Dear Mr Borregaard,
First I wish to apologise for the delay in responding to your email of 16 Dec.2010.
This was forwarded to me while I was out of the country, but I didn't see it till this past Wednesday.
We appreciate your choice of Trident Marine XHD Bilge & Livewell Hose (#147-1180) for use in one or both applications on your sailboat.
I trust that you be be comforted to know that this and our other PVC hoses contain no "DEHP, BBP, DIDP, DaDP" or any other dirivatives or phltalates that are listed or known (domestically and internationally) to cause toxicity in humans or the environment.
Therefore, there is no reason or requirement to place warning labels on these hoses.
In regards to your concerns, I respectfully refer you to the web site **
www.phthalates.com
for further information on this subject. I found it very informative.
Please accept my assurance that the quality and safety of our products are our highest priority, and are the base upon which we have built our business and reputation.
Like many other materials used in hoses (rubber comes to mind easily), new PVC hoses typically have a distinct plastic odor which does not indicate toxicity.
The odor generally disapates relatively quickly in use.
This hose is very widely used throughout the boat building, repair yard, and consumer markets, and this is the first odor complaint that we have received in our 25 years in business.
While I believe this hose was the better choice for your application, if you and/or your crew find the odor to be unduly offensive, you may return it to Trident (alog with proof of purchase).
We will replace it with the cuffed polyethylene bilge hose. at no charge.
Best Regards and Happy New Year,
Bill Shields - President
Trident Rubber Inc.
585 Plum Run Road
Canonsburg, PA15317
!-800-414-2628
[** "The Phthalates Information Centre Europe is an initiative of the European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates (ECPI)"
It looks to me like Bill Shields' "very informative" reading material is generated straight out of the plastics industry. So, as usual, it's not WHAT the words say but WHO is saying them.
AND so often, what is left out - what is not said.]
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flipping on a simple search of the web:
www.ecocycle.org
"Dangers of PVC (#3) Plastics, March 18, 2005
According to the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice PVC production fuses vinyl chloride molecules with toxic metals such as lead and cadmium, which are added as plasticizers and stabilizers.
Because of the chemical properties of chlorine, the by products of PVC production tend to be far more toxic, more persistent in the environment, and more likely to build up in the food supply
and the bodies of people
than otherwise similar chemicals that do not contain chlorine.
PVC is the only major plastic that contains chlorine, so it is unique in the hazards it cretaes.
In use, the toxic substances added to soften or stabilize the plastic do not bind to the toy, bottle or other product and are therefore prone to leaching. When your child or pet chews on a plastic PVC toy, for example, they can be ingesting these chemicals. One such chemical, DEHP, has been designated a "probable carcinogen" by the EPA."
I looked, maybe not persistantly, for an MSDS on the Trident PVC hose.
Perhaps it isn't required by the EPA. And to be told that in 25 years nobody has complained of the odor must show how COMPLACENT the proletariat has become - how NUMB we have become to the toxins in our lives.
That there are no 'warning labels' on PVC hose
may be more due to corporate ethics and an ineffectual and politicized EPA
than a "typical distinct plastic odor" (read common unregulated chemicals) that we accept as mildly annoying perfume. Or even find sexy as the smell of a new car interior.
I doubt that warning labels appear on any of the thousands of products that have been chewed by kids or pets. Nevertheless, the odor emitting from Trident PVC hose is a gas, and while this VOC, Volatile Organ Compound, will reduce after a while - it still is installed in a semi-closed air space. Bill Shields belittles the smell by comparing it with rubber smells.
However, most synthetic rubber is NOT made with chlorine and heavy metals.
We take the president of Trident at his word.
I don't believe there is an evironmentally friendly, or NO VOC PVC, product made by any corporation in this country.*
ALL PVC PRODUCTS ARE NOT RECYCLABLE. So far as I know - tell me it isn't so!
Every teething ring and plastic bag and credit card and plastic pipe and bilge hose made of PVC goes to the landfill where it stays for 10,000 years
and the chemicals continue to leach out and comtaminate our aquifers. Mega tons of plastic fragments contaminate gyres in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
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*Metaphorically: FISH ROTS FROM THE HEAD DOWN
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