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Harmful chemical wafts off your TV

seattletimes.nwsource.com — Common household dust has long been known to carry pesticides, allergens and other irritants. But the dust that coats your television sets may answer why virtually every American tested has traces of a chemical flame retardant that may be harmful.

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  • webaddict, on 05/12/2008, -2/+27What is very important that seems to be missing from this article and information is "what kind of TV." Cathode-ray Tube TV? LCD TV? Plasma TV? Projection TV? Common sense says CRT TV (Cathode-ray tube TV) but if this article wants to be taken seriously this needs to be made very apparent.

    Interesting submit nonetheless.. hence the time I took to comment. lol.
    • sevenvt, on 05/12/2008, -5/+7I think they are talking about TV's in general and how their screens collect that dust with static. Not really any particular type of tv, just the ones that use electricity ;)
      • DucoNihilum, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2They're talking about fire-retardant material they put into the TV's....
    • ElAssoWipo, on 05/12/2008, -3/+8Every 5-10 years they come up with a TV on health story that gets debunked a few months after.

      So far I've seen TV "rays" make you infertile, TV "rays" make you less intelligent, TV "rays" prevent children's brains from developping correctly, TV makes your attention span shorter (this one can actually be true, but it's the shows you watch, not the set), etc.

      This is necessarely flawed:
      "One theory is that when the television heats up, the flame retardants in the TV vaporize into a gas"

      Yeah that's right, flame retardant vaporises into gas from the heat of the television set. A chemical made to resist heat, transforms into gas at about 90 degrees celcius.
      • variant5, on 05/12/2008, -0/+9Actually, yes. Vaporization is different from combustion.

        http://abstracts.co.allenpress.com/pweb/setac2003/ ...
        "Because they are not covalently bound to the polymer, certain PBDEs, depending on their physicochemical properties, can bleed and volatilize from the polymer product, leading to contamination of indoor air."
    • burjzyntski, on 05/12/2008, -2/+0I've always liked the smell of CRTs...now I know why?
    • krnldmp, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1NEW TVs.
  • insomniacal, on 05/12/2008, -2/+11One more reason to kill your television.
  • tazdo0d, on 05/12/2008, -0/+4I vacuum my house once in a while. I'm safe!
    • sevenvt, on 05/12/2008, -0/+2Cleanliness is next to godlyness and god doesnt care bout no stinking dust!
  • EffYoo, on 05/12/2008, -0/+7Does this mean my tv is fireproof?
  • pr0nstarr, on 05/12/2008, -3/+5You could probably find something that is a health concern about pretty much anything. I'm not gonna worry about this one.
    • McGrude, on 05/12/2008, -1/+1This just in : "Saliva causes cancer, but only when swallowed in small amounts over a long period of time"
  • KaiSe7eN, on 05/12/2008, -3/+22This article is full of retardants.
  • nicko68, on 05/12/2008, -0/+3Awesome, we'll be inflammable one day.
    • pr0nstarr, on 05/12/2008, -1/+0Thus less likely to spontaneously combust. And, interestingly "combust" is not a word according to the digg spell checker...
    • IAmTheGuy, on 05/12/2008, -0/+4*as Dr. Nick* "Don't worry. It's inflammable."
  • IHaveIssues, on 05/12/2008, -3/+3Isn't household dust made up of 80" shedded human skin cells? Where do they get the peaticides from?
    Retarded article.
    • altgeeky1, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1Apparently, 20% of household dust is comprised of sources other than human skin cells.
      You can still find *lead* (as in tetraethyl lead from 'leaded gas') in dust, decades after it was phased out. The stuff coats everything, and is particularly dense in cities, due to traffic patterns.
    • monkeymagnus, on 05/12/2008, -0/+580 inch shredded skin cells?
      • IHaveIssues, on 05/12/2008, -0/+3Got me there. Geez the percent symbol is nowhere near the double-quotes to boot. Gotta stop sniffing Liquid Paper at work.
        • Technofrood, on 05/12/2008, -3/+0Its not that far the " is 3 keys to the left of %
    • bugmenottt, on 05/12/2008, -1/+1"Oh yes, that's a keeper" Om Nom Nom
  • zsz7, on 05/12/2008, -4/+0water MAY be harmful, too
    • pr0nstarr, on 05/12/2008, -0/+0If you drink enough of it, it will kill you. My concern is growing by the minute.
  • Treoinmypocket, on 05/12/2008, -6/+9Taxes will fix this!

    Quick Democrats! Into the "Save the populace from stuff that's been around forever and hasn't actually harmed anyone but now can be used to generate fear and therefore TAXES" booth!

  • damndj, on 05/12/2008, -0/+4I've been wondering what that smell is ever since I unpacked my new 46" TV.

    Pee-yew.
    • timster, on 05/12/2008, -1/+3I'll gladly take the TV off your hands if you can't deal with the smell anymore.
    • SkippyDoorknob, on 05/12/2008, -1/+1It's not the TV, take a shower.
  • yedrellow, on 05/12/2008, -0/+0This is great; thanks to tv I am not only less imaginative, I am less likely to burn to death!

    Sure, the retardant is only in trace quantities ... ahh damn it.
  • EricAnderton, on 05/12/2008, -1/+1"Harmful chemical wafts off your TV"
    And here I was, thinking this had something to do with a smell-o-vision experiment, and the test group tuning in to the latest episode of "Dirty Jobs".
  • wynja, on 05/12/2008, -1/+1This crap is everywhere. It's even pumped into the atmosphere by manufacturing plants: http://www.azom.com/news.asp?newsID=10613
  • TheFinaleofSeem, on 05/12/2008, -3/+10EVERYTHING IS GOING TO KILL YOU!!
  • donte, on 05/12/2008, -2/+1The sad thing is that there will be loads of people who actually panic about this.
  • davidlow, on 05/12/2008, -2/+1I'm not buying it. Turning a TV on and off creates static electricity which attracts dust on the screen. But that doesn't mean the dust is coming FROM the TV. You might as well say that the central air system is a bigger problem than the TV because, well, just look at all the chemicals we found in the dust on those filters!
  • smoger, on 05/12/2008, -1/+1my tv and water bottles are plotting to kill me. thank you digg!
  • zijoud, on 05/12/2008, -1/+3Buried, and I'll tell you why.

    Because I'm tired of hearing the words "may be harmful." No sh!t. Guess what else is harmful, pollutants.

    But I'm sure this latest infectious-disease-ridden-dust thing will be the new hit.

    Don't mind me, continue sloshing out shockers.
    • DucoNihilum, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1They're talking about a pollutant that 'may be harmful', in fact, most pollutants 'may be harmful'.
  • shadowblade989, on 05/12/2008, -1/+1"Using a portable X-ray device, researchers sampled 19 Boston-area homes and found large volumes of the flame retardants in television dust."
    WTF?
  • TheGhostMan, on 05/13/2008, -0/+0There is so much ***** in American food anyways who cares about one more chemical...
  • Aceofspades166, on 05/13/2008, -0/+0This is actually a very VERY important issue,

    Poly Brominated Diphynel-Ethers (PBDEs) are found in many MANY products that are used in America. In fact, America is one of the few nations that have NOT yet banned these flame-retardants. These chemicals are suspected carcinigens and their effects on the environment are not yet fully understood, yet they are extremely stresseful in any ecosystem. Because of these suspected adverse effects in human beings (cancer among other diseases) and the strain on the environment (leaching out through trash) many countries have just forgone the use of these chemicals and have used comparable replacements that are not as harmful.
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