 Schwinn, '13 Norco

Mentioned: 9 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1110 Post(s)
Liked 1,176 Times in 795 Posts
No matter the outcome of this discussion, I just want to give a shout out to California Prop 65.
FiftySix is offline  
Likes For FiftySix:
Old 06-03-19, 09:16 PM
  #5  
Cyclist0108
Occam's Rotor
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 7,248
Mentioned: 61 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2366 Post(s)
Liked 2,331 Times in 1,164 Posts
Use paraffin.

All hydrocarbons are organic, ipso facto. That includes all of the carcinogenic ones.
Cyclist0108 is offline  
Old 06-03-19, 09:31 PM
  #6  
dedhed
SE Wis
 
dedhed's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 10,516

Bikes: '68 Raleigh Sprite, '02 Raleigh C500, '84 Raleigh Gran Prix, '91 Trek 400, 2013 Novara Randonee, 1990 Trek 970

Mentioned: 40 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2731 Post(s)
Liked 3,355 Times in 2,034 Posts
Meh, We grew up cleaning stuff with carbon tet and playing in a superfund river.

https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/Si...05024#bkground
dedhed is offline  
Likes For dedhed:
Old 06-03-19, 09:34 PM
  #7  
Fahrenheit531 
52psi
 
Fahrenheit531's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 4,134

Bikes: Schwinn Volare ('78); Raleigh Competition GS ('79)

Mentioned: 29 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 790 Post(s)
Liked 800 Times in 390 Posts
So much for my "Which Chain Lube Makes the Most Effective Suntan Lotion?" thread.
__________________
A race bike in any era is a highly personal choice that at its "best" balances the requirements of fit, weight, handling, durability and cost tempered by the willingness to toss it and oneself down the pavement at considerable speed. ~Bandera
Fahrenheit531 is offline  
Old 06-03-19, 09:39 PM
  #8  
jideta
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Honolulu
Posts: 262
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 94 Post(s)
Liked 139 Times in 74 Posts
Way back when I worked at a real service station, we practically took a bath in solvent. I'd find it ironic if it was chain lube that killed me.
jideta is offline  
Likes For jideta:
Old 06-03-19, 09:41 PM
  #9  
Dr.Lou
Senior Member
 
Dr.Lou's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2019
Posts: 255
Mentioned: 3 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 47 Post(s)
Liked 97 Times in 61 Posts
Originally Posted by Fahrenheit531
So much for my "Which Chain Lube Makes the Most Effective Suntan Lotion?" thread.
Actually I am just the opposite, I use SPF 70 or higher for chain lube. Smells much better than WD40 or olive oil.

Last edited by Dr.Lou; 06-12-19 at 11:41 PM.
Dr.Lou is offline  
Likes For Dr.Lou:
Old 06-03-19, 09:44 PM
  #10  
willibrord
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
willibrord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Way Out West
Posts: 489

Bikes: carbon bamboo composite is the best

Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 540 Post(s)
Liked 50 Times in 36 Posts
Originally Posted by JanMM
A different kind of chain lube thread.
Yeah well I thought of that. Maybe we should think about which chain lube is the least harmful to your health.
After all our health is more important than a smooth, quiet chain.
willibrord is offline  
Old 06-03-19, 09:51 PM
  #11  
ThermionicScott 
working on my sandal tan
 
ThermionicScott's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: CID
Posts: 22,625

Bikes: 1991 Bianchi Eros, 1964 Armstrong, 1988 Diamondback Ascent, 1988 Bianchi Premio, 1987 Bianchi Sport SX, 1980s Raleigh mixte (hers), All-City Space Horse (hers)

Mentioned: 98 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3868 Post(s)
Liked 2,560 Times in 1,574 Posts
Originally Posted by Fahrenheit531
So much for my "Which Chain Lube Makes the Most Effective Suntan Lotion?" thread.
On the flip side, I wonder if baby oil might make a good chain lube?
__________________
Originally Posted by chandltp
There's no such thing as too far.. just lack of time
Originally Posted by noglider
People in this forum are not typical.
RUSA #7498
ThermionicScott is offline  
Old 06-03-19, 10:01 PM
  #12  
CAT7RDR
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2017
Location: Hacienda Hgts
Posts: 2,082

Bikes: 1999 Schwinn Peloton Ultegra 10, Kestrel RT-1000 Ultegra, Trek Marlin 6 Deore 29'er

Mentioned: 3 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 811 Post(s)
Liked 1,945 Times in 935 Posts
Extra Virgin Olive Oil has anti-bacterial properties and is good for diverticulitis and chain lube,

Who knew?

All my best info comes from bikeforums.net.
CAT7RDR is offline  
Likes For CAT7RDR:
Old 06-03-19, 10:05 PM
  #13  
DrIsotope
Non omnino gravis
 
DrIsotope's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: SoCal, USA!
Posts: 8,553

Bikes: Nekobasu, Pandicorn, Lakitu

Mentioned: 119 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4905 Post(s)
Liked 1,731 Times in 958 Posts
Originally Posted by ThermionicScott
On the flip side, I wonder if baby oil might make a good chain lube?
Baby oil is light mineral oil with some fragrance in it. When testers are doing chain testing for wear, elongation, etc, the chain lube of choice? Mineral oil.

