Are silicone rubber bands safe for LEGO?

Question

I'd like to build some custom sets using rubber bands but I don't have any spare original LEGO rubber bands (and I'd need several anyway). Since I had bad experience with rubber objects touching LEGO pieces in storage (the rubber 'melted' the plastic where it touched over several years), I'm thinking of getting silicone bands instead. Are these safer than regular rubber bands when touching LEGO pieces for an extended period?

I'm aware of these questions but these don't deal specifically with silicone being safe to use or not.

• Procuring alternative rubber bands
• What are LEGO rubber bands made of?

Answer 1

Silicone does not appear to be safe with ABS plastic

This sounded like a good idea to me since silicone works well in other extreme circumstances like baking, but the quick research I've done says this is not so smart. I found two general references for ABS compatibility:

• Plastics International Plastic Compatibility Chart
• Kelco's ABS compatiblity chart

Both rate the compatibility a D, which means:

Material will decompose or dissolve in a short.

or

Severe Effect. The material should not be used under any circumstances.

The only caveat here is that Plastics International is talking about "Silicone Fluids" and you're asking about a solid. I wouldn't risk my LEGO's on that unless we hear from somebody that tried it and it worked out for them.