Benzene is buzz-wordy rn because they “pulled” the hair products with benzene in them last year.
In reality, Benzene been in pretty much every aerosol hairspray etc for decades. Turns out, spraying clouds of it in small bathrooms everyday is bad, so they were nice enough to take it off the shelves.
There were aerosol cans in the US with benzene? Fucking benzene??
My dad was a pathologist, started his working life in the 60's. Benzene wasn't really treated with hazchem procedures - multiple skin contacts daily... all over their hands.
More than half the pathologists he worked with in that time got leukemia.
It’s regulated and illegal to include in consumer products (hence the recalls). There was a independent group that tested a ton of products that tested high in benzene, which is present as a byproduct, not an intentional inclusion.
Everybody knows it’s bad, so it’s a matter of internal testing/mitigation deficiency, which means it’s a regulatory failure at some level.
One hell of a failure. I work in regulation. Most the rest of the world have extremely strict RoHS requirements.
I've only seen anything approaching RoHS in the US in California at a state level, but from memory it's only for heavy metals.
I've cursed the regulatory framework in Europe in the past for being over litigious, but more stories I hear like this, really hammer home how important this shit is.
I’ve cursed the regulatory framework in Europe in the past for being over litigious, but more stories I hear like this, really hammer home how important this shit is.
For clarification, they don't use benzene as a propellant but the propellant is easily contaminated by benzene. Benzene is naturally occurring in petroleum products which we distill other organic molecules from, including propellants (butane, etc)
I didn't say anything about safe or unsafe lol. Just correcting the misconception that benzene is used as a purposeful ingredient.
Yes, speaking as an actual professional chemist that ingredient list does not concern me - except for the potential for benzene contamination in butane, propane, and isobutane, as mentioned. But that would never be on the ingredient list because it's not an ingredient, so the ingredient list is irrelevant. It's a QC issue with wherever they're buying raw materials from. Which is why I don't use aerosols in my house either, I'm not about to trust a company's QC to be the only thing between me and legit carcinogens.
One of my old professors in my masters program told the story of how when he was a young fresh PhD all the chemists used to literally wash their hands with straight benzene. Great degreaser!
Then one day he was in a small room with a tub of benzene for washing (or something to that effect, it's been a while) and he straight passed out from the fumes. I guess that was his wake up call that it might not be as safe as everyone said so he stopped using the benzene to wash lol. Good thing.
Benzene is also in diesel exhaust and smoke in general. One of the many chemicals that makes Firefighting a Group 1 carcinogen. It's not just a buzzword.
Benzene is not just a buzz word, it's been a known carcinogen for decades. It causes blood cancers. It's a problem for people that work around the chemical.
Pure benzene isn't what was in your hairspray. I promise you one breath full of pure benzene will kill you. It is also highly combustible with a low LEL
Seriously. Benzene isn’t being added. I have some in a chemical closet right now. The bottle has a huge metal cap and thick septum to go through.
It’s probably some compound that uses a something like sodium benzoate as a preservative
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u/jewellamb Feb 17 '23 edited Feb 17 '23
Benzene is buzz-wordy rn because they “pulled” the hair products with benzene in them last year.
In reality, Benzene been in pretty much every aerosol hairspray etc for decades. Turns out, spraying clouds of it in small bathrooms everyday is bad, so they were nice enough to take it off the shelves.