Environmental Question #24 [Adhesive Residue]

Courtesy of Reddit user u/ElementreeCr0

Q: A baby bath was gifted to my family that we use for our infant daughter. It had a sticker label on it that left a residue when removed. We remove stickers with care and I've tried hard to get the residue off, but at a certain point I imagine I do more harm than good. How bad is it for a baby to bathe in a tub with adhesive residue on the interior, exposed to the bath water the child is bathed in?

Water temperature is warm-hot but cool enough for a baby. Sticker adhesive is...who knows what! I can tell you that whatever adhesive remains will not come off with scrubbing, olive oil, dish soap. I haven't tried isopropyl alcohol but I try it on other adhesives and wonder the same about what tacky residue remains - is it hazardous? On the one hand, I get my spouse's point that whatever won't come off with effort, won't come off and affect baby. On the other hand, I can't help but think of the adhesive being steeped in bathwater, making a tea out of whatever will come off!

_______________________________________________________


A: Generally I would say that the chemicals used in consumer-grade adhesives aren't anything to worry about, but infants have very sensitive skin, so they can develop rashes from things that would have no effect on adults. I'm sure you'll be able to get it off fairly easily, but as long as you asked I'll provide a little guide to chemical cleaners while I'm here.

First though I'll save you some reading by giving my recommended answer here. Try rubbing the adhesive residue with a paper towel soaked in nail polish remover. That will probably get it off, either by dissolving the glue or by causing it to clump up into a big ball that should be easier to remove. Incidentally this is also how you remove super glue stuck to your skin, nail polish remover causes the super glue to clump up off of your skin. If that doesn't work, let the surface dry then warm it up with a hair dryer. The heat will soften up the glue, then you can scrape it off with a knife or ruler or something. Any little residue left behind should be easily removable with some nail polish remover.

*NOTE* This guide is meant for cleaning chemical things off of materials, the list for biological cleaners would be different from this one. For example, bleach is not on this list even though it's great for disinfecting and removing mold, because while bleach is great for removing biological things, it's not very good for removing chemical things.

This list is in order of potency for cleaning off non-biological gunk and *importantly* also in order of likelihood to damage whatever you're trying to clean. I'll include details in the notes:

White Vinegar: Combined with some elbow grease can be surprisingly good at cleaning up messes. Try to avoid any of the flavored vinegars for cleaning because the juice or whatever else they use to flavor it can leave a sticky residue.

Dish Soap and Warm Water: Also better than it's often given credit for, generally best to try this before moving on to stronger chemicals. Also be sure to try very hot water, heat increases most chemical reaction speeds exponentially, so using piping hot tap water cleans exponentially better than using room temperature water. Probably best not to use boiling water though, since it can burn you and potentially damage whatever you're trying to clean.

Rubbing Alcohol (Isopropyl Alcohol): A great first step when trying to remove anything chemical. It's even pretty good at removing things like permanent marker if you rub it a bit. Just dab a paper towel with some and get scrubbing. If it's something sensitive that might have a delicate coating on it, it might be worth checking for manufacturer recommended cleaners, but for any regular plastic or other material rubbing alcohol won't damage it.

Nail Polish Remover (Acetone or Ethyl Acetate): My favorite! This will clean off pretty much any gunk you will typically encounter in the home. HOWEVER, this chemical is also used in many industries to remove paints and finishes. It's totally nontoxic for skin contact (don't drink it of course), but it will remove finish from wooden furniture and it will remove paint in many cases, although it will not damage the material underneath. It's best to test a small area of whatever you're cleaning to make sure it won't get damaged before you proceed to the main cleaning job. I love this stuff because it dissolves permanent marker instantly, so I use sharpies to label things like leftover containers all the time. No need for labeling tape, just wipe off the label with some nail polish remover and the container is good as new. Also great for turning any glass surfaces into impromptu dry erase boards, or I suppose wet erase boards in this case.

Paint Thinner (Toluene or Hexane): This will only be necessary in very specific cases, and these chemicals carry some hazard. It's not good to inhale the fumes, and they can cause temporary skin rashes, so if you want to use them do so outside and with rubber gloves. These will strip surfaces finishes off of many things including plastics, and can even melt some plastics. Only resort to these if you're doing heavy duty work.

Donations




 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Environmental Question #6 [Plastic vs. Aluminum]

Courtesy of Reddit user u/springreturning Q: Are there any cases where plastic is better for the environment than a similar non-plastic alternative? For example, I’ve heard people say tin foil is worse than plastic wrap. A: This answer varies case by case depending on the particular material. Tin foil vs plastic wrap is a good example, so I'll use it to illustrate my point. Plastic wrap isn't very recyclable because plastics break down a little bit every time they're recycled until they are no longer usable. Plastic wrap also isn't biodegradable, so it can remain hazardous to ecosystems for millennia. On the other hand, tin foil is extremely recyclable because it can be melted back down and remolded an infinite number of times with no adverse effects on quality, and when tin foil ends up in the environment it's just a mineral, no more dangerous than having a rock lying around. From those factors it might seem like tin foil is overall better than plastic...
Read more

Environmental Question #3 [Microplastic Life Cycle]

 Courtesy of Reddit user u/makingitgreen Q: Do micro plastics themselves ever break down into their elemental constituents and become harmless? I always see talk of micro plastics getting smaller and smaller over hundreds of years etc but I've always wondered what's the actual end game and how long it's taken for say, a polythene bag to actually fully go away in soil.
Read more

Environmental Question #5 [Plastic Pollution]

Courtesy of Reddit user u/Grandemestizo Q: How worried should I be about plastic in the environment? Because I’m pretty worried about it. Also, what is the most environmentally friendly way to dispose of materials which are not biodegradable and cannot be recycled? A: The history of humanity is a story of us getting gradually better at not poisoning ourselves and our ecosystems. I expand on this idea in my article here . If you look back in time we went from pooping in the same rivers we drank from and wondering why people kept getting sick, to using mercury in hat manufacturing and breathing soot without masks which gave us mad hatters and black lung, to using lead in gasoline and paint which caused generations of cognitive problems particularly for children. In the modern era we know about and mostly avoid the dangers of bacterial infections, mercury, smoke inhalation, and lead poisoning, because we have grown smarter and more responsible about pollution very slowly. The mo...
Read more