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Shure SM58 Cancer Risk?

R

Robert Bass

Last night I was chatting with someone who just purchased a Shure SM58 microphone for his studio. He mentioned there was a warning label that indicated there was some risk of cancer with the product. Lo and behold I found this:

http://shure.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3692/~/warning-label-on-shure-products

OK so what chemicals are we talking about here? Are there any documented cases or is this just over-cautious speculation?

R
 
More California paranoid lunacy. Saw a similar label on the track lighting fixtures I'm installing in our new transmitter building.

They are referring to the lead used in the products. Not exactly a hazard unless you plan to have them for dinner. No, I'm not referring to those DJ's who like to "eat" the mike.

Sometimes I think the enviro-crazies would have us live in mud huts and starve to death eating weeds.
 
I recently purchased some RCA cables that had a cancer warning on them too. I suppose if you actually ate the cables or swallowed a SM-58 it probably wouldn't be very good for you. I've heard of "eating the mic," but this pretty ridiculous.
 
Those warnings are typically for the substance that transfers to your hands during handling. The sheets usually tell you to thoroughly wash your hands after handling.

-CO
 
Not in the case of the little track lights..warning was "may contain" cancer causing substances. Doubt that either the lights or the SM58 have anything on them that would rub off. Especially a hand mike.
 
It's the same California nutcases that gave us the wonderful paint jobs on all those PR&E consoles. How many of you have one with half of the paint/lettering worn off the most used channels? And around the volume pots for the monitors and headphones?
 
Based on the lifestyle choices of a large number of people I have seen using the SM-58, I'm guessing that the mike itself is the least dangerous portion of their cancer risk.
 
Shiny Knob said:
Based on the lifestyle choices of a large number of people I have seen using the SM-58, I'm guessing that the mike itself is the least dangerous portion of their cancer risk.
Click to expand...

Back in the vacuum tube days when I was on the air, I was always struck by the number of jocks who chose to treat their throats - literally their livelihoods - to daily doses of at least a pack's worth of nicotine and tar. Now, live and let live - it's still a free country. You can still smoke 'em if you want to, at least in most states. But I've never been able to fathom that "poison the well" mentality.

-- Doc
 
WNTIRadio said:
It's the same California nutcases that gave us the wonderful paint jobs on all those PR&E consoles. How many of you have one with half of the paint/lettering worn off the most used channels? And around the volume pots for the monitors and headphones?
Click to expand...

Which are the opposite of the lax oversight which gave us PCBs and asbestos everywhere. There seems to be no happy medium, or common sense, when it comes to caution about using chemicals. How many people on these boards used to play with mercury? Now a mercury spill is a full fledged hazmat event.
 
Much of the "asbestos contamination" was merely a scam playing on public fears to get fat contracts from school boards and other public institutions. The asbestos in question usually was perfectly safe so long as it was not disturbed--and could be removed just as safely and with smaller expense in a piecemeal fashion when necessary.

Same with lead paint--if you have your house commercially painted now you will have to pay additional $$$ for containment drapes, training etc. etc. even if there never was lead paint used.
A racket.

Then there was the house I bought with the radon ventilation system. The house was built on a (glacial era) sandbar. Geologic impossibility to have any significant radon contamination.

We have the capability to measure microscopic quantities of hazardous substances, we lack the public capacity to understand the significance, (or lack thereof) of any danger from these measurements.
 
It all relates to the permeation of pseudo-science in our culture. If something A) sounds sufficiently technical and has B) sufficiently scary possible side effects - no matter how minuscule - the media will use it to arouse fear in the population. And then we get these laws!

-- Doc
 
WNTIRadio said:
It's the same California nutcases that gave us the wonderful paint jobs on all those PR&E consoles. How many of you have one with half of the paint/lettering worn off the most used channels? And around the volume pots for the monitors and headphones?
Click to expand...

This is 100% true! Early PR&E consoles used an industrial enamel formula (Polane-T) from Sherwin Williams. Then the California EPA outlawed it. We tried various formulas after that with disappointing results, including lack of durability as you mention. I was surprised when I moved to Ohio to join Telos and learned that Polane-T is quite a popular finish for industrial products. Of course, having been burned so severely, I chose other finishes (reverse print lexan, anodized aluminum with laser markings, etc.) for the Axia consoles just in case the Ohio EPA ever decides to go the way of California...

Catfish
 
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