Ski Wax and the Environment
Considering the big environmental issues facing us today, ski wax and snowboard wax might not seem to play such an important role… but a traditional stick of ski and snowboard wax bears a lot more toxic potential than generally known. The story goes something like this…
Fluorine is the most electronegative of all the elements. When substituted for one or more hydrogen atoms in a hydrocarbon wax, the new fluorocarbon wax becomes incredibly hydrophobic, which is why it is great as a ski or snowboard wax.
The concerns about fluorinated waxes have two branches. The first branch is related to wax technicians inhaling toxins from the fumes and dust. The second branch is related to the production process. Manufacturing fluoro products requires some nasty chemicals, including Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). These chemicals have ended up in the water streams near Dupont and 3M production facilities and have affected thousands of people. Ski and Snowboard wax is a miniscule part of the bigger picture of fluorochemical processing. Scroll down and read some of the articles below for more information.
For those of you who prefer to see scientific research data: Human Exposure to Fluorinated Ski Wax. This study was performed by the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Örebro University Hospital, SE-701 85 Örebro, Sweden.
Ski Wax: Extra Speed Could Carry More than Just a Steep Price Tag
From New West Snow Blog
ByBrendon Bosworth
February 14, 2011
All ski waxes are not created equal. Seasoned competitors know it’s unlikely a standard block of wax will suffice when it comes to reaching the velocity needed to win professional events. Fluorinated waxes, which come as blocks or powders, help speed demons get their fixes. But the synthetic compounds that give these products their water-repellant qualities remain under investigation for their potential health effects.
Like many nonstick pans, “fluoro” waxes contain perfluorocarbons or PFCs. To help shave more seconds off the clock, some have Teflon mixed in. Some of the chemicals in the PFC family, such as PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), which is used to manufacture Teflon and Gore-Tex, are practically immortal. PFOA does not biodegrade. Instead, it endures in the environment and has been found in fish, birds, wildlife and people around the world, even in Arctic polar bears.
By Cameron Walker
January 21, 2011The perfect wax job may help skiers in the halfpipe or on the race course, but it has the potential to cause trouble for professional wax technicians, who inhale fumes as they melt wax onto ski bases. Recent studies of wax techs on the cross-country World Cup circuit found high levels of compounds previously linked to increased risk of health problems, including cardiovascular disease and cancer, in the techs’ bloodstreams.
A group of compounds known as perfluorochemicals can be found in fluorinated ski waxes. A Norwegian study that found high levels of these compounds in ski techs also found that the 11 powder waxes and 11 block waxes tested all contained PFCs.
A separate study by Swedish researchers followed eight wax techs working for the U.S. and Swedish national teams, collecting air samples inside their waxing cabins during the 2007-2008 World Cup season. They looked at these results alongside blood samples from the techs taken during the same season.
By Cheryl Katz
December 19, 2010
Ski wax chemicals build up in people’s blood, pose risks
Ski wax can expose users to perfluorochemicals that build up in their bodies and carry potentially serious health risks. Racers, in particular, covet waxes with high amounts of fluorinated compounds because they make skis and snowboards go faster. But that extra speed could come at a cost. Wax technicians working for World Cup ski race teams had median levels of one compound that were up to 45 times higher than the general population’s. Exposure could be risky, especially to thousands of junior ski racers and parents who may layer on highly fluorinated race wax week after week without knowing how to handle it safely.
BERKELEY, Calif. – An early storm has dropped the season’s first big snow on Lake Tahoe resorts, and there’s a flurry of activity at the California Ski Company as hordes of skiers and snowboarders prepare to hit the slopes. In a cluttered workroom at the back of the shop, technician Bobby Panighetti is getting a pair of skis ready to make their first tracks – infusing the bottoms with a coat of hot wax. This essential ritual is being performed at winter sports centers around the world as the ski season gets underway.
Now scientific research suggests that ski wax can expose users to perfluorochemicals (PFCs) that build up in their bodies and may carry potentially serious health risks, including cardiovascular disease, liver damage, hormone disruption and cancer.
