biffff

I picked up some shock oil from Traxxas to service my shocks, and on the package there is a warning that states the shock fluid contains silicone and substances that are known to cause cancer. When servicing my shocks a used rubber gloves and washed my hands thoroughly. A few days later one of the shocks started spewing. I cleaned it up and fixed the leak, but this has giving me some concerns as I use this RC vehicle with my children. Is there "non Cancer" causing shock fluids out there? I know that everything out there causes cancer in some way, but if Traxxas is putting a warning on this stuf it most be pretty bad.

Thanks

proanti1

My Feedback: (2)

Silicone is completely safe.

The Mad Modder

Almost anything is "known the the state of california to cause cancer and birth defects". Absolute nonsense.

SyCo_VeNoM

You are in Canada, not California so you are ok.

I think there is some weird radio waves emitted in Cali that causes everything to cause cancer.


Seriously though if they don't put it on, and someone contracts anything if I remember right cali is very law suit happy, and the company can be sued for not warning people... even if its unlinked (science that proves otherwise has no place in a court room)

savagecommander

because of toluene and benzene. some mixes contain trace amounts of these but The following agencies did not find any components that would warrant the product being labeled as carcinogenic:
- Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA)
- International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
- National Toxicology Program (NTP)

blvdbuzzard

In Kalifornia, the ink on the package has a warning that it may or may not contain lead so you should wash your hands after opening the package. Are you sure the warning was for the oil and not the plastic the oil came in? Could also be the glue or other adhesive contained in the packaging.

In Kalifornia, beef patties cooked on a charcoal grill have been labeled cancer causing. So, take some of the warnings with a grain of salt. The very small exposure to the fluids you will have in a hobby is very small. Now if you had your hands in the shock oil all day long 5 days a week, you might have a problem.



Buzz.

The_Shark

OOH MY GAAAAWWWD! your going to be fine.


you could drink it, it would just be really really unpleasent, like drinking ipecac. and actually McChicken nuggets have a little bit in them.

biffff

I wasn't really concerned for myself, but more for my kids. I had a shock leaking and I could see then getting their hands in it and then rubbing their eyes..........etc. Gotta look out for the kids.

The_Shark

Listening to justin bieber is more life threatening.

but no its safe, and i dont mean to offend you in any way.

suburban_hooligan

yeah, don't worry about it.  in the 14 years iv been running RC iv managed to get just about every fluid an RC uses on my skin, in cuts, in my eyes, in my mouth, and iv no doubt managed to swallow it on more than one occasion.  so far it hasn't even made me sick. 

The_Shark

except for nitro fuel, thats pretty bad stuff, dont leave home without a full water bottle if you intend on driving your rc, if you get that stuff in your eyes and your far away from water, you can be in big trouble, that water bottle can help save you from a long recovery by rinsing your eyes untill you can get to a sink to flush them.

not to scare you, just to warn you.

FahrtAutoRC

There is a thin line between parenting and overparenting. Stop worrying so much, I gurantee they do/will come into contact with worse stuff than this in school alone

biffff

^^^^ Not really with ya on that one. I'm not going to turn a blind eye and expose my kids to harmfull substances. To me knowledge is power. That is why I posted this thread. Will I let my son change out shock fluid?....nope, but I am not so worried about him coming in contact with it if a shock leaks. I didn't realize that California was that over the top anal about litigation.......I live in Eastern Canada.

I sincerely appreciate all the replies to my question. This is what makes forums and the internet so damn usefull.

cheers

FahrtAutoRC

I am sorry but that was not my intentions with that post. What I was trying to say is, it is harmless. As someone else stated, I would not recommend drinking it, but to worry about your kids getting harmed by it is not necessary. You can get much worse from simply changing the oil in your 1:1 car, let alone messing with brakes and such (asbestos). Schools use cleaning supplies EVERYWHERE. Simple Lysol is worse, even. I hope I have cleared this up!

Argess

I agree ....when you don't know, then tend to prudent behaviour, especially when it comes to kids, as they are "probably" worse at evaluating risk than adults.

