quesion about poison and flollow-up on gluing rubber

[mm]

How poisonous is RTV silicone sealant (room temperature vulcanization?)?

When I use this "glue", I lick my fingers to get them wet to smooth the glue out. Otherwise it looks like a mountain range. I use a different finger each time, but today I needed more fingers than usual. And after I used the same finger twice, I could taste the RTV in my mouth for 10 minutes or more until I could go rinse my mouth out. Is that bad for me?

I don't think sticking my finger in a cup of water would work because spit etc. seems to work a lot better than plain water. But I wonder if I'm worrying for nothing, or if this really is bad for me.

-------- Unless a chemist knows why there is no more black RTV anymore, to the A.H.R people: I couldn't find Duco or Duro rubber for sale, in a store or on the net, and I looked on the net for something else black but so far hadn't found anything. Then I "inherited" three 2 1/2-oz. tubes of clear RTV silicone sealant so I used that.

I can't find any black RTV anymore and I used to use it a lot. I can't find GE silicone cement in the 2 to 4 oz. tubes anymore and that used to come in white, clear, black, and maybe something else. Now they sell a variety of GOOP, for different uses, but all are "clear".

I found 2 or 3 black things that fit caulking guns, like roofing caulk, but none were listed both as adhesive and as flexible, like RTV is.

What's going on?

Is something wrong with black?

[barry]

Dunno. But if I wanted to, first thing I'd to is DAGS (do a Google Search) on various strings like maybe "rtv silicone hazard". A variant on RTFM. _Then_ ask others to elucidate, maybe.

J

mm wrote:

[Chris Lewis]

According to mm :

It's toxic of course, but if it was sufficiently toxic to be hazardous in the dosages you'd remotely reasonably be getting, they probably couldn't be selling it - even with lots of dire warnings on the label (which some have anyway).

Indeed, uncured silicone isn't good on your bare hands _either_.

I've done many hundred feet of caulking over a few days recently, some with silicone, some latex. Nothing beats having lots of rags handy to continually wipe your hands.

With latex, I've just discovered that a wet/wrung-out rag not only keeps my hands clean/lubricates fingers for spreading/handy for picking up/cleaning off blobs from the tip, but you can rinse it out, and reuse it indefinately.

But that doesn't help much with RTV/silicone, which does seem to spread much better with saliva. Plain water is fine for latex.

Just have plenty of rags or paper towels and keep your fingers scrubbed.

[PV]

A tip I saw the other day was to dip your finger in 3-in-1 oil and run it along the caulking, makes for a smooth clean seam (haven't tried it myself).

the other tip was not to lick you finger as you introduce bacteria into the caulk, especially in a bathroom environment, could lead to issues down the road.

PV

[Bob]

Well...... Condom manufacturers make them in a wide variety of colors, but had to quit making them in black because of toxicity of the black pigment in the latex. Maybe they had the same problem with RTV. Have you tried RTV windshield sealant - it used to come in black.

[Joshua Putnam]

Perhaps it's less popular, so fewer retailers are carrying it? But it's certainly still available. Go to

search for RTV silicone, several varieties of black RTV silicone still available.

[mm]

Hmmmm. This would be proof enough for me except for what I learned on Thursday.

I think it was 2 days after I posted this, I was in Advance Auto Parts and they had in black, by Permatex. Also they had make a gasket in black, also by Permatex. (They used to have it in silver too!, but I never tried that one.

P&M because this list moves fast.

[mm]

Thanks to you and everyone for a lot of good suggestions, and to Chris for confirming what I was afraid was my imagination, that spit works better than water sometimes.

I'll bare the germ theory in mind when I do the bathroom. This time it is just the rubber parts on my 1969 Honda, that I'm hoping to make run, plus some shoes.

P&M because this list moves so fast.