Smoke in the Basement

On 5/27/2006 at 7:02 AM dwight elvey wrote: I don't think the chemical industry set out to make things "that would last forever", it just happened. CFC's for the most part are very stable and when they were originally made for use as refrigerants, it was a good thing. Very stable things tend also not to be toxic to life; before Freon was used as a refrigerant, the dominant agents in that application were sulfur dioxide and ammonia--both very dangerous if inhaled--and both potentially very reactive. That the same family of CFCs could be used as inert solvents and to displace oxygen in an electrical fire was a bonus. Things that break down rapidly also tend to be rather toxic to life; consider the predecessor to CFCs in fire extinguishers and industrial solvents, carbon tetrachloride. Much less stable than freon, it's a potent carcinogen, and can cause kidney and liver damage if inhaled. Yet I can remember that my bottle of volume control cleaner and my electrical fire extinguisher (not to mention household spot remover) were full of the stuff. But then, the history of the industrialized world is one of unintended consequences, be it asbestos, atrazine or MTBE. As my halon is safely contained in its extinguishers, I'm not about to abandon it anytime soon unless someone offers me a better alternative and a financial incentive to make the change. Cheers, Chuck