Cloth Diaper Articles

Following are some interesting articles that might be an interest to all:

1) Latest from our own country - Utusan Pengguna Pulau Pinang

March/April 2007

Persatuan Pengguna Pulau Pinang (CAP) menasihatkan ibu bapa supaya tidak memakaikan bayi mereka dengan lampin paki buang kerana ia mengandungi bahan kimia beracun yang boleh memudaratkan kesihatan bayi. Ini memandangkan bayi sedang membentuk sistem imun dan mengalami pertumbuhan organ dan tubuh yang sihat sepanjang hayat mereka. Pendedahan kepada bahan kimia beracun boleh membantutkan perkembangan bayi dan menimbulakan masalah kesihatan dalam jangka panjang. Kulit bayi lebih nipis dan cenderung menerima kesan daripada bahan kimia yang mudah diserap masuk dalam tubuh.

Lampin pakai buang diperbuat daripada bahan-bahan tiruan seperti polyethylene film bagi pelapik perlindungan plastik lampin itu, polyester (bagi lapisan atasa lampin yang poros), polypropylene (bagi pelapik lampin dan pita yang digunakan bagi mengetatkan lampin, atau untuk lapisan lampin yang paling atas), pulp fluff daripada pulpa kayu yang diawet dengan klorin (yang menghasilkan dioksin, bahan penyebab kanser sebagai hasil sampingan), sodium polyacrylate (gel bertoksik yang kuat daya serapannya) untuk lapisan dalam lampin, minyak dan resin yang berpotensi menimbulkan alergi (sebagai gam yang mengikat lampin), wangian yang memudaratkan dan bahan-bahan kimia lain yang berbahaya seperti tributylin (salah satu bahan paling beracun pernah dihasilkan).
Sebahagian daripada bahan-bahan kimia tersebut boleh menimbulkan masalah kesihatan kepada bayi seperti ruam yang menyakitkan dan asma, serta masalah ketidaksuburan dan kanser apabila dewasa kelak.
Pengeluar lampin pakai buang sering mendakwa produk mereka boleh memastikan bayi berada dalam keadaan kering berjam-jam lamanya. Ini berikutan penggunaan bahan kimia sodium polyacrylate, sejenis gel yang terdapat dalam bahagian tengah lampin yang menjauhkan air daripada kulit bayi. Ini dimasukkan ke dalam lampin dalam bentuk serbuk berbiji yang bertukar menjadi gel apabila basah. Juga dikenali sebagai kristal polimer, sodium polyacrylate boleh menyerap 200-300 kali beratnya dalam air, dan membendungnya dalam bentuk gel bergetah.Pengguanan sodium polyacrylate dalam lampin pakai buang memudahkan tugas ibu kerana tidak perlu menukar lampin bayi. Namun begitu ia menyebabkan bayi ditumbuhi ruam kerana terdedah kepada bahan-bahan kimia yang diserap, pertumbuhan bakteria dan ammonia daripada air kencing yang terkumpul dalam lampin. Pada masa yang sama ia juga menarik lembapan (bukan air kencing saja) daripada kulit bayi yang menggalakkan kegatalan kulit. Bahan ini dilaporkan boleh menyebabkan radangan kulit yang teruk, pendarahan daripada tisu-tisu perineum dan scrotal, demam, muntah dan jangkitan staph di kalangan bayi.

SUMBER: UTUSAN PENGGUNA(MAC-APRIL 2007)


2) Study: Disposable Diapers Could Cause Male Infertility

By Anthony Browne, London Observer Service September 26, 2000

Disposable diapers could be the cause of the sharp rise in male infertility over the past 25 years, according to an authoritative scientific study to be published this week. It is thought that disposable diapers heat up baby boys' testicles to such a degree that it stops them developing normally. Diapers lined with plastic raise the temperature of the scrotum far above body temperature and can lead to a total breakdown of normal cooling mechanisms, according to the study published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Doctors in Kiel, Germany , started the study after being alarmed at the temperature of the testicles of infant boys who were brought into hospitals with infections. The cells supporting sperm production are laid down in the first two years of life. However, their development and sperm production in later life is very dependent on temperature. Testicles need to be cooler than the rest of the body, which is why they are external. Boys whose testicles descend too late in adolescence are often infertile because they have been kept warm for too long. In adults, exposure to high temperatures, during a fever or while in a sauna, can dramatically reduce sperm count. Tight jeans can also lead to higher testicular temperatures, possibly causing a reduction in sperm count. Dr. Wolfgang Sippell, professor of pediatrics at the University of Kiel , monitored the scrotal temperature of 48 healthy boys, from birth up to 4 years old, using a tiny thermal probe. His team tested the temperatures when boys wore disposable diapers and when they wore re-usable cotton diapers, both during waking and sleeping hours. The temperature was consistently higher when the disposable diapers were worn, with the highest temperatures recorded in the youngest babies. Scrotal temperatures were the same as rectal temperatures when cotton diapers were worn, but far higher when disposable diapers were worn. They concluded that the insulation properties of the disposable diapers impaired the normal cooling mechanisms of the testicles. They found that in 13 boys, the cooling mechanism failed altogether. Sippell concluded: "A prolonged increase in scrotal temperature in early childhood may have an important role in subsequent testicular health and function, with implications for male fertility." Repeated studies have shown that average sperm counts have fallen by almost half from 1938 levels and are continuing to decline as fast as 2 percent a year.

