Health hazards of chain lube
#76
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
Wax.
#77
Homey
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 13,499
Mentioned: 56 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2427 Post(s)
Liked 1,406 Times
in
900 Posts
No, I wondered if anybody else knew anything about this. I did look online and didn't find anything, but my google-fu, isn't the best. It seems like nobody else has heard this, so I am tempted to go back to the bike shop and ask them about it.
I don't want to name the product unless I get some corroborating evidence. Companies are known to go after people who diss them online. Also it would be unfair to the company if it is not true.
I think I am leaning to the side of there being nothing to it. So I won't say anything more.
I don't want to name the product unless I get some corroborating evidence. Companies are known to go after people who diss them online. Also it would be unfair to the company if it is not true.
I think I am leaning to the side of there being nothing to it. So I won't say anything more.
#80
52psi
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 4,015
Bikes: Schwinn Volare ('78); Raleigh Competition GS ('79)
Mentioned: 29 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 790 Post(s)
Liked 802 Times
in
391 Posts
Bad news, friend. That ship has sailed.
__________________
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
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
#81
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 875
Bikes: custom Cyclery North (Chicago), Schwinn Circuit
Mentioned: 6 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 350 Post(s)
Liked 203 Times
in
118 Posts
No, I wondered if anybody else knew anything about this. I did look online and didn't find anything, but my google-fu, isn't the best. It seems like nobody else has heard this, so I am tempted to go back to the bike shop and ask them about it.
I don't want to name the product unless I get some corroborating evidence. Companies are known to go after people who diss them online. Also it would be unfair to the company if it is not true.
I think I am leaning to the side of there being nothing to it. So I won't say anything more.
If anybody has anything to add about more eco friendly and healthy chain lubes I would be happy to hear it.
I don't want to name the product unless I get some corroborating evidence. Companies are known to go after people who diss them online. Also it would be unfair to the company if it is not true.
I think I am leaning to the side of there being nothing to it. So I won't say anything more.
If anybody has anything to add about more eco friendly and healthy chain lubes I would be happy to hear it.
#82
52psi
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 4,015
Bikes: Schwinn Volare ('78); Raleigh Competition GS ('79)
Mentioned: 29 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 790 Post(s)
Liked 802 Times
in
391 Posts
WAIT. NO!
Let's go with a gen-u-ine brand name, in honor of this truly remarkable 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
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
Last edited by Fahrenheit531; 06-04-19 at 08:32 PM.
#83
Tragically Ignorant
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: New England
Posts: 15,613
Bikes: Serotta Atlanta; 1994 Specialized Allez Pro; Giant OCR A1; SOMA Double Cross Disc; 2022 Allez Elite mit der SRAM
Mentioned: 62 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 8186 Post(s)
Liked 9,098 Times
in
5,054 Posts
#84
Tragically Ignorant
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: New England
Posts: 15,613
Bikes: Serotta Atlanta; 1994 Specialized Allez Pro; Giant OCR A1; SOMA Double Cross Disc; 2022 Allez Elite mit der SRAM
Mentioned: 62 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 8186 Post(s)
Liked 9,098 Times
in
5,054 Posts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwJnnf1Ogcw
WAIT. NO!
Let's go with a gen-u-ine brand name, in honor of this truly remarkable thread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyEEdcow2vE
WAIT. NO!
Let's go with a gen-u-ine brand name, in honor of this truly remarkable thread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyEEdcow2vE
Likes For livedarklions:
#85
TeeOhPea 2tha DeeOhGee
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.
I think there are organic not pteroleum based lubes, (no, not olive oil) that are being marketed specifically for bicycle lube purposes.
”local lbs” ...? That’s like doubly redundant unless the shop was in your basement.
‘
#88
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
You are far more likely to get skin cancer from riding your bike in the sun than you are likely to get any form from lubing your chain. If the latter is a genuine concern, use wax, or at least use gloves and don't keep the bike in the house if your chain lube is at all volatile or smells.
#89
Senior Member
I thought I would see something online about this product, but nothing. Perhaps the store isn't carrying it for other reasons.
NO store carries every brand. The fact remains that chemicals aren't good for your health, some of them in surprisingly small quantities, as evidenced by 79pmooney's post.
NO store carries every brand. The fact remains that chemicals aren't good for your health, some of them in surprisingly small quantities, as evidenced by 79pmooney's post.
Likes For elcruxio:
#90
• —
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Land of Pleasant Living
Posts: 12,230
Bikes: Shmikes
Mentioned: 59 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 10165 Post(s)
Liked 5,855 Times
in
3,153 Posts
Ah yes, chemicals. I try to avoid them as much as possible. The one I try to stay furthest away from is dihydrogen monoxide. Anyone who's ever ingested it has died but it's still used extensively in the manufacture of aluminum bicycle frames. They say there isn't residue in a finished frame but what if they haven't done the cleaning well enough? That stuff absorbs through your skin.
#92
Tragically Ignorant
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: New England
Posts: 15,613
Bikes: Serotta Atlanta; 1994 Specialized Allez Pro; Giant OCR A1; SOMA Double Cross Disc; 2022 Allez Elite mit der SRAM
Mentioned: 62 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 8186 Post(s)
Liked 9,098 Times
in
5,054 Posts
Well, that last part isn't true. I've ingested some of it this morning in my coffee and.......
Thud.
(BTW, your epidermis is showing)
#93
Senior Member
Ah yes, I should have elaborated. Statistically throughout the ages it has been a very deadly substance. Exposure is inevitably deadly.
#94
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
#95
• —
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Land of Pleasant Living
Posts: 12,230
Bikes: Shmikes
Mentioned: 59 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 10165 Post(s)
Liked 5,855 Times
in
3,153 Posts
#96
Zip tie Karen
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Fair Oaks Ranch, TX
Posts: 7,004
Bikes: '13 Motobecane Fantom29 HT, '16 Motobecane Turino Pro Disc, '18 Velobuild VB-R-022, '21 Tsunami SNM-100
Mentioned: 26 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1465 Post(s)
Liked 1,542 Times
in
806 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
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
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this out. It's a stark lesson for those of us who may be exposed to chemicals in our ordinary jobs or hobbies. You've reminded us to take care and remain aware of the impacts of what we handle.
Phil
Likes For bbbean:
#100
Senior Member
I got old news for everybody. It won't be at all surprising that we all already have traces of 40 deadly chemicals in our blood right now.