Help! My new roof causes birth defects??

[summerlilies]

I am having a new roof put on our right now and I noticed that on the box of shingles that they are using, it says,
"Warning. This product is known to the state of CA to have a chemical that causes cancer, birth defects and other reproductive issues."

It seems like it would be worst for the people working with the material, but there is a lot of debris/dust that they are creating right now. They are cleaning it up, but I am sure there will still be some on my deck and the grass below. Also, the roof is closest to our kids window.

Should I be worried?? I am pregnant right now and I have a toddler. Will this have long lasting effects? What should I do??

Thanks for your help!!

[mgilleran@earth-co]

I had the same thing happen a week or so ago. We are building a new house. My dad wanted to glue the subfloor (plywood) down in addition to screwing it down. THis is to reduce squeaking. On the tube of liquid nails it had a warning that said this product contains a contains a chemical that is known by the state of CA to cause cancer. It was some type of silica. That is scary. I was told that it was only dangerous if you breath in the dust of the liquid nails if it had been sanded. Are they cutting your shingles, or just scoring & breaking them? If they are scoring them I wouldn't think there would be much danger, but it is still scary. I would definitly stay away from the stuff if I were pregnant. The composition of shingles varies very little from company to company, unless you go with a different type shingle, such as a shake, or metal roofing. So there probably isn't a way to get around this without using another product all together. I would keep all windows in the house shut during installation, and sweep off the deck very well after they are done. I'm not sure what to do about the grass though. This is going to make me do more research before we get ready for shingles in a few weeks. I may go metal now. Best of luck.

[embers]

I learned a lot when I stumbled across a showing of Blue Vinyl.

THIS SITE seems informative!

[crissei]

We have fixed up two houses by ourselves now, and almost EVERY building material has that warning on it, even paint. It really stinks:

Our house needs re-roofing right now, and we are planning on replacing it with metal, unfotunately we still have to remove the asphalt shingles first.

[mightymoo]

I think the problem comes from the fact that the good intention of the labelling law is not applied well in practice. They require that certain chemicals be labeled, however rather than doing it in a way that helps you decide if its a danger, they just scare you in more situations than its warranted. I don't know anything about roof shingles, I just think the warning is not necessarily something to be concerned about. For example, the roof shingles could contain something that if ingested could cause cancer, but the chances you'll ingest it are low, etc.

I know I'm not helping, I'm just saying don't panic. When I had my roof replaced, we did not have any debris around the yard - they put down tarps and things. You may end up with some shingle debris in your attic though - so you if have things stored up there, I would wash it all carefully.

[Jane]

Anything with a petroleum product in it has that warning. Tar is carcinogenic and teratogenic (causes birth defects). Asphalt is carcinogenic and teratorgenic. Don't get tar or asphalt on your skin. Shingles contain both those substances.
If it were me, I'd wear gloves and "special" clothes when handling petroleum containing products and wash up afterwards. The clothes are just for things like painting and stuff.

[Jane]

Also, anything that "Dries" like paint or glue has solvents in it -the solvents evaporating is what makes it dry (typically). Every solvent is a carcinogen. Alcohol is a carcinogen and we drink that (and use it as a solvent)!

[wife&mommy]

All of this is so scary!