PSA: Check your bike lube. I was shocked to find out mine was basically just PFAS I'm dumping into my garage/the forest trails. I have to think bikers care more than average about nature/where they ride, and apparently we don't care all that much.
I appreciate your concern, however, as a cyclist, I have a good idea of how many oils and solvents I use and it is chicken feed compared to what car dependent people use. What next, concern about the dust coming from the brake blocks on my bicycle and the plastic nanoparticles that come from the tyres?
I use WD-40 on occasion and I think the nudge is needed to not breathe that stuff. But again, the aerobic benefits of cycling outweigh the problems of breathing WD-40 needed to lube the cables every winter or so.
But I like the idea of the American driving his two tonne monster vehicle to the trail to then be concerned about a speck of PFAS dropping off the bike onto the trail.
There is bike shedding with the original article too. I don't eat processed foods including candy bars so those wrappers are not something that ever get into my house. However, I see the toxins as the refined sugars, variously saturated fats and other non-food ingredients in this garbage. Worrying about the PFAS chemicals in the wrapper is a bit silly when you regard the whole product as toxic.
A similar bit of bike shedding goes on with 'pesticides' sprayed on crops. People worry about a bit of glycosphate sprayed on their lettuce but overlook the fact that most of what they eat is definitely not healthy. They worry about the 'pesticides' on the lettuce and ignore the burger, 'cheese' and bun, none of which are what the body needs.
Do you not clean off/lube your chain somewhere you care about, whether the forest or your home? Just because cars suck doesn't mean I don't want to be aware if I'm handling liquid PFAS and dumping them directly into my living space.
Do you not think it's worthy talking about a food company dusting their packaging in (potentially obscured as to not be detected) forever chemicals? If nothing else than as reinforcement of 'oh yeah, this is why I choose inconvenient snacks over convenient'?
Because sometimes I really want cheap/easy/junkfood. A bit extra calories or fat, I'm going to give in. But straight coated in obscured forever chemicals just because (the article says there really isn't even a purpose for them in this situation). Nah, I'm good bro. We have snacks at home (the snack, a bad batch of frozen humus I put too much lemon in).
Not sure for all the PFAS but Teflon (PTFE) is often added in “winter lube”.
The "summer lube" have better performance, but they wash after some rain.
Winter lubes tends to be slightly heavier (depends on brands), got additifs (PTFE and so) and last longuer under the rain but get eventually washed anyway. The performance is a bit worse but common mortals shouldn’t feel the difference.
Most bikes I repair in the workshop craves for oil (poor performance) OR got way to much (sand stick in it and wear your chain).
A best practice is to put 1 drop in every barrel (round stuff between two links) or 2, on the inner side of the chain only. That’s it. When the chain turns black the oil is dirty. Clean it (or swipe with a cloth, not great but way better than not cleaning at all) and apply new oil.
Also:
- belts are great, clean, silent and long lasting. But they require a frame with them in mind
- avoid lube sprays!!! Or use supercarrefully with protections and so. People tends to (without wanting to) lube other parts that doesn’t need it: frame, derailleur, gears and wheel in the best case. Tire, brake rims and disk in the worst case (this is very bad). Lube bootles are cleaner, cheaper, smaller, last longer, fast (10 sec once you used to it) and easy to apply.
I ride ~120km/week in dirty-oily Paris and swipe+oil my chain every two month on summer and one month in winter (probably slightly not enough). I use summer oil only because don’t want drop more PTFE on the road.
Edit: how to know if your chain needs oil: it should look slightly shiny but not greasy, oily or dirty or matte.
Same with some granite countertop sealer I bought in a spray bottle. Had to dig online for a while before I could figure out what it's made of, which is almost pure PFAS. Crazy considering we prepare foods near it.
A bunch of the lubricants that are FDA approved for incidental food contact contain PTFE. It’s unclear how harmful the teeny tiny particles of PTFE are.
There are much newer products than boeshield which have a lot higher wax content, preform a lot better, and don’t have the nasty stuff in them like naphtha.
Silca ss drip, ufo drip, flower power wax are all drip on lubes that all test better than boeshield (last longer, less chain wear, etc).
