Posted on 02/21/2015 4:05:29 AM PST by Patriot777
Very recently my niece bought a generic iPhone charging cord from a local Wal-Mart, and within hours of utilizing it had an anaphylactic reaction consisting of large red, itchy welts on her body. Her mother took her to a doctor, who gave her a 50 mg diphenhydramine injection, a steroid injection, and prescribed more of both in pill form to take at home. The very next day, my niece suffered yet another anaphylactic episode in which her tongue swelled up; she was again taken to the doctor, who prescribed her an EpiPen (epinephrine) and again treated her anaphylaxis. From the beginning of all of this, both her father and the doctor were investigating what could be triggering these dangerous reactions, and it was quickly pinpointed to a very fine dust that was in the generic iPhone cord's packaging, which had continued to cling to the cord's surface. As far as I know the doctor is going about analyzing the dust/packaging, and her father thoroughly wiped down the cord with both a baby wipe and an antibacterial wipe per the doctor's instructions. Again, as far as I know my niece has not had another allergic reaction. So this is a serious heads-up about buying generic iPhone cords at Wal-Mart: whatever the fine dust consists of (possibly a latex derivative?), it is potentially life-threatening. I know what the poor kid went through; I had an anaphylactic reaction in 1999, come to find out it was latex in a bathing suit. I am so very thankful she is all right, I know that that Lord was watching over her.
Way back when, I worked in that industry and a very common mold release was soybean lecithin, which is also used in cooking as a food release. (Think PAM which is sold in the grocery store.) We bought it in industrial quantities instead of one spray can at a time, but it was the same stuff. The big reason it was so popular is that it was obviously non-toxic, and it didn't have to be extensively tested.
We know you bought it at Walmart, and it would help to know who the manufacturer was. This cord is probably sold at a lot of different places.
WELL ... from the time I wrote the last post ... to now ... my iPad went into an infinite reboot loop! I couldn’t get it going. It had been acting a little funny on a few other things, but nothing big. And now it just quit. I just got out of the Apple Store, where they got it going again ... BUT ... they are ordering me a new iPad to replace this one, since it had been working a little funny before.
Apple’s customer service is great! You can’t get better.
Just a note on that to other people, normally a replacement like that would be $300 replacement costs. I just got it for free today! (It’s being shipped now).
You can’t go wrong with Apple’s excellent customer service. The entire time from the iPad going down, to getting it going again at Apple’s store, and ordering a new one ... was about one hour.
That include going back home first, from Starbucks, where it went bad, then heading back out to the Apple Store, to being seen inside the store within five minutes of arriving, to having it all done 15 minutes later!
No, of course she did not lick the cord. She is a competent adult working a full-time job but looks to go back to college for a bioscience degree. She graduated from high school at age 13.
She charges her phone on a table next to her bed, but likely her overall exposure to the suspect element occurred when she first opened the cord’s packaging and subsequent exposure when she handled the cord during that next 24 hour period (because she had another episode of anaphylaxis).
She has the upmost of common sense and critical thinking, being raised in a home encompassing ranch life/outdoor life and having parents who are both the top in their fields of expertise (computer technology, veterinary medicine).
As far as hysterical reactions, when she was a little girl she actually had plans to catch a very large tarantula (that had gotten into the house and was clinging to the kitchen wall) and put it in one of those big bug boxes so she could watch it and feed it. They did catch it, but her mother took it out behind the barn and let it go.
But she did have a menagerie of critters going on all the time that she caught, observed, loved, and learned from. She reminded me of myself at that age, and it was awesome.
Again, hysterical...as far as this wonderful young lady is concerned, is when her boyfriend proposes to her. But it will be a happy-hysterical we all know~
Think maybe they used formaldehyde to keep the drums from decaying during transit? That stuff will knock the socks off you and suck the breath out of your lungs in short order.
I eat anything without a name.....as in big goat....first goat....second goat....etc.
goat...provider of fertilizer, weed clearing, bow strings, pelts, meat, milk, yogurt and cheese.
