26 Jan
2010
26 Jan
'10
8:44 p.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
At least in England, Benzene |= Benzine. Benzene is C6H6, the simplest
aromatic compound. Benzine is a mixture of hyrdrocarbons, I think
obtained for the distillation of crude oil. Many thanks to you and Chuck for
straightening me out on that point.
You're probably right, but having lost way too
many friends to cancer, I
guess I'm just overly cautious these days. One good friend got leukemia
likely due to solvents, but he was in construction so your point is
still well taken. Too, not knowing the difference in benzine and
benzene at the time, I just really felt obligated to provide a bit of a
warning - just in case it might save someone from a bad result.
Goo removal: Try with acetone or benzine. (petroleum
aether? Don't know
the english word.) Be carefull with acetone. It will dissolve many
plastics.
I believe benzene is a known carcinogen. I used to use something called
"Painter's Friend" to slightly
soften the existing oil based enamel
before applying a new coat on interior trim. It contained benzene, and
I don't believe it is still available as a result. I was sorry to see
it go in a way as it worked really well. Of course I'd rather not get
cancer either...
I suspect in a lot of cases the carcinogenic risk is massively
overstated. It's probably a problem if you work with the stuff all day
every day, in large quantities. It's probably much less of a problem (if
a problem at all), if you use a little from time to time.
I've been told by somebody who darn well ought to know, for example, that
PCBs (polychorinated biphneyls, not circuit boards) probably are harmful
if you work every day on large power transformers. But the amount
contained in one high voltage capacitor is not going to kill you unless
you are really stupid with it.
Anyway, smoking is almost certainly more harmful than any of these
substances i nthe quanties they are likely to be used here, and I don't
smoke so I'll take the risk in other ways...
Thankfully, having never started,
I never had to stop smoking, and have
not had to endure much second hand smoke in quite a long time either.
Sadly, one very good friend I lost to cancer was pretty obviously due to
his years of smoking.
-tony (it's a well known fact that research causes cancer in rats)