Gentlemen,
This is a WARNING about Chlorinated Solvents.
IBM issued its "IBM Cleaning Solution" in the
'Fifties and 'Sixties that found widespred use.
It was the compound called "Methyl Chloroform"
or 1,1, Trichloroethane.
This is not the same compound called
Trichloroethylene. The two are very different
in odor and properties. The "ethylene" is
much more noxious in odor, almost having a
"biting" effect.
The important thing to remember is that both of
these chemicals are very hazardous. If exposed to
a flame or high heat, they form Phosgene gas, which
smells highly of Chlorine and is very caustic to humanity
and clothing.
What is insidious about the pleasant smelling
Methyl Chloroform is the cumulative poisoning
some people are prone to after smelling the
solvent.
Even though Ethyl Chloroform is an accepted, nonetheless
obsolete general anasthetic, Methyl Chloroform is not.
After ten years of using this compound daily, cleaning IBM
equipment I became ill enough to seek medical attention
and it took fifteen years after to rid my system. There is a
class-action suit against IBM right now, by former workers
exposed to this chemical. It was removed from general use
by IBM twenty years ago, and occupies the same class
of proscribed solvents as Perchlorethylene (Dry-cleaning
solvent). The problem with the environment is that
these compounds do not mix with water but float on top
of the water table and spread rthrough the rock strata,
one molecule thick. A town I lived in, in New Jersey,
was the scene of a Superfund cleanup as a result of a dry
cleaner dumping his waste Perc out in the back yard, and
it eventually drifted down through the earth and contaminated
five town wells. There is no filter process: These chemicals
need to be distilled out as vapors. However, they dissolve
other heavier elements and these are what truly pollute the
ground water.
>From my study on what made me ill I have found that
many physicians knowledgeable about solvent contamination
rate chlorinated solvents in the same class as Poly Chlorinated
Biphenyls (PCB's), which when decay form Dioxin compounds,
a truly horrendous pollutant formerly used extensively in
transformers and dummy loads.
Respectfully,
Hal Mandel
W4HBM
On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 03:41:06 +0000 jkearman@att.net (Jim Kearman) writes:
> I remembered the solvent we used to clean the Motorola radios was
> trichloroethylene, commonly called trichloroethene. Pretty nasty
> stuff if you breathe it, especially if you intend to have kids,
> (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichloroethylene>) but a great
> cleaner.
>
> 73,
>
> Jim, KR1S
> http://kr1s.kearman.com/
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