Out in the real world, baby oil or mineral oil don't work well because it's not chain lube. No friction modifiers, etc. It won't last. But it will work. Vaseline would work too.
__________________
DrIsotope is offline  
Old 06-03-19, 10:06 PM
  #14  
MarcusT
Senior Member
 
MarcusT's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: NE Italy
Posts: 1,617
Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 759 Post(s)
Liked 597 Times in 339 Posts
Seems like a typical "get everyone paranoid" story published on the net.
Yes, there are toxic lubes, but if everyone who came into contact with them got cancer, then any body and everybody would be dropping like flies.
For a dry lube I use paraffin, but for water, I have to use oil based
MarcusT is offline  
Old 06-03-19, 10:30 PM
  #15  
Jon T
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: West Orange County, CA
Posts: 1,112

Bikes: '84 Peugeot PH10LE

Mentioned: 16 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 397 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 55 Times in 39 Posts
I usta' use MEK to clean gun stocks until Commiefornia out-lawed it 10 or so years ago. I ain't dain brammaged yet.
Jon
Jon T is offline  
Old 06-03-19, 10:37 PM
  #16  
Cyclist0108
Occam's Rotor
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 7,248
Mentioned: 61 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2366 Post(s)
Liked 2,331 Times in 1,164 Posts
Originally Posted by Jon T
I usta' use MEK to clean gun stocks until Commiefornia out-lawed it 10 or so years ago. I ain't dain brammaged yet.
Jon
That is a very cogent and compelling argument.
Cyclist0108 is offline  
Likes For Cyclist0108:
Old 06-03-19, 10:40 PM
  #17  
Cyclist0108
Occam's Rotor
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 7,248
Mentioned: 61 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2366 Post(s)
Liked 2,331 Times in 1,164 Posts
Originally Posted by willibrord
Yeah well I thought of that. Maybe we should think about which chain lube is the least harmful to your health.
After all our health is more important than a smooth, quiet chain.
https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/as...486196-product
Cyclist0108 is offline  
Old 06-03-19, 11:30 PM
  #18  
willibrord
Senior Member
Thread Starter
 
willibrord's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Way Out West
Posts: 489

Bikes: carbon bamboo composite is the best

Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 540 Post(s)
Liked 50 Times in 36 Posts
I was thinking more like this
https://store.ecosheep.com
willibrord is offline  
Old 06-03-19, 11:42 PM
  #19  
Fahrenheit531 
52psi
 
Fahrenheit531's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 4,134

Bikes: Schwinn Volare ('78); Raleigh Competition GS ('79)

Mentioned: 29 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 790 Post(s)
Liked 800 Times in 390 Posts
Originally Posted by willibrord
Yeah well I thought of that. Maybe we should think about which chain lube is the least harmful to your health.
After all our health is more important than a smooth, quiet chain.
I'm sorry but no. I'm not going to select chain lube based on its relative impact on my health any more than I'm going to select a flavor of ice cream based on its relative impact on my climbing.
__________________
A race bike in any era is a highly personal choice that at its "best" balances the requirements of fit, weight, handling, durability and cost tempered by the willingness to toss it and oneself down the pavement at considerable speed. ~Bandera
Fahrenheit531 is offline  
Old 06-04-19, 12:05 AM
  #20  
Rowan
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 16,771
Mentioned: 125 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1454 Post(s)
Liked 85 Times in 40 Posts
Oh well, that wonderful American legal system has just ordered a weedkiller production company to pay out billions to a couple who claim to have contracted cancer from the product's use. Of course, the product is used world-wide and if the people use it properly with due respect for safety, the risk in minimal to zero.

I wonder what will happen when the same legal proceedings happen with a bicycle chain lubricant.
Rowan is offline  
Old 06-04-19, 01:02 AM
  #21  
79pmooney
Senior Member
 
79pmooney's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 12,825

Bikes: (2) ti TiCycles, 2007 w/ triple and 2011 fixed, 1979 Peter Mooney, ~1983 Trek 420 now fixed and ~1973 Raleigh Carlton Competition gravel grinder

Mentioned: 128 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4741 Post(s)
Liked 3,860 Times in 2,509 Posts
A little perspective - I used to build fiberglass sailboats. I was a very good laminator. Built a couple of boats for a world champion. (Both winners.) And I paid for it. After 5 years I had fiberglass itch all the time all week, not from the dust particles but from sensitivity to acetone. I'd wake up Monday morning feeling itch free for the first time since that hour the week before. Walk into work and the acetone in the air set off that itch for the next week. Made year six my last in the business. For the next 30 years I had sensitivities to cigarettes, diesel fumes, animals, many perfumes and scents, wool, some people and most people when they were excited or upset. (Pheromones?) I was the guy who could tell you there was an open container of solvent long before anyone, including me, could smell it. (At work, I became known as the canary. But they didn't laugh because I always found the source. (It was that or go home. I couldn't work.)

