Are you concerned with Omega rubber straps?

S Speedy13

Hi,
I am a bit concerned. Omega is famous for their fantastic rubber (price 😀). I have changed the strap to nylon on Garmin.
I have seen enough articles like this one you will see below and including Youtube.
https://lifehacker.com/health/how-to-find-a-watch-band-that-does-not-have-forever-chemicals
When you buy an expensive rubber it contains pfas. Are you concerned?

ErichPryde

This article doesn't suggest Omega's straps either do or don't contain PFAs.

Walrus

Too much other stuff to worry about no room for that one

S Speedy13

If the fire burns your skin it doesn't matter what kind of fire.
It's all the same, isn't it?

ErichPryde

Let's start here: all PFAs are probably not good. But, the mechanism of exposure is very important, and the greatest risk is via inhalation or consumption, both mechanisms that will increase it directly to your bloodstream and thus, all of your body. Workers creating products that contain PFAs are at the greatest risk.



if I had to guess this is likely a bit like how we moved away from radioactive materials in the watch industry. While tritium poses minimal risk to a consumer wearing the product, it is a risk to someone working with it.

S Speedy13

It sounds logical. I think in the recent future loads of stuff would be considered as 'dangerous' we use today.
It reminds me movie with Stallone "Demolition Man", where salt is not good and etc.
Funny they don't touch the condoms yet 😁
Anyway, now it's a big question whether is it safe to use these rubber straps...

sathomasga

There is absolutely no reason to be concerned. I could run through the science for you here, but Gideon has already done a much better job than I could.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-155205974

sathomasga

There is absolutely no reason to be concerned. I could run through the science for you here, but Gideon has already done a much better job than I could.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-155205974

Dan S

If that was really your takeaway from the article, I think you missed the point ... badly.

Still, I'm not surprised, we've been through similar arguments hundreds of times about radium on watch dials, and some people simply can't grasp the concept of "the dose makes the poison." For them, any amount is too much.

I'm not sure how those people live their lives, given that tiny amounts of toxic compounds are absolutely unavoidable, but perhaps they simply try to ignore the facts in most situations. In this case, it's easy enough to stop wearing rubber watch bands if you are concerned about the risk. But please spare us your magical thinking.

The reason that PFAS became so ubiquitous in our ecosystem in the first place was that people put them in a lot of things and then those things went into landfills and the water system. Ideally, we should be thinking about reducing the levels of PFAS in many of our products if for no other reason than we don’t want them to keep bioaccumulating everywhere.

Bing813

Yeah…….maybe look up firefighter gear manufacturers that have been giving us thyroid and testicular cancer at 3-5 times the normal rate due to known PFAS in the gear for decades. Just wearing the stuff and sweating break down the material and sending it into the bloodstream. Exposure to all regions of the fire service that was assumed to come from burning materials from the fire. Carcinogens etc. Only to find out through testing that a city firefighter with higher exposure to actual fires wasn’t more diagnosed than a small town firefighter who never actually went to fires but had similar cancer rates as well. Think Dupont………. Cancer from wearing gear to respond to a fire and getting exposed to it from the safety equipment instead. We have seen this before. Profit over people……. Don’t discount it. My Union is currently fighting for the U.S. and Canada to have our fire gear manufactured without PFAS in it and its easy to research our struggles so far………….

ErichPryde

I think that's his takeaway because, like many other sources of info regarding these chemicals, the article states:



That said, the article also makes it pretty clear that drinking water in most portions of the world, even if below a "dangerous" accepted level of PFAs, makes for a much larger source of them than a watch strap could (by a very significant margin).

S Speedy13

Very interesting...

So, what is your personal thoughts? It's not good in watch straps?
To be honest models like planet ocean metal bracelet is so heavy reaching almost 200 gr that by the end of day your wrist in pain.
Due to its thickness the watch is not wearable on nato. If you couldn't wear it on rubber it's a big concern, IMHO


Exactly! Thank you!