08-31-2023, 02:56 AM
Has anyone checked to see what chemical(s) resmed masks are off gasing?
Over the last few weeks I've gotten several different resmed masks, all sealed and new, from several different suppliers. They have a bit of a smell to them out of the package. It's faint, but there. It hasn't gone away with time. In order for things to have a smell, something that can be breathed in has to be off gassed from that thing. It is my understanding that silicone intended for things like food, skin contact or used as air lines normally doesn't have a smell after it's fully cured, because it isn't off gasing anything. I have a couple silicone molds used for candies and they have no smell at all, neither do my O2 lines, or the 100% medical grade silicone North brand respirators I used in hazmat work. My best evidence is the ~20 years I spent in those medical grade respirators. They never had a smell to them that I could detect after the first wash out of the package. But these masks do and they all appear to me to have the same smell to them, which likely means they're slowly emitting the same chemical(s.) Chemicals are often added to silicone for a variety of reasons including changing softness, elasticity, durability and other performance factors.
I'm pretty sure resmed is adding something because, normally, manufacturers will state that a product is made of "100% medical grade silicone" but that's not what resmed says. Instead they say that their products are made of "silicone material." https://www.resmed.my/products/masks/airfit-p30i see the last question in the Q&A section. That just means these masks have silicone in them. And it almost certainly means they have some other additives present as well.
Given the Phillips carcinogen issue, and the very clear evidence from that recall that these companies do not care about us or our health, I think it's reasonable to be suspicious when materials used in these systems deviate from proven safe materials used in other food, skin and medical applications. With that in mind, has anyone taken one of these masks, put it in a vac chamber for 24 hours, and then subjected the gas pumped out during that process to a mass spectrometer to see what chemicals are being released? If that hasn't been done does anyone have access to the lab equipment needed to run that test?
If no one has that kind of lab access, well, I'm poor, but I'd still be willing to chip in to the costs of getting a lab test run. At least if other people want to help and also find it concerning that these masks have a smell to them, probably aren't made of medical grade silicone and resmed hasn't disclosed what they're adding to their silicone and what tests (if any) have been run on those additives to confirm their long term safety in a a skin contacting air supply system we use for a significant portion of each day.
Has anyone else noticed the smell I'm talking about or have thoughts about this?
Thank you for your time.
I'm pretty sure resmed is adding something because, normally, manufacturers will state that a product is made of "100% medical grade silicone" but that's not what resmed says. Instead they say that their products are made of "silicone material." https://www.resmed.my/products/masks/airfit-p30i see the last question in the Q&A section. That just means these masks have silicone in them. And it almost certainly means they have some other additives present as well.
Given the Phillips carcinogen issue, and the very clear evidence from that recall that these companies do not care about us or our health, I think it's reasonable to be suspicious when materials used in these systems deviate from proven safe materials used in other food, skin and medical applications. With that in mind, has anyone taken one of these masks, put it in a vac chamber for 24 hours, and then subjected the gas pumped out during that process to a mass spectrometer to see what chemicals are being released? If that hasn't been done does anyone have access to the lab equipment needed to run that test?
If no one has that kind of lab access, well, I'm poor, but I'd still be willing to chip in to the costs of getting a lab test run. At least if other people want to help and also find it concerning that these masks have a smell to them, probably aren't made of medical grade silicone and resmed hasn't disclosed what they're adding to their silicone and what tests (if any) have been run on those additives to confirm their long term safety in a a skin contacting air supply system we use for a significant portion of each day.
Has anyone else noticed the smell I'm talking about or have thoughts about this?
Thank you for your time.