Chemicals are funny things. Industry workers have demanded body suits to handle 2-part epoxy because the WHMIS data sheet says to use it. Yet at home we use the same epoxy all the time, and with no protection. No doubt it is dangerous, but one has to consider the amount. If one worked in the factory where they manufacture the epoxy, full body-suits is no doubt a good idea. But mixing a thimble full at home for a small repair job?

And that's the issue. There arn't many "experts" who can establish, or are willing to establish, reasonable handling saftey criteria based on levels of exposure, amount handled, etc.

I was at the Hospital in Kentville today. Wasn't due to shock fluid. Nor did I hear of any pateints suffering form shock fluid contamination, but then I didn't ask either. But as I've been in this hobby a long time, and have never heard of anyone suffering form shock fluid contamination (and posisble subsequent cancer) doesn't mean it hasn't happend, but it does mean to me, I'm not about to worry about it too much.

Now I did get some glowfuel in my eyes once though. Not pleasant, and I'm sure it's dangerous if flushing isn't immediately available. In this case, people suffering eye-damage with chemicals such as those found in glow-fuel, or similiar, is known and suitable preventative measures would be a prudent course of action. But then one thinks of risk. How likely is it to get glow-fuel in one's eye? It's a risk decision, and even though we can all agree wearing Safety Glasses around glow-fuel is a good idea, I'm sure it is a rare practise.

As with most things sold for household use, the Warning's are there to be helpful, ...to help prevent the Manufacturer from losing a law-suit. I've found the really bad stuff is usually "sold for industrial use only" (where proper saftey procedures are more likely to be in place) or controlled in other ways.

LOL....seem to me there's a warning on car engine oil...yep, on 10W30, that used engine oil can cause cancer. Now that must freak out all the car mechanics, or does it? Do they wear gloves? Take a look next time you are at a garage.

There's always over reactions. PCB dangers were way overstated, next it was urethra formaldehyde, lately it's been asbestos. All dangerous materials, but the fear instilled on the public was criminal (at least I think so, after a bit of research).

Better safe than sorry, I always say, but with so much bad information, fear mongering, and general lack of information out there, I've grown callous. Yep, callous, along with those garage mechanics, and RC Hobbiests. So far, most of us are still alive though.

ps: More snow in Valley than on South Shore.

pps: Sorry FahrtAutoRC, I see you already covered some of my points. Darned RCY site. When I started typing, your post wasn't even up yet, and it's taken me forever to get EDIT to work. I really am getting to the end of my rope with this site. I sure hope they figure out a fix soon.

suburban_hooligan

not trying to start world war lll but...
you expose them to harmfull substances on a daily basis. every time you let them eat processed food, for fruits and vegetables. meat is full of preservatives, and the fruits and vegetables contain pesticides.
the sun is harmful. the sunscrene used to protect them from the sun is harmful.
the air they are breathing is harmful.
the water they drink has harmfull stuff in it. there's clorine in it, lead in it, all kinds of fun stuff. bottled water isn't any better.

california sucks! even if something is not harmful they put a warning on it. it's a liability thing.

there are bigger concerns than small amounts of shock oil. when it comes to RC being harmfull, worrying about the fluids are worrying for nothing. id be more concerned with them crashing into themselves or burning themselves on a hot motor or esc.

RC10 Collector

Don't forget nuclear radiation from cellular phones.

FahrtAutoRC

And whatever happened to learning by experience? I remember my first hobby RC. Tamiya with a mechanical speed control. MAN that little silver box (resistor box?) got HOT!!! I only needed once to learn that too, and hell, it even had a warning label on it!!!

