Persuasive Speech Essays - Babycare, Diapers, Childrens Clothing

Persuasive Speech Title: The Harms of Disposable Diapers General Purpose: To Persuade Specific Purpose: To discourage the audience from using disposable diapers. Pattern of organization: Refutative I Introduction A) Survey says children. Would rather use disposable diapers. Nothing wrong with disposable. B) Well, in reality there are negative effects from using disposable diaper that can affect the environment and the health of you and your children. C) Do best for family D) Educate on the impact that producing, using, and disposing II Body A) Production impact 1) Environmental and health concerns right to doorstep. Chop down four or five trees to make 500 kg of fluffy wood pulp baby will use in 2 ? years. (Catherine McDiarmid, 1997 Environmental Concerns) Then you will need just for your child, over 2,800 cubic meters of nonrenewable natural gas to make 325 kg of plastic for the waterproof backing and packaging for the 6,000 disposable diapers your child will use. 2) (Jane McConnell, 1998, The Joy of Cloth Diapers) It takes about 82,000 tons of plastic and a quarter million trees to manufacture the disposable diapers that cover the bottoms of 90% of the babies born in the U.S. each year. 3) (The Canadian Cloth Diaper Association, 1997, The Facts: Cloth Versus Disposable Diapers) For the convenience of using disposable diapers, you are helping release wastewater produced by processing the pulp, paper and plastic that contains solvents, sludge, heavy metals, unreacted polymers, dioxins, and furans that will make their way into your neighborhood air and water. B) Health hazards 1) Forget environment, toxic chemicals and baby. (Candace Brecevic, 2000, Disposing of Disposables) Newborn skin has an underdeveloped outer layer, through which chemicals are more readily absorbed and into the fat cells. 2) (Jane McConnell, 1998, The Joy of Cloth Diapers) Disposable diapers subjects your babies skin to a chemical by-product of the paper bleaching process known as Dioxin. Trace quantities may exist in the diapers themselves and the chemical has been known to cause birth defects, liver damage, and skin diseases. 3) Babies exposed to questionable chemicals. Sodium polyacrylate (Jane McConnell, 1998, The Joy of Cloth Diapers) this is what makes superabsorbent diapers so absorbent. This material absorbs up to 100 times its weight in water. (Candace Brecevic, 2000, Disposing of Disposables) Studies show that when this chemical becomes wet it is even more absorbent and pulls moisture from baby's body. Sodium polyacrylate is the same substance that was removed from tampons in 1985 because of its link to toxic shock syndrome. No studies have been done on the long-term effects of this chemical being in contact with a baby's reproductive organs 24 hours a day for upwards of two years. 4) Feel dry when wet. Less frequent changing. Longer exposure to bacteria from urine, which can cause diaper rash or other bacterial infections. Plastic does not breath to let out the ammonia formed in the bacterial breakdown of urine. 5) With all the chemicals (2000, Disposable Diapers Linked to Asthma) A Study published in the October, 1999 issue of the Archives of Environmental Health found that laboratory mice exposed to various brands of disposable diapers suffered increased eye, nose, and throat irritation, including bronchoconstriction similar to that of an asthma attack. 6) Another issue is safety, (Candace Brecevic, 2000, Disposing of Disposables) some disposable diapers have been linked to suffocation. The plastic exterior of the diaper is removable to aid in disposal. However, it can be removed by your baby and can be as dangerous as letting them play with a plastic bag. The absorbent padding with the sodium polyacrylate can also be pulled apart by your baby and stuffed into their mouth and nose. To top it off, the sticky tabs are not always strongly attached and if removed may be ingested. C) Disposing of Disposables 1) Exposing child to questionable chemicals, bacterial infection, and suffocation. Remove t soiled diaper, flushing the human waste, throw in trash ( Catherine McDiarmid, 1997,Environmental Concerns) you will be adding 214 pounds of raw fecal matter into our landfill sites which are not designed to handle human waste. As many as 100 viruses can survive in your babies soiled diaper for up to two weeks, including live polio viruses, excreted from your recently vaccinated baby. Rainwater washing through dumps can carry these viruses into underground streams and from there