Frustrated by Phthalates

I wanted to coat dried leaves with mod podge (originally from here I guess) to play with my daughter, because it sounded like lots of fun – it makes the leaves soft again. But there, that makes the leaves soft again – but glues are often plastics, and that sounds like plastic softeners, doesn’t it? Which sounds like phthalates (phthalates are plastic softeners). So I try to figure it out, and it seems by looking at the patent (3,616,005 – listed on the bottle) that Mod Podge likely has dibutyl phthalate in it as the softener. (In addition to the MSDS (material safety data sheet) listing vinyl acetate which is somewhat carcinogenic.)

And yet, it has the “AP nontoxic” seal on it, because all nontoxic means is unlikely to cause problems if used according to label. It does NOT mean it is okay if your kids eat it. The MSDS sheet even says: “INGESTION: Not an anticipated route of exposure. Small amounts are not anticipated to be harmful.” Comforting.

So now I’m trying to figure out what exactly is in the other kinds of white glue. Seems white glue is usually some form of polyvinyl acetate. Which Wikipedia says cross-links in the presence of boron compounds like borax, to make gak. I’m learning things today. There may be other chemicals that borax makes crosslink to form gak, but all my gak forming white washable school glue is probably mainly polyvinyl acetate, and it probably all has di-butyl phthalate in it, because that is the cheap way to do things.

I hate our synthetic chemical world. (Not that there aren’t plenty of natural poisons, like many houseplants our kiddies could be eating.)

But now I’ll go try to get over my panic attack and go to bed…