Kids these days are so padded and overwatched. It makes for softer adults, as well. At least, IMHO. Growing up, even in the country and at (current) my young age of 26, we were encouraged to ride quads and dirtbikes. We were taught to own and shoot firearms, play paintball and nobody batted an eye when one of us would come home with a BB stuck in our leg. I mean, i was 8 years old helping my dad work on cars, and doing my own go-kart and mini-bike maitenance, hands covered in oil and brake dust, breathing in fumes from hot engines steaming with boiling spilled fluids, etc. Even today I barely have enough time to get the black off my hands before i am playing mechanic to someone else. Now, even in this short period of time, things have changed to the point that everything has a warning label and half the parents won't even lift the proverbial bubble until it is too late, kids grown and scared in the adult world.

suburban_hooligan

learning by experience doesn't happen anymore. we are in our mid/late 20's. we learned to fall, get up, learn why we fell and try again. today's kid's don't get to try because god forbid anybody does anything that might get someone hurt or property damaged. so they never fall and therefor never learn to pick themselves up. that's why societ is full of winny sissy technology dependent candyass's with no confidence, no self esteem, who are afraid of everything, who are afraid to try anything new and have no knolage of anything. we had more life experence by 14 than the average 18 year old of today has.

The_Shark

not to mess this thread up further here are my two cents.

the reason for all the obvious and ridiculous warning labels and safety features is because of lack of parenting, way back when, kids where watched by a parent to teach them how to do things and about dangers of heat, pointy things and voltage, today the parents sit the kids in the room with some lame spastic toy or video game and go off about their business, so toys must be made stupid safe (yet lead filled?) or must come with stupid lables to teach commonsense to the parents so they can teach thier kids (because DNA donators dont know how to parent)

also we live in a sue happy world, if anything may potentially harm you if you drink it, bite it, sniff it, burn it, swallow it or smash it to your forehead must come with a label telling you "warning wear safety glasses, do not ingest hammer, may contain lead" or my favorite "warning contents may be hot, consume with care"

i am a collector of antique fans and other mechanical and electrical devices, from the first electric fan from the 1890's all the way untill about 1968 where mostly heavy metals, had poorly shielded connections (some you could just walk upto and shock yourself) and had cages that you could easily stick your whole arm into, some- like my 1930 16" Emerson with brass blades and 1700rpm could break or chop off your fingers- none of them had warning labels despite the fact you could chop off your fingers, shock yourself or drop 30 pounds on your foot, why??? common sense and parenting, you are warned not to touch it, if you do anyway, that will be the last time you did that and you learned (hopefully with ten fingers)

almost no one sued back then, 99% of the time you got hurt by something it was YOUR fault it happened, its still the same today, almost all injuries from things happened because you made a mistake, its like blaming that a firework blew up in your face because its unsafe, not that you lit it with your face over the launch tube.

kistner

My Feedback: (10)

Edit

Summit Love

I think biffff is the only one with any brains on this thread. He was unsure about something so he asked a question so he would be more informed and could better judge the situation from his point of view. The rest of you guys are just whinging and whining about the people who whinge and whine, back in my day blah blah blah. Are we going to start letting kids juggle knifes so they can figure out that they are sharp? Over parenting, not enough parenting which one is it? I think Einstein summed it up best when he said "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." How did this thread even get this far don't we all (myself included) have better things to do?

FahrtAutoRC

I am sure you do, so why don't ya get to em?

big JC

My Feedback: (1)

Not to be contrarious, but the whole "everything causes cancer" attitude is a bit of a misnomer. Guess what, we live in a world where we are infact bombarded by carcinogens on a daily basis. Think this irrelevant?.... just compare cancer statistics from 20 years ago to today, and when you go back 50-60 years compared to today it's downright crazy. The attitude that exposing yourself or your children to chemicals is ok because heck...... they are exposed to chemicals anyway is insane. Industrial silicon is not something you want on your child's skin. It is a relatively small molecule which can easily be absorbed through the skin at which point it has to be processed by your body. This is not an easy task as silicon is extremely hardy and stable hence it's use as shock oil which means your body has a hard time breaking it down. Other than being toxic to your liver and kidneys it mimics harmful estrogens in the endocrine system which is arguably the biggest danger in a child. Furthermore, it contains other harmful things such as dioxin and industrial distillates. Sorry to rain on your parade but perhaps give mineral oil a try, a harmless alternative. Fun stuff I know

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SLAYERDUDE

As an auto mechanic, we joke about this all the time.
I will never step over the state line of California, because I'll instantly keel over from contaminants.

*Goes on about his daily routine while smoking cigarettes and inhaling noxious fumes in delight*