Waxing for a Greener Tomorrow
by Evelyn French
Salt Lake City, UT -Many recreational skiers don’t understand why they need to use ski wax. They think it’s too expensive or they don’t have the time to learn how to properly apply it. Some think that wax is only for racers and people who want to go fast, but what they don’t know is that wax is for anyone who wants better control of their skis and extend the life of their skis. Skis can be a five hundred to a thousand-dollar investment, and keeping your skis well waxed is one way to protect that investment. Wax keeps ice crystals from sticking to the base of your skis and also keeps your poyethylene base well hydrated. This chemical wax keeps you in control and provides a better glide.
For those of us who do wax often, we may not realize what sort of chemicals we are putting on the bottom of our skis. Popular wax companies are not about to share their well-kept secret recipe. But the truth is we are melting Teflon right onto our skis.
Teflon, or perfluorocarbons (PFCs), are a series of toxic chemicals that have caused major controversy between DuPont (the company manufacturing it) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the last twenty years. This chemical is used to keep many different things from sticking. It is on or in seemingly everything, from common household pots and pans to ladies’ mascara, and even ski and snowboard wax.
Teflon breaks down into what is called perflorooctanic acid (PFOA), a nearly indestructible and toxic chemical. The Environmental Working Group, an environmental advocacy group, calls PFOAs “the most persistent synthetic chemical known to man.” It is considered to be persistent because PFOA will not break down for 50,000 years.
When Teflon from your pan begins to wear off, it enters your body via the food you eat. However, when the snow melts, PFOA drains into watersheds, streams, lakes and rivers, harming both the environment and human beings. This chemical has been known to cause cancer in animals and liver disease in humans in greater dosages. Studies have even linked Teflon to decreased weight and head circumference in newborn babies. PFOA has been found in the blood streams of minks, bald eagles, and more than 90% of the American population.
When a ski resort is visited by one million skiers and boarders in one season, and if each of those skiers and boarders use only ¾ of an ounce of wax, 46,875 pounds of this toxic chemical is deposited in the soil and water systems. The United States has almost 60 million ski visits each year, therefore potentially producing almost 2.8 million pounds of PFOA. This amount of PFOA released into the ground water is dangerous and unhealthy.
But the problem is not just with the residue left on the snow. When we wax our skis we are inhaling one of the most toxic chemicals known to humans. When PFCs are heated to 500°F (260°C), the fumes can kill birds. When they are heated to 600°F (315.5°C), fumes can cause what is called polymer fume fever, a flu-like condition that may cause acute lung damage in humans. While typical ski wax irons don’t reach these temperatures, the label on the Toko Low Fluoro wax states, “Do not heat wax above 165°C. Do not inhale vapors.”
So what are the options?
Some types of wax have more toxic chemicals than others. Highly fluorinated waxes such as the Cera Nova made by Swix is made with almost 100% fluorinated chemicals. The CH waxes have the least amount of PFCs and are made with hydrocarbon chemicals which are generally safe for the environment. However, there are some types of wax that are made entirely free of the toxic chemicals.
Soy wax is one such option. One Ball Jay, Dakine, Bluebird, Enviro Mountain, and even Burton make an all natural wax from soy products. In addition to being better for the environment, this type of soy ski wax supports soybean farmers across the U.S. It breaks down quickly and is in no way harmful to the environment.
The naturally occurring chemicals in the soy wax, however, do not bond to ski bases as well as traditional waxes do. This makes the wax fall apart more easily and after two or three runs you are left with a bare and dry base. This type of wax is ideal for the people who typically take only two or three runs a day, but since it rubs off quickly you will find yourself reapplying the wax more often than you should, costing you a little more money.
To address this bonding issue, Purl Wax uses what Scott Sparks, owner and founder of Purl Wax, calls Bio-ester. Bio-ester is created from all natural and renewable resources like vegetable stock and grains that bond together in all natural hydrocarbon chains. This makes the wax work just as well, if not better than the traditional toxic wax.
