This might sound silly to some of you, they might be completely safe to eat, I just have no idea and I was wondering if anyone here had some good information about PTFE lubes and toxicity or health risks.
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I was lubing the other day and I realised it is very difficult not to get small quantities of lube in your hands, and some of that to end up everywhere really these lubes are very hard to really get rid of, almost like they were designed for that!
I’m sure very small, occasional exposure is fine, but as keyboard enthusiasts, if we are lubing all the time, I was wondering if the exposure could build up and end up being bad for our health.
I think one of the reasons I was thinking about this is because I did a photography degree and I met people with health problems caused by the chemicals that were used to develop traditional film photography, but I guess those were quite strong stuff (especially de color photography ones).
Any thoughts or info anyone?
I was wondering just yesterday if the alligator skin I have on my right index and middle fingertips has anything to do with how much time they’ve spent with a fine coat of GPL…
It could also be that I sub-consciously treat those fingertips like worry-stones because I can barely feel them. It’s probably that. I’d say most of the stuff we use for keyboards is relatively innocuous.
Solvents, on the other hand… or any hand… don’t get solvents on your hand. Standing under the sink for fifteen actual minutes is not fun, and is the absolute best-case scenario.
Looking more into the “NSF H-1” certification of the 205 and the 105, it looks great, as you say it’s good for incidental food contact and they are classified as “food grade” lubricants (for machines in contact with food): Food Grade Lubricants
But the tribosys ones look worse to me after reading that pdf, it says things like:
“Do not store or consume food, drink or tobacco in areas where they may become contaminated with this material … Keep away from food and drink. Keep away from tobacco products. Wash hands and face before breaks and immediately after handling the product.”
Link to JVC
“When using do not eat, drink or smoke.”
They don’t have the “NSF H-1” and they are not referred as “food grade”.
Same with the XHT-BDZ that some people use for the stabs now. However there is another grease called XHT-ACX that seems similar and is in the list of “food grade” greases.
I might be giving all this too much weight, but I think I’m going to use 105/205 most of the time from now on. I might try 105 for tactiles instead of the tribosis I was using until now…
Thanks a lot for the links, it was really useful
I think I got what you meant, more like thoroughly. But that was my point, even if I’m whole time at home - specifically before meals I do wash my hands thoroughly. There is a lot of really dirty stuff around the house, simply because I don’t clean them as often as I could so they pile up lot of bacteria and germs potentially in the long run - think of all the remotes in the house, our loving keyboard parts, console joypads, anything in the house outside of the kitchen… I might casually just wet my hands and put some soap on it during the day when doing other stuff, but not before meal.
oh, for sure, but if this stuff was toxic at all I would be going a lot more crazy than that after lubing and before eating… with being really serious I meant proper lab procedures I was already using gloves the last timeas and washing my hands, tools and surfaces a bit obsessively after. I’ll keep being careful from now on but I’m a lot less worried about 205 after what I learned here.
Note that the risks are associated with PFAS other than PTFE (aka Teflon). PTFE does have issues with high heat (as mentioned by @Zlatzman), but that’s above 400F. Below that, AFAIK, it doesn’t react with much of anything. Pure stuff is used all the time in chemistry labs for this property.
As I understand it, the main PFAS problems are with the precursors to PTFE, as they are lighter weight chemicals and thus can get into way more stuff. I probably need to catch up with the latest research in this area, tho.
WRT the 205g0 we all know any love, I thought the PTFE in it was essentially a “filler” solid, as fairly small, solid particles. The actual lubricant part of is an petroleum-based lubricant. (The link @chalcocabana provided says 205 is “PTFE thickened,” which supports my point.)
Kyrtox 105 you DO want to be super-careful with because it IS a polyfluorinated oil and thus is super difficult to clean up
If you are concerned and don’t need to lube switches, just stabs, you can use silicone grease (Permatex, Molykote). Just don’t use it on the stabs that have silicone molding inside – silicone greases degrade solid silicone.
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