Jason Graham-Nye's Profile

Many thanks for posting about gDiapers. My name is Jason Graham-Nye and I am the CEO of the company. My wife and I were struggling to find a diaper that worked for us. We found cloth a little time consuming and knew disposables were not great for the planet. So we discovered this Australian designed diaper and loved it so much as parents decided to move to the US and launch them here.

In terms of flushing, we have passed all our US flushability testing, using P&G’s flushability guidelines using the 5 worst performing toilets. The product has been in Australia since 1991 and been successfully flushed there. If you do have concerns about flushing, you can just as happily toss the insert. By doing so you are still doing a great thing for the planet as there is no plastic in the product it biodegrades much faster than plastic.

The concern about Sodium Polyacrylate (SAP) is one we respond to on occasion. A Google search will turn up a variety of interesting feedback, but the truth is, SAP has been rigorously tested both in the US and abroad and the general conclusions are that it is completely safe and non-toxic. MBDC (www.mbdc.com) is the leading US based design chemistry firm. MBDC has assessed SAP as GREEN which is the safest assessment a chemical or material can receive. Here are some scientific highlights about this fascinating little ingredient:

* It's on the PAFA list - these are things the FDA has approved for adding to food

* SAP has an oral LD50 of40g/kg. Essentially this means that a 10 lb baby would have to eat about 200 grams to be at risk (about 50 gDiapers). Also to put this number in perspective, an Oral LD50 of 10g/kg is considered "harmless" by EPA standards. Typical table sugar is somewhere between
10-20g/kg so SAP is less toxic via ingestion than table sugar.

* The Danish EPA determined that "No serious adverse effects were observed by oral, dermal or pulmonal administration". Additionally they determined that this substance was not toxic to aquatic organisms.

* CCRIS (Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System) determined that this substance is not mutagenic in bacterial tests (Ames) and in Eukaryotic tests (tests with mammalian cells).

* BIBRA Information Services Ltd (a UK organization) employs a team of toxicologists to review substances and they have determined that oral administration of sodium polyacrylate to pregnant rats did not produce foetotoxicity or teratogenicity (birth defects) at doses up to maternal
toxicity levels.

In reference to the issue around Toxic Shock Syndrome in the early 80's, the FDA immediately pulled it from Tampons but we have never been able to find the study that linked it to TSS. And in fact just last year, Newsweek reported an uptick in TSS (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6959935/site/newsweek/)- 20 years after SAP was removed from Tampons. It appears that the cause of TSS is not the super-absorbency that the FDA identified in the 80's but the over extended use of a single Tampon that allows bacteria to build up. It is also very important to note that Tampons and diapers are two very different applications. One being internal, the other being external.

A few months back Mothering magazine included an article citing many of the concerns about SAP that are noted in this blog comment. The following issue they printed a letter to the editor (Jan/Feb 2007) that debated these concerns on scientific grounds. The letter to the editor author (Susan Manning, PhD) followed up on a study that Mothering cited — she went directly to the co-author of a study that “mice exposed to disposable diapers suffered from respiratory problems”. She asked the co-author (Mr. Anderson of Anderson Laboratories) about this and he said he was misquoted, the respiratory problems they found in mice were due to the added perfumes in most disposables. She asked if there were problems with SAP and “he replied that he knew of none”.

The German study in question to scrotal temperature refers to the heat-raising properties of plastic disposables (http://adc.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/83/4/364), not to SAP. gDiapers flushables are plastic free.

Who would think there could be so much research done on the humble diaper!

Cheers

Jason
dad/ CEO
gDiapers