FWIW: TriFlow contains PTFE, which is an exceptionally inert PFAS. the process of manufacturing it involves some nasty PFAS chemicals which are then dumped into the environment, though.
I looked into it a couple years ago and can't find anything. I believe it does though.
It doesn't have the consistency (or price) of a ceramic and it's not an oil or wax. It's something suspended in a volatile liquid. If you spill some it evaporates quickly and you can inspect the residue which is the actual lubricant. I don't know what else it would be but PTFE or PFAS.
To work towards eliminating PFAS in everyday products, I envisioned a service where people could send in things they own to have them tested, and the results would be published on a website/app and searchable via barcode. Win/win: users get free PFAS testing, and the service gets free products to test to create a database.
I researched how to perform rigorous PFAS testing but it looks like the best method is PIGE which requires a particle accelerator, which aren’t exactly easy to come by.
Anyway just posting this in case anyone has thoughts or would be interested in working on something like this.
I love the idea. Kind of like harm reduction through drug testing. Except the drugs are legal and don’t give you a high.
I would probably rather advocate for Which (UK), Consumer Reports (US) and various similar organisations to work on this than start a new org.
Unless you just use this as a marketing strategy for a commercial lab (in which case you will simply forget the noble initial goal and end up simply operating a testing laboratory business.)
PFAS has made me terribly suspicious of lubricants and waterproofing agents, and things that have been lubricated/waterproofed. “Compostable” paper food containers especially. Can it really be ok to eat bread that doesn’t spoil on a paper plate that doesn’t soak through?
I exclusively purchase wax coated paper plates and cups. They generally work just great for picnic stuff, but don't work at all for hot stuff like soups/coffee/hot chocolate.
They're at least twice as expensive, but I think it's worth it.
Recently, I've found myself trying to avoid any food that touches any plastic mostly for this reason. It's so hard to do - even aluminum drink cans are coated with plastic on the inside, apparently.
I don't think this is true, the scare about aluminum came from the 70s/80s when it was thought to be linked to Alzheimer's. However, this was found to be untrue.
Very high levels of aluminum can cause poisoning, for sure. But it has to be more than you can get from anodized cooking equipment or drink cans. It's around the 13th most abundant element in earth, it's in water and food, and our bodies are pretty good at getting rid of it.
Don’t conflate plasticizers (such as BPA) with pfas. While keeping plasticizers and microplastics out of your diet is beneficial, pfas are a different beast. They accumulate over time and cause a whole host of problems such as organ failure.
Pfas are used in waterproofing, grease proofing, and fire suppression.
Paper straws, the coating of paper cups, the paper around cupcakes, takeout containers, waterproof clothing, lubricants, sealers.
But yeah I hear you. I’ve been trying to stick to glass and it makes me feel like a weirdo-hippy avoiding so many common packaging materials.
We haven't come so far from the time of the Romans who drank from lead pipes. We're just wrestling with different chemicals and different physical, environmental and social effects.
With all the new information coming out, it seems like there really is no choice but to avoid everything you can't grow and package yourself... or ensuring your environment can be safer in terms of air cleaning, as well as food.
I dont think the consumers of cheap candy products care tbh. Hershey and similar tiered chocolate all have emulsifiers like polyglycerol polyricinoleate and lecithin. If something is sold at a gas station, its bad for you.
No level of "clean lab report" healthiness would convince me that the mediocre-at-best tastes and feel-kinda-crappy after-effects of cheapo chocolates were worth paying for.
Lmao, how is this downvoted? I'm not even on the "all American food is bad" but Hershey's is disgusting. Full of butyric acid. I remember standing in a German chocolate museum, reading about post-war American chocolate and realizing why I feel like I have post-vomit "heartburn" after eating 2 whole squares of Hershey's. It's gross. I'll die on this hill.
Readit News
I use WD-40 on occasion and I think the nudge is needed to not breathe that stuff. But again, the aerobic benefits of cycling outweigh the problems of breathing WD-40 needed to lube the cables every winter or so.
But I like the idea of the American driving his two tonne monster vehicle to the trail to then be concerned about a speck of PFAS dropping off the bike onto the trail.