I have tested Purl Ice 9 waxes against Swix Low Flouro waxes on typical New Hampshire snow on the slopes of the White Mountains. I’ve taken three different typical temperatures of wax from each of brands and put them on six of the same skis. By using dead weights I was able to calculate the friction of each ski. I found that the same temperature waxes of Swix are more likely to stick to the snow and have more friction than the Purl wax. As a ski racer, I am very particular about which wax is used on race day. I tried the Purl wax in the Southern New Hampshire Alpine Championship and was impressed enough with its performance that I continued to use the environmentally safe wax for the rest of the season.
Not only does the Bio-ester ski wax keep us from inhaling toxic fumes, it is arguably faster than one of the most popular traditional waxes in the world. By changing to environmentally safe wax we as a community of skiers and boarders can protect ourselves from polymer fume fever and liver diseases. We can help keep animals healthy and save the beautiful mountains upon which we ski. As skiers we love to be outside, ripping up some fresh snow. Why, then, put something on our skis that would destroy the very place we enjoy to spend our free time?
Author Evelyn French is a graduate of the Souhegan High School Alpine Ski Team in New Hampshire and was named to the 2010 Nashua Telegraph High School Skiing All-Stars Team. She placed 10th at the Division II State Championships held last February at Mount Cranmore in North Conway, N.H., while she was a high school senior. Evelyn is currently enrolled as a freshman at the University of New Hampshire
Related Articles:
The New York Times Dupont Denies Poisoning Consumers with Teflon Products
August 8, 2004
“Now DuPont has to worry that Teflon and the materials used to make it have perhaps become a bit too ubiquitous. Teflon constituents have found their way into rivers, soil, wild animals and humans, the company, government environmental officials and others say. Evidence suggests that some of the materials, known to cause cancer and other problems in animals, may be
making people sick.”
EWG Project PFC Dictionary
November 2006
“Fluorotelomers break down within the body and in the environment to PFOA and similar chemicals. Once this happens, the breakdown chemicals never break down. They are the most persistent synthetic chemicals known to man.”
Mother Jones Teflon Is Forever
Published June 8, 2007
“DuPont has always known more about Teflon than it let on. Two years ago the EPA fined the company $16.5 million—the largest administrative fine in the agency’s history—for covering up decades’ worth of studies indicating that PFOA could cause health problems such as cancer, birth defects, and liver damage.”
Environmental Working Group Research PFCs: Global Contaminants
April 2003
“A flood of disturbing scientific findings since the late 1990s has abruptly elevated PFCs to the rogues gallery of highly toxic, extraordinarily persistent chemicals that pervasively contaminate human blood and wildlife the world over. As more studies pour in, PFCs seem destined to supplant DDT, PCBs, dioxin and other chemicals as the most notorious, global chemical contaminants ever produced.”
Alternet.org Toxic Teflon
Published January 4, 2007
“But like many “better things” produced by industrial chemistry, these products can have disastrous side effects. The chemicals used to make them or that are released when they decompose are especially troublesome. They can easily escape to roam freely around the planet, persist in the environment, contaminate the blood of people and wildlife, change body chemistry, and are accused of causing health problems, including cancer.”
“The 2004 settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by Ohio and West Virginia residents living in the vicinity of DuPont’s Washington Works plant required the company to spend more than $100 million to ensure that homes in the area are supplied with water uncontaminated with PFOA.”
“The EPA sued DuPont in 2004, charging that the company had for years been concealing information on PFOA pollution at Washington Works. A year ago, without admitting any wrongdoing, DuPont agreed to pay $16.5 million in fines and support of research and education — the largest civil judgment EPA had ever obtained.”
Pioneer Press Minnesota: 3M water suit goes to trial trimmed
May 4, 2009
“Chemicals found in Washington County drinking water have cost the company more than $56 million in cleanup costs, and the current lawsuit could boost that by millions.”
The News Journal (Delaware) PFOA elevated in Dupont’s Del. workers
April 01, 2009
Decatur Daily, Eric Fleischauer 3M fined for chemical used in Decatur
Published April 27, 2006