Gretings blades, I purchased an acrylic bong a while back so that I could have a bong to take to parties without worrying about anything breaking. I've enjoyed it thus far, but there was something brought to my attention that concerns me. My buddy and I were smoking the other day, he's enjoyed this bong before as well, and in the middle of our sesh he just goes "bro do not hit this bong anymore, this is not safe to use" he said that he could taste plastic when he hit it and that we were probably melting plastic in the downstem from hitting it so much. he also said he was starting to get a massive headache. Thing is, I've also gotten a couple of headaches from using the bong recently, and also notice, even when there's nothing in it, a plastic taste whenever I draw air through it. The thing ism, this friend of mine is extremely paranoid and I'm just not one hundred percent sure that a bong would be made if the plastic in it could be melted by a lighter flame hitting it on occasion, have you guys ever heard of a bong made with pieces that could melt?
How old is this bong anyway? Plastic will leech over time, hard plastic acrylic not so much as say a plastic water bottle, but leeching eventually is gonna happen. Acrylic bongs aren't made to last forever. If it's served it's purpose man, sounds like it's time to replace it.
anything is possible, no one knows if its high quality plastic or not. id say you and your buddy have a few drinks, maybe some dinner, then head on down to your smokeshop and buy another piece.....togethaaaa.
honestly I never mess with acrylic because its plastic and plastic is poisonous to the body. Why not just get a nice glass chillum or hand piece? concealable and everything? But if your super serious about water pieces just get one you can put on a necklace or in your pocket, they sell them for relatively cheap like 60$ish? and thats cool and will never be a problem.
Gday from Aus.......I work in the dental industry, specifically in prosthetics. Acrylic is a two part product, acrylic powder and the liquid or monomer to set it off and make it solid if you like. The monomer, (methelmethacrilate) is a highly poisonous substance, it is a known carcinogen, it causes industrial emphysema, asthma and causes irreversible liver damage. It is most dangerous in its liquid form. When "locked" into your piece it is reletively safe, however; over time the plasticisers and monomers etc leach out of the material. This is most likely what you are tasting, in small quantities it is harmless but different people react differently. Personally, I would not use an acrylic bong, new or otherwise. At present in the dental industry there is a lot of issues with appliances being manufactured in china, to sub standard levels. Cheap acrylics, that contain cadmium are suspected to be being used by the chinese for dental appliances coming into the Australian, european and americqn markets. All acrylic bongs you could safely say are made in china, knowing what I know about polymers etc, I would not touch a smoke from an acrylic bong, even once. Peace
Have someone else hit it to judge. One hit of an unsafe bong won't kill you. Sounds like its psychological if you didn't notice it before.
No it wont, but the chemicals that leach out of the plastic can remain residual within your body and build up over time. BPA is now removed from the majority of plastics and like products, but I would not bet that cheap bongs are policed in the same manner as food grade plastic products. Not to mention cadmium as an ingredi3nt is banned in the us aus etc, but the chinese still manufacture with it. Due the product beingncomplete and not in its raw form, it is allowed through customs, but no one checks if these products are contained in these plastics as they are not tested, and considered to be suspended.....but they leach out. One hit of cadmium can be all it takes for some people.....
One more thing, the flash point for your acrylic bong isn't too high, so when you place a naked flame to it, then yes it will melt/burn it is a highly flammable product.
I have a pipe and mflb, used to have a glass bong too until it broke, that's when I bought the acrylic one haha even though i have stealthier, more convenient pieces, I still myself a good bong rip. It was supposed to last me until I got my own place and could just get a nice ass glass bong to keep at the house, but if that shit isn't just in my then I'll have to dispose of it
it's horrible what the long term effects can be. I have a customer who after twenty years of excessive exposure to acrylic monomer and ceramic dust, has silicosis of the lungs, industrial emphysema and industrial asthma............not nice to hear him trying to breath on a bad day let me tell you. That's an extreme case, and I highly doubt an acrylic bong will have those above effects, but fuck having that shit in your system no matter what !
I can attest to how flammable an acrylic bong is...during my high school days me and one of my friends were using his acrylic bong in a dark car. He had this weird tick where he needed to see how chalked up the bong was, couldn't just do it blind. So he would hold the lighter somewhat a near the bong to illuminate it and see the smoke inside. After we had been smoking awhile he got the lighter too close to the side of it, burned a nice size hole in the side pretty much instantly. Then for the short time we used it after that, we had to use the hole as a carb. I do remember the odd taste of smoking out of that bong, never used anything else plastic/acrylic for smoking after that.
If that is the case i'd ditch it they aren't exactly expsensive, if the next one is the same then stick with glass. I've owned a Gatorade bong that saw 100's if not 1000's of rips go through it with no plastic taste so still consider me still a sceptic lol.
10 years later I'm still alive in perfect health and now I've progressed to glass, scepticism quenched. If you watch enough prime time infonews shows pretty much everything will kill you. Asbestos is deadly too, yet I could inhale an unbroken sheet for years without ill effect, you're taking it out of context.
I don't know Blades. My last A Bong held up for around 12 years. All in all I've used one for around 50 years and now you tell me it's bad for me? As far as melting the bong the rubber piece the stem goes through should prevent that and then the stem is in the water and the water acts as a heat sink. So, IMO, unless you are touching the bong with the lighter, and I've seen it happen, it's next to impossible to heat the bong up enough to taste it.
Maybe if you had a domeless nail on one of those alloy stems and you were hitting if for an hour or so non stop (like you need to with dabs..) then it may just generate enough heat to heat up the grommet slightly but I highly doubt many people are doing that.
Thank it for its service, wish it good luck on its future adventures, and then bury it in the trash. I would under no circumstances use it again.