If, apparently, you have allergies.
My iPod sync cable is a third-party aftermarket one, since I broke the one that came from Apple. Since I am not allergic to anything, the latex or silicon or whatever it was that triggered the reaction in the poster's niece has no effect on me.
Just because some people have a negative reaction to certain foods or substances—be they latex, silicon, peanuts, gluten, whatever—doesn't make them bad for everybody.
and the horns make great knife handles.
At this point I don’t know what they’ve done with the cord. If it were me I would have sent it and the packaging off for testing and gone and bought the real-deal iPhone cord. BUT..if it were me in the first place, I would’ve never bought a cord that was “compatible” or cheaper or whatever; I only buy THE cord for my particular phone, mainly because of the issue with lousy data and charging transmission rates.
Really crazy what is happening to the human body and how immunology has changed. The generations before us were raised in dirtier environments and our immune system progressed in different ways than they do today.
Allergic reactions to peanuts is somewhat of a new thing. For some reason peanuts are one of the allergies that is thriving due to raising humans in a more sanitary environment(experts suspect). The peanut allergy is very real and very dangerous for many younger people.
I have had the opportunity to visit with some of the leading pediatric allergists in the world. It is somewhat startling when they look you in the eye and admit that they only know about 50% about allergies that they would like to know.
I guess that my first reaction would be to discard or destroy and product that almost killed me.
I feel for you. I am horribly allergic to msg and can feel it in the second it enters my mouth if I make a mistake. I have to avoid so many prepared foods. People are shocked to hear that it is in nearly every cracker and chip, and in EVERY SINGLE PREPARED SOUP period unless you are in a very serious gourmet restaurant who makes their own chicken broth. There is no chicken broth purchasable that does not contain added msg.
However, making your own is easy. After roasting a chicken and carving, throw the carcass into the crockpot with a little vinegar and veggies (onions, leeks, carrots,,etc) and a ton of water and the next day you have plenty of broth for the freezer.
What’s going on with these strange allergic reactions? Peanut allergy has become epidemic.
Immune systems take time to build. Yes, some allergies clearly are familial / genetic. But there are switches that turn them on and off. In the past, kids got vaccinated less and later. The last few decades has seem the pediatric schedule start at TWO months old, with a heavy bunch of the every two months into newborns, whose immune systems are not built yet. Vaccines and antibiotics early do quite a number on the immune systems.
Interestingly, a life change to improve your own immune system can help outgrow allergies too.
Sounds like a “got it together” young lady.
As to mold release, considering these likely cell phone accessories come from China, one can never be too cautious. Who knows, what corners they will cut. Honey wagon night soil used for mold release???
I would think that a cord, having electrical wires inside, would not be molded rather but sent through some sort of extruder, sort of like this – (see around the .40 mark):
How It’s made Custom Wires and Cables
In some manufacturing processes (see around the 5:00 mark) talk powder is sometimes used to keep the wires from sticking together before running through the extruder for its final plastic casing but I don’t see any mold release agent being used. In this case the wires are sent through the extruder and sort of bathed in the molten plastic and then sent through a shower of cold water to set it.
A similar process is shown here:
How It's Made Retractable Cords
FWIW, I love watching the show “How It’s Made”. I can watch that show for hours on end.
Many people are allergic to latex. Including myself. Luckily I learned from other products before I used latex.......
On another note always be Leary of Chinese products. A friend of mine bought a set of screw drivers. He scratches his thump with one of them and got some infection that nearly cost him his hand. Who knows what the heck they use in their products. When they use plastic fillers in baby formula imagine what they use in stuff they don’t think will be injected.
That is a possibility.
I couldn’t identify the smell, and have never worked with formaldehyde, so you may be right.
I remember that stuff...and there was the old standby,
polyoxyethylene-monostearate...pretty much purified LARD!!, that we used on assembly equipment...
Google flavor enhancers and you will find that what used to be MSG now comes with many different names.
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