just in case your couch is dangerous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJkhSUSnek
10 seconds that can mushroom into a lot of wasted time, you've been warned.
How Dangerous Is Your Couch?
51–60 of 159 posts
Re: How Dangerous Is Your Couch?
#52Looking at mattresses without flame-retardent led me to this provider: http://www.whitelotus.net/green-cotton-rx/ Turns out you'll need a doctor's prescription to even order a plain cotton mattress. Yet another perfectly reasonable regulation from our friends in the California Legislature! :) My least-favorite CA regulation has to do with eye-glasses. I lost my only pair and went in to get a replacement on a Saturday…
I loathe the requirement of a current prescription for glasses. Corrupt bureaucracy at its usual tricks.
What I wonder: Is it illegal to make a bed out of flame-retardant free cotton balls?
Re: How Dangerous Is Your Couch?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article specifically mentioned this case. The chemicals they put in the foam would have absolutely no benefit if your apartment was burning because the neighbor's started. Furthermore, there is little evidence that the chemicals will prevent your sleeping smoker from burning the place down. Droithomme's comment[1] very much applies. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4493813
I think the argument is that if your neighbor's couch catches fire, there is a risk of the fire spreading to your apartment.
That's where I think droithomme's comment comes into play. Where the downsides are so high, strong positive evidence should be provided and I'm not convinced it's there.
Re: How Dangerous Is Your Couch?
#54The irony of the whole thing is that the flame retardants don't even make furniture any less flammable: "The problem, [the fire expert] argues, is that the standard is based on applying a small flame to a bare piece of foam - a situation unlikely to happen in real life. ... In real life, before the flame gets to the foam, it has to ignite the fabric. Once the fabric catches fire, it becomes a sheet of flame that can…
This reminds me of the ban on regular light bulbs in the EU. People are basically forced now to install so called energy saving lamps, which contain and emit highly toxic mercury and phenol. Most people even don't know about the risks and would let their children sleep in a room with a broken lamp.
Re: How Dangerous Is Your Couch?
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
So basically she is completely crazy? However I hope she wins the fight against toxic chemicals...
I climbed mountain passes that size with my infants carried in a pack. It was good clean fun and the babies loved it. They play in the pine needles and the sand and get sap all over themselves and then snuggle up with you in the cold alpine nights. Everybody has a good time. And I'm nowhere near as tough as Ms. Blum. (Annapurna I! Holy. Cow.)
Not sure about the definition of climbing. Seems to me falling might not be healthy for babies? As for hiking in the mountains, sure, why not.
Re: How Dangerous Is Your Couch?
#56Another top-level comment wrote: between this and the article about brain parasites in california, HN is scaring the crap out of me And I guess that's why my all-time favorite external link to share here on Hacker News is "Warning Signs in Experimental Design and Interpretation" http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html by Peter Norvig, Google's director of research. To resolve the issue of the safety trade-offs of no…
Statistics don't count in medicine if you are the one who gets the disease.
Re: How Dangerous Is Your Couch?
#57Another top-level comment wrote: between this and the article about brain parasites in california, HN is scaring the crap out of me And I guess that's why my all-time favorite external link to share here on Hacker News is "Warning Signs in Experimental Design and Interpretation" http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html by Peter Norvig, Google's director of research. To resolve the issue of the safety trade-offs of no…
Could you provide a TL;DR of your expose? Thanks!
Re: How Dangerous Is Your Couch?
#58After the foam in cushions described in the OP, the biggest source of human exposure to flame retardants is probably consumer electronics. Particularly, most televisions and computer monitors are encased in a plastic housing which by law must be resistant to catching fire, and the universal way that is achieved is by mixing flame retardants with the plastic while the plastic is still "liquid". I read once that flame retardants make up up to 20% of the volume of the material of the housings.
When you remove this toxic plastic housing, there is another housing underneath made of steel, which holds the monitor or TV together just fine on its own. The exception is the buttons for adjusting brightness, etc.
Last year, I removed all the urethane foam from my home and the plastic housing from my monitor. There is a row of buttons for brightness, etc, that now hangs by wires, and there is a button near the top of the monitor for power which now hangs down the back of the monitor by wires. Now that the buttons are no longer held in place by the plastic housing, it is much harder to press them, but that is OK because I never adjust the brightness (preferring to use OS X to "switch black and white" at night). And I never use the power button. (The monitor draws one watt when it is on but not receiving video input).
Except for the small and not particularly noticeable row of buttons hanging by wires from the bottom of the monitor, the monitor has a tidy, trim appearance and does not prevent me from feeling proud of how my computer looks.
I recommend these home modifications to almost everybody.
The way the flame retardants get into the human body, by the way, is by attaching to dust, which gets ingested in small amounts. Consequently, after removal and disposal of the housing, I recommend cleaning the area under and around the device.
Or get a recent Apple monitor, which has an aluminum housing.
Re: How Dangerous Is Your Couch?
#59between this and the article about brain parasites in california, HN is scaring the crap out of me
This is a fundamental problem with our always-on, 24 hour news, headline-based world. Unfortunately, it tends to breed fear, hopelessness and apathy as people feel overwhelmed about too many problems they can't control. Not sure what to do about it, though. Get outside and disconnected more, I suppose. :)
Bonus: getting outside gets you away from your carcinogenic couch.
Re: How Dangerous Is Your Couch?
#60The single best way to protect your home against fire, by far, is to have a fire sprinkler system installed. Unfortunately, this can only be done when the house is built. So if you are planning on building a house, specify a sprinkler system.
It'll be the best money you ever spent.