Modern Vespa

Thats a good story to make one think about what they are doing.
We used to use all sorts of nasty chems here at work, now we use "green" cleaners on the aircraft. I used to watch a guy wash his hands and forearms in Trichloroethane on a daily basis. If he could find MEK, he used that too.

WHAT!? Still living?

It was years ago, 1986-1987. He retired sometime around 1989.

As said above, very scary.

And Jimc, I reacted the same way--the story seemed a little too "typical" and "perfect" to be a real personal anecdote.

My wife and I, as a rule, try to use the greenest, least-similar-to-nazi-gas cleaning substances both in our house and on our vehicles. This story just reminds me that we humans don't always know the dangers of technology that is all around us.

Michael

When I worked in air cargo, I once had a 55 gallon drum of MEK topple off a pallett I was moving and split open. It melted all the tyres on the forklift, which ended up sitting on its rims, in a matter of minutes.

Wow that is some scary sh1t!! I shall double check all the aerosols and products in my garage this afternoon! I always ventilate but sometimes do not wear protective latex gloves etc for a "quick job" on the scooter. I'll be thinking twice from now on. Thanks.

Some years ago I did some bodywork and spraying a car in my garage. Used very good equipment, 60 gallon compressor, and PPG base and clearcoat.
It was summer. I used fans at the garage opening to move the overspray along (not recommending this BTW), and used a proper respirator. I wore shorts and a short-sleeve shirt, and sprayed the clear-coat. It looked great. What a job!

That evenign, I felt things never experienced before. Autonomic instability, sweats, temp variation. Then I read the label...isocyanate in the clear coat, with neurotoxicity as a side effect. Talk about male menopause. What an idiot!

So I bought a full fresh-air helmet (with distant compressor for air supply, and a full body suit and finished the work. Still have it, but haven't done much recently.

There are some non-isocyanate clear coat products out, but I think they don't perform as well.

I agree - read the labels before you use the chemicals.

John

2 common house chemicals that should not be combined...ammonia and bleach

The bleach decomposes to form hydrochloric acid, which reacts with ammonia to form toxic chloramine fumes:
First the hydrochloric acid is formed:

NaOCl → NaOH + HOCl

HOCl → HCl + O

And then the ammonia and chlorine gas react to form chloramine, which is released as a vapor:

NaOCl + 2HCl → Cl2 + NaCl + H2O

2NH3 + Cl2 → 2NH2Cl


If ammonia is present in excess (which it may or may not be, depending on your mixture), toxic and potentially explosive liquid hydrazine may be formed. While impure hydrazine tends not to explode, it's still toxic, plus it can boil and spray hot toxic liquid.

2NH3 + NaOCl → N2H4 + NaCl + H2O


So much scary shit lurking about.


Judy - I also had a chemistry set as a child. My Uncle worked at a large DuPont plant in Maryland as a chemist and I used to get cool stuff all the time.

Clarification: Phosgene is a choking agent, not a nerve agent. Wrecks the lungs, but neurological effects are at best secondary due to hypoxia.

Not sure what other chemical nastiness was involved in that particular mishap, though.

-Rusty
'09 LXS 150

Yep, quite true it is a pulmonary agent, not nerve. Also he notes in the article that he was exposed to four parts per million, which is hard to determine his level of exposure after 9 days. The odor detection level of phosgene is 0.4 parts per million. It is also a heavier-than-air colorless gas so his note about the white cloud was simply the liquid brake cleaner vaporizing which is when it converted to phosgene. There had to have been other factors in play here.

But yes.... there are dangerous chemicals, I have a few chemical burns from a some of them.