Re: [ATM] glue

[Mark Holm <mdholm@telerama.com>]

So is the carbon monoxide that will also be in the smoke and the 
hydrogen chloride that will be there if the plastic is PVC.  Cigarette 
smoke contains both carbon monoxide and cyanide and probably a little 
HCl.  I'm not recommending that anybody take up smoking, but I don't get 
paniced if I walk through a cloud that a smoker has created.  I will 
certainly smell it and be able to tell if it is tobacco or marajuana 
they are smoking.  I can also tell the difference between most cigarette 
smoke and most pipe and cigar smoke.

Thing is, as poisons go, hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide are not 
tremendously potent.  If they were, smoking would be much less popular.  
They are not like botulin or tetanus toxin which can kill in very small 
doses.  Note I wrote 'take a small sniff".  I didn't write, take several 
deep lungfulls.  If common burning plastics gave off enough toxic 
material to be seriously poisonous in small amounts, there would be a 
lot more dead people and a lot fewer plastic companies still in business 
after the lawsuits and govenment investigations.  Small fires involving 
plastics are quite common.  A lot of people still burn their trash, 
including plastics and lots of them breath as much or more of the smoke 
than you will get by taking a small sniff.  Sure, if you burn a large 
amount of most any plastic and inhale a lot of the smoke, it isn't going 
to be good for you.  It might well kill you, probably by carbon monoxide 
poisoning.

I have worked in plastic processing plants, in labs, etc.  Small amounts 
of smoke are pretty common as a result of plastic getting on heated 
equipment, yet you don't hear of fatalities or illnesses every day in 
the plastics processing industry.  In fact, it is a pretty safe 
business.  The fumes from burning plastics just are not poisonous enough 
to cause  trouble in brief exposures to small amounts.

Mark Holm

DHA352@aol.com wrote:

> DO NOT DO THIS to an unknown plastic.  Some plastics give off cyanide gas.
>  
> Don
>  
>  
>  
> In a message dated 11/30/2004 6:37:18 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
> mdholm@telerama.com writes:
>
>     The 4 mil clear plastic sheet is very likely to be made from
>     polyethylene.  That is the cheapest and most common type.  It is
>     pretty
>     close to impossible to glue solidly to polyethylene.  Solvent based
>     contact cement may have a chance.
>
>     To tell if it is polyethylene, light a small scrap on fire and take a
>     small sniff of the smoke.  If it smells like a really cheap candle
>     burning (paraffin wax, not beeswax or stearin from animal fat)
>     then it
>     is polyethylene.  If the odor is sharp and acrid and makes you cough,
>     then it is likely to be polyvinyl chloride (PVC).  If it smells
>     similar
>     to burning hair, it is one of the nylon family.  (Nylon is not too
>     likely as a consumer grade film in large sizes.)
>
>     If, per chance, it is PVC, you might be able to glue it with the glue
>     used to make joints with PVC pipe.
>
>     -- 
>     Mark Holm
>     mdholm@telerama.com
>
>
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>
>  



-- 
Mark Holm
mdholm@telerama.com


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