apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

When we had a bathroom with a shower curtain I used to worry about not just the curtain offgassing, but how much more it might offgas when heated up by steam and hot water.

BTW--when you have a small child you pretty much have to learn to do everything with them on your arm. I even learned to open a jar with one hand.

I hate to say this, but I know that smell that comes off of vinyl is probably bad for your health and all, but since I was little that smells has made my mouth water. I used to chew on any vinyl or stinky plastic i could get my hands on. All my siblings are like that too. I recently spent 10 minutes in a disneyland gift shop just sniffing a vinyl penny passport because it was just that damn good. Another delicious smelling but probably dangerous thing I love is carbon paper. Does anyone else have a craving as strange as this?

This story was debunked in the NY Times:
"Anyone who read or heard the Toxic Shower Curtain Story can probably relax: the unsettling findings about possible respiratory, liver and reproductive damage were dismissed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. “Our staff scientist found many problems with the testing methodology, which called into question the credibility of the science,” said Julie Vallese, a spokeswoman for the commission. "

I don't buy the CPSC's argument that questioning the testing methodology is enough to say that vinyl is safe. I find that to be very non-specific. Why don't they mention exactly what was wrong with the study and offer a follow-up?

They've taken weak/vague stances on other harmful things in the past. Are they to have me believe that there are not harmful gasses coming from vinyl? Im not fooled. The CHEJ is not the first group to find this. My thought is that the CPSC is protecting a harmful industry and not helping the lives of the public it should serve.