This thread is about chain lube. 6 ounce containers. I was working with 2 others and we were going through 55 gallon drums of acetone every couple on months. I spent a year working barehanded. Even with gloves, the forced handwash in not-so-clean tool acetone happened a lot. (Put a small hole in a glove while doing a large layup and you have to rip it off when you start to feel the catalyst burn, rush to the acetone, clean up, and get back to work fast (probably bare handed. No time to get a new glove that you will have to fight to get on. Catalyzed fiberglass resin doesn't wait and the faster you work, the higher the quality of the final job. (I did say I was good.)

Reasonable care with little tubes of chain lube and not a lot of other toxic stuff in your life - probably never an issue. Big time exposure to acetone or worse - a lot us had real, life changing consequences. I got lucky. Year 33 after I quit boatbuilding, I went for a physical with my GP, a nurse with a lot of initials after her name. She also had experience with alternative medicines. At the end of the session she said she noticed I had mentioned the common knowledge around fiberglass boatbuilders that acetone carried the fiberglass resin through the skin to the liver; that I was seeing what I had heard others going through when I was still building. She asked me if I was willing to go through a liver cleansing that would basically be a mini-chemothereapy. I said yes. It was just that. The middle month and a half of the 90 day program was not fun. But it was life-changing. Those "allergies" (some of which cannot be allergies like the ones to people) are near gone. I can wear the Pendleton shirts my dad gave me decades ago. I can go to bed without a shower and actually sleep instead of putting myself through hell for the next 24 hours.

More perspective - my journey was with just acetone, that inocent stuff women have been using with nail polish forever. I made a point while I was building todo almost no work with MEK and the other powerful solvents, toluene and the like, IMRON paint and its solvents and epoxy. I helped build one epoxy boat. Two days work. As both an engineer and sailor I love the stuff and have used it a lot at home to make furniture, to repair anything, etc. but I knew that building boats with it would be a huge overload with really bad stuff. And that acetone - I go to Supercuts to get haircuts. The last two women who have cut my hair used to make more money working in salons but no longer can because like me, they became sensitized.

Ben
79pmooney is offline  
Likes For 79pmooney:
Old 06-04-19, 02:33 AM
  #22  
General Geoff
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Allentown, Pennsylvania
Posts: 780

Bikes: 2018 Lynskey Cooper CX; 2007 Cannondale F4

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 368 Post(s)
Liked 155 Times in 64 Posts
It ain't the acetone that's the problem, acetone is one of the safest solvents around. It is produced in small quantities by the human body and is used in various metabolic functions, and has been studied extensively for neurotoxicity, with none being found. As you mentioned though, other nasty compounds which have been dissolved into the acetone are readily absorbed by the body through the skin.
Gotta be careful with what you're working with, especially if you do it for hours every day.
General Geoff is offline  
Old 06-04-19, 02:35 AM
  #23  
jgwilliams
Senior Member
 
jgwilliams's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Surrey, UK
Posts: 866

Bikes: Dolan Tuono 105 Di2, custom built 653 and 531 bikes with frames by Barry Witcomb, Sonder Dial XT mountain bike and a Brompton folding bike.

Mentioned: 6 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 297 Post(s)
Liked 139 Times in 99 Posts
My guess would be it isn't the actual lubricant portion which is harmful but a solvent carrier which is mixed in with it.
jgwilliams is offline  
Old 06-04-19, 07:20 AM
  #24  
Cyclist0108
Occam's Rotor
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 7,248
Mentioned: 61 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2366 Post(s)
Liked 2,331 Times in 1,164 Posts
Originally Posted by Rowan
Oh well, that wonderful American legal system has just ordered a weedkiller production company to pay out billions to a couple who claim to have contracted cancer from the product's use. Of course, the product is used world-wide and if the people use it properly with due respect for safety, the risk in minimal to zero.

I wonder what will happen when the same legal proceedings happen with a bicycle chain lubricant.
I wish we had you to decide unilaterally the merit of such cases, so we wouldn't have to rely upon the outmoded and inefficient jury system.

Besides, the O.P. hasn't even provided the name of the alleged lubricant, nor has the O.P. claimed that anyone has banned its sale (apart from the LBS). The thread is looking a lot more like an advertisement for sheep oil.
Cyclist0108 is offline  
Old 06-04-19, 07:28 AM
  #25  
TakingMyTime
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Los Alamitos, Calif.
Posts: 2,477

Bikes: Trek 7.4 FX

Mentioned: 4 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1026 Post(s)
Liked 912 Times in 535 Posts
You can buy boxes of Nitrile gloves from Harbor Freight for virtually nothing. They are so inexpensive that I use them all the time now. Throw a pair on, problem pretty much solved.
TakingMyTime is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.