3)Chemicals In Diapers Cited As Possible Asthma Trigger

Penny Stern, MD October 6, 1999

NEW YORK, Oct 06 (Reuters Health) -- Childhood respiratory problems, including asthma, may be linked to inhaling the mixture of chemicals emitted from disposable diapers, researchers write in the September/October issue of Archives of Environmental Health. Lead author Dr. Rosalind C. Anderson, of Anderson Laboratories in West Hartford, Vermont , told Reuters Health that chemical emissions of some disposable diapers have immediate health effects in animals breathing the diluted chemical mixtures. ''Upon analysis, the diaper emissions were found to include several chemicals with documented respiratory toxicity,'' according to the paper.
"Mice were used in this study because of their general physiological and biochemical similarity to humans", Anderson explained, "adding that both humans and mice develop bronchoconstriction as a response to certain (odors and substances)". Bronchoconstriction refers to a narrowing of air passages in the lungs that is associated with respiratory difficulties. "Upon exposing the mice to various brands of disposable diapers, a decrease (was observed) in the ability of (the) animals to move air during exhalation", Anderson said. Noting that this finding accurately describes asthma or an asthma-like reaction, she added "that if mice and humans respond in a similar manner to diaper emissions, disposable diapers could be important with respect to the worldwide asthma epidemic.''
In contrast to the results obtained with disposables, new cloth diapers produced very little respiratory effects and appeared to be the least toxic choice for a consumer, the researchers write. "Though the disposable effect was noted even when the emissions of a single diaper are diluted in the air of a small room,'' Anderson said, she cautions that it is too early to indict diaper chemicals. "Whether the diaper chemicals initiate clinical disease, simply trigger an asthma-like response or are not implicated (at all) in human disease will not be known until after a vast amount of human data has been accumulated,'' she commented. Therefore, Anderson believes that formal epidemiological investigations must be extended to infant products in order to evaluate these items' possible role in triggering or aggravating asthmatic conditions. She and her co-author, Dr. Julius Anderson, have (previously) published similar findings associated with other products used in infants' environments. "A number of these manufactured materials -- air fresheners, mattress covers, fabric softeners -- have many rapid-onset toxic effects in common,'' she pointed out.
In Anderson 's view, the current epidemic in childhood asthma cannot be explained solely on the basis of what she termed, ''the usual suspects: dust mites, cockroaches, maternal smoking". Maybe child-care products (such as) plastic diapers... plastic baby bottles, and plastic toys are important factors (through the release of) chemicals with toxic effects.'' Until such time as this asthma-inducing effect can be confirmed in humans, Anderson reminds parents and healthcare professionals that precaution costs nothing. When you are dealing with a toxic chemical or chemicals, avoidance is the only proper action. ''She suggests that (parents) and doctors... believe themselves if they think a product is harming the breathing of the mother or the baby.'' SOURCE: Archives of Environmental Medicine September/October 1999.



Other Info/Researches of Interest:
1). Anderson, Rosalind, and Julius Anderson. “Acute Respiratory Effects of Diaper Emissions,” Archives of Environmental Health, 54, October 1999.
2) Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste in the United States : 1990 Update. (1990). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA 530 SW-90-042. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
3) Lehrburger, C. (1988). Diapers in the Waste Stream: A Review of Waste Management and Public Issues, P. O. Box 580, Sheffield, MA

4) Rathje, W. L. (1989). "Rubbish" The Atlantic Monthly, 264 (6), 99-109.
5) Hollis, R. W. (1989). "The ethics of diapering"; Mothering (Fall), 29.
6) Little, A. D. Disposable Versus Reusable (Cloth) Diapers: Environmental, Health and Economic Considerations. Cambridge, MA : Arthur D. Little, Inc.
7) Lyman, F. (1990) "Diaper hype" Garbage: the Practical Journal for the Environment, 2 (1), 36-40.
8) Clark . G.S., et. al. (1974). Incidence of viral infections among waste collection workers. Institute of Environmental Health, Cincinnati, OH: University of Cincinnati Medical Center .

9) Energy and Environmental Profile Analysis of Children's Disposable and Cloth Diapers. (1990). Prairie Village, KS : Franklin Associates, Ltd.

10) Dallas, M. J. and Wilson, P. A. (1989). "Diaper performance: maintenance of healthy skin" Proceedings: Association of College Professors of Textiles and Clothing Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA.
11) Bartlett, L. K., Moore, M., Gary , W., et. al. (1985). "Diarrhea illness among infants and toddlers in daycare centers" Journal of Pediatrics (107), 495.
12) Berg, R. W. (1990). The effect of diaper type on the potential for fecal contamination in group daycare settings. The Procter and Gamble Company, Cincinnati, OH .
13) Stone, J. (1990). Groundwater quality: the diaper dilemma. Iowa Cooperative Extension Service Publication No. Pm-1401, Iowa State University , Ames, IA.
14) Joseph, L. E. (1990). "The Bottom Line on Disposables" The New York Times Magazine (September 23), 26 ff.
15) King, L. W. (1990). A Study of Municipal Solid Waste Composting on the Impact of Paper Diapers. The Procter and Gamble Company, Cincinnati, OH .
Some articles that are found in magazines in relation to cloth diapers are as follows:
1) The diaper drama http://www.cutofcloth.com/article_diaperdrama.asp
2) Crazy for cloth http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/crazy-for-cloth.html
3) What is in disposable diapers http://www.sahmdiapers.com/ingredients.htm
4) Top 10 reasons to cloth diaper http://www.cutofcloth.com/articles_toptenreasons.asp
5) Joy of cloth http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/joy-of-cloth.html
6) Politics of diaper http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/politics.html
7) http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/diaper-asthma.html