#803 X-Curtains

Apparently Alfred Hitchcock was right. Shower curtains can kill. Well maybe not kill directly, like a knife slashing through them, causing screaming and blood running down the drain.
But kill in the sense that accumulated chemicals in your system cause harm and possibly long term health consequences.
I’m talking about the recent study that shows that vinyl shower curtains sold nationwide contain seriously bad chemicals. Chemicals in the vinyl venting into the surrounding air cause the “new shower curtain smell.”
I know I know, I can see the universal throwing up your hands in disgust gesture now. What next? New Car smell. Probably.
It’s too bad. We are all totally jaded by this point. Items we’ve lived with for years suddenly being implicated in a host of ailments. We are so used to one study or another telling us something is no longer good for us we’re ready to jump into the deep end of the pool even though we know it has no water.
Shower curtains emit phthalates, used to soften the curtain. Phthalates have been implicated in reproductive system disorders. Uh oh, you may have to use extra Cialis in the shower.
They also contain toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene. Chemicals identified by the EPA as hazardous air pollutants. I once worked for an environmental testing company. Those chemicals were among the volatile organic compounds tested for when people wanted to buy a piece of land. If you bought the land and it was later found to contain those chemicals you were responsible for the expensive toxic cleanup. So you tested before you bought and got the seller to pay for it if you found something.
Bottom line, there’s a huge industry involved in cleaning up the chemicals that our vinyl shower curtains are infused with. One shower curtain tested was evaporating off 108 volatile organic compounds.
You know, it’s weird, I talked the other day about people in undeveloped countries not having allergies. I’m thinking they don’t have an abundance of water and, um, shower curtains either. Hmm.
What did Bugs Bunny’s gangster persona say when he was threatening death and mayhem?
“It’s curtains for you...”
America, ya gotta love it.