Read this if you use brake cleaner from a spray can !

[Trulyvintage]

Probably all of us have used brake cleaner from a spray can. 

The difference between " chlorinated " & " non-chlorinated " can save your life. 

I usually buy chlorinated - you seem to get a little more. 

Never gave it much thought. 

Then I read this: 

@ http://www.brewracingframes.com/safety-alert-brake-cleaner--phosgene-gas.html 



Jim 
 

[vermontboy]

Thank you - everyone needs to read the whole thing

[Bhigdog]

Yowee!...............Bob

[Spinneyhill]

Which cleaner was that?

 

Here is the MSDS for CRC Brakleen. http://www.crcindustries.com/faxdocs/msds/5088.pdf.

There are some dangerous chemicals in there but no Tetrochloroethylene. Still very dangeros tho, and some of those chemicals are carcenogenic.

[john2dameron]

Thanks for writing.  I was still a teenager when I realized any time I was around anyone welding I was going to get sick.  At first I blamed the gas they welded with.  Then I realized that electric welding also made me sick.  I then decided that metal products burning makes me sick.  I had a friend who would gladly have hired me to help in his body shop but after coning home with sick headaches every day I knew it would not work.  Of course what it did to me was no where near as bad as what you've been through but we never know what will affect us.  I still have to avoid people wearing colognes, aftershaves, and perfumes or I get sick.

[HuntzNSam]

Chlorinated Brakleen:

http://www.crcindustries.com/faxdocs/msds/5089.pdf

 

does have tetrachloroethylene, the safer alternative to carbon tet.  Works well, but don't torch it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachloroethylene

(first made by Michael Faraday - learn something new everyday!)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene

Thanks

HuntzNSam

[plymouthcranbrook]

I have used that stuff for years but have never used heat with it. Now for sure I never will.

[Digger914]

During the cold war and Viet Nam days Uncle Sam gave us Trichol by the gallon to clean with, it was the safe version of Carbon Tet, nobody knew. Our safety instructions were don't get it in your eyes and don't use it to clean the coffee pot.

 

Brake clean isn't the only thing in or on a car that produces phosgene when heated, Freon will do it too.

 

Being careful with brake clean is always a good idea, being careful with brake parts is a good idea, lots of asbestos in old shoes and pads. Best not to use the air gun to clean dust from back plates and drums. Actually better for everybody around and down wind to wash down with aerosol brake clean, than it is to blow it clean with compressed air. When you do put an old drum on the floor, it's OK to drop it a couple of inches with the back down, but leave it sit for a bit so the dust can settle before you pick it up, as it's only ok, not really OK and don't raise a cloud when you sweep it up.

 

When I went through firefighter school I learned that burning up the plastic from one telephone produces a hundred different poisonous gases, enough to poison all the air in the average size family home. Something to keep in mind when torching a bolt means burning a neoprene bushing.  

 

 

 

 

[Larry Schramm]

WOW.  Learn something new every day.

[Guest GT52]

Burning chemicals, and plastics, are not things that you want to be anywhere near.  Much of the electronic waste that we "recycle" actually ends up in giant smoldering pits in rural China, where the locals eek out a living recovering the precious metals, and burn the rest to get rid of it.  Especially bad for them, but isn't "their air" also "our air"?  Of course our recycling companies know where the stuff is going, and what will become of it, but as long as it's off their books, and is handled a few times so that traceability is lost...

[cutlasguy]

   I rely on Brake Cleaner to clean the heads on my show car before touching up the paint. It says on the can that it evaporates quickly and cleanly. I also clean the exhaust manifolds before painting.

   Speaking of chemicals, I worked for years in the picture tube industry, where I washed the silicone off my hands with Trichloretheline, and later on developed skin cancer on the back of my right hand. The shop foreman practically took a bath in the stuff and died in his 50's from a malignant brain tumor. Nobody knew back then that the stuff was harmful.

[plymouthcranbrook]

3 hours ago, cutlasguy said:

   I rely on Brake Cleaner to clean the heads on my show car before touching up the paint. It says on the can that it evaporates quickly and cleanly. I also clean the exhaust manifolds before painting.

   Speaking of chemicals, I worked for years in the picture tube industry, where I washed the silicone off my hands with Trichloretheline, and later on developed skin cancer on the back of my right hand. The shop foreman practically took a bath in the stuff and died in his 50's from a malignant brain tumor. Nobody knew back then that the stuff was harmful.

I am often amazed that considering the way things were done by most of us, that we have any survivors at all after age 50 or so.

[Matt Harwood]

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing brake cleaner.

[60FlatTop]

Here's another one to watch out for. Be careful not to get in over your head. Can cause lack of breath.

 

http://www.ch.ntu.edu.tw/~genchem99/msds/exp26/water.pdf

 

I am always amazed at the lengths they go to in defeating the laws of Darwin. A few years ago a local radio station broadcast a warning about high winds during hunting season. They warned hunters to stay out of the woods because a tree could fall on them.

Okay, a guy with a gun goes into the woods so windy they risk a tree falling on them. I'd say that would help eliminate the risk of them spawning.

 

Kind of falls in with that famous blindfolded lady with the scales. There sure is a big movement to take away her scales, but leave the blindfold. Whatever happened to good judgement.

Bernie

 

Oh, I like the phosgene and smoking. Smoke one cigarette while using cleaning fluid. Where do the other 19 in the pack go?