There is bike shedding with the original article too. I don't eat processed foods including candy bars so those wrappers are not something that ever get into my house. However, I see the toxins as the refined sugars, variously saturated fats and other non-food ingredients in this garbage. Worrying about the PFAS chemicals in the wrapper is a bit silly when you regard the whole product as toxic.
A similar bit of bike shedding goes on with 'pesticides' sprayed on crops. People worry about a bit of glycosphate sprayed on their lettuce but overlook the fact that most of what they eat is definitely not healthy. They worry about the 'pesticides' on the lettuce and ignore the burger, 'cheese' and bun, none of which are what the body needs.
Do you not think it's worthy talking about a food company dusting their packaging in (potentially obscured as to not be detected) forever chemicals? If nothing else than as reinforcement of 'oh yeah, this is why I choose inconvenient snacks over convenient'?
Because sometimes I really want cheap/easy/junkfood. A bit extra calories or fat, I'm going to give in. But straight coated in obscured forever chemicals just because (the article says there really isn't even a purpose for them in this situation). Nah, I'm good bro. We have snacks at home (the snack, a bad batch of frozen humus I put too much lemon in).
The "summer lube" have better performance, but they wash after some rain.
Winter lubes tends to be slightly heavier (depends on brands), got additifs (PTFE and so) and last longuer under the rain but get eventually washed anyway. The performance is a bit worse but common mortals shouldn’t feel the difference.
Most bikes I repair in the workshop craves for oil (poor performance) OR got way to much (sand stick in it and wear your chain).
A best practice is to put 1 drop in every barrel (round stuff between two links) or 2, on the inner side of the chain only. That’s it. When the chain turns black the oil is dirty. Clean it (or swipe with a cloth, not great but way better than not cleaning at all) and apply new oil.
Also:
- belts are great, clean, silent and long lasting. But they require a frame with them in mind
- avoid lube sprays!!! Or use supercarrefully with protections and so. People tends to (without wanting to) lube other parts that doesn’t need it: frame, derailleur, gears and wheel in the best case. Tire, brake rims and disk in the worst case (this is very bad). Lube bootles are cleaner, cheaper, smaller, last longer, fast (10 sec once you used to it) and easy to apply.
I ride ~120km/week in dirty-oily Paris and swipe+oil my chain every two month on summer and one month in winter (probably slightly not enough). I use summer oil only because don’t want drop more PTFE on the road.
Edit: how to know if your chain needs oil: it should look slightly shiny but not greasy, oily or dirty or matte.
Silca ss drip, ufo drip, flower power wax are all drip on lubes that all test better than boeshield (last longer, less chain wear, etc).
Boeshield is only 2.5% wax.
It doesn't have the consistency (or price) of a ceramic and it's not an oil or wax. It's something suspended in a volatile liquid. If you spill some it evaporates quickly and you can inspect the residue which is the actual lubricant. I don't know what else it would be but PTFE or PFAS.
I researched how to perform rigorous PFAS testing but it looks like the best method is PIGE which requires a particle accelerator, which aren’t exactly easy to come by.
Anyway just posting this in case anyone has thoughts or would be interested in working on something like this.
I would probably rather advocate for Which (UK), Consumer Reports (US) and various similar organisations to work on this than start a new org.
Unless you just use this as a marketing strategy for a commercial lab (in which case you will simply forget the noble initial goal and end up simply operating a testing laboratory business.)
They're at least twice as expensive, but I think it's worth it.
Very high levels of aluminum can cause poisoning, for sure. But it has to be more than you can get from anodized cooking equipment or drink cans. It's around the 13th most abundant element in earth, it's in water and food, and our bodies are pretty good at getting rid of it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Ear...
Pfas are used in waterproofing, grease proofing, and fire suppression. Paper straws, the coating of paper cups, the paper around cupcakes, takeout containers, waterproof clothing, lubricants, sealers.
But yeah I hear you. I’ve been trying to stick to glass and it makes me feel like a weirdo-hippy avoiding so many common packaging materials.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/08/politics/lead-pipes-joe-biden...
The thing in plastics is something else (BPA which is an endocrine disrupter)