- cross-posted to:
- hackaday@ibbit.at
- cross-posted to:
- hackaday@ibbit.at
Makers beware!
Much like with common household chemicals used for cleaning, such as bleach and ammonia, improper use of these can produce e.g. chlorine gas, which while harmful is generally not lethal. Things get much more serious with brake cleaner, containing tetrachloroethylene. As explained in the video, getting brake cleaner on a rusty part to clean it and then exposing it to the intensive energies of the welding process suffices to create phosgene.
There are isolated cases of EVERYTHING. People will do anything with everything and that is why OSHA et al are such complicated messes.
Its the difference between possible and plausible.
OK but the point of ChubbyEmu videos isn’t “this thing is GOING TO KILL YOU,” it’s “look at this weird thing that happened and the toxicology behind it,.” In fact, he goes out of his way to reassure people that these things aren’t likely to happen in the videos where viewers might get anxious, like the cases involving leftovers. There’s been a couple videos where he’s straight-up said “this was a freak accident.”
More generally, the fact that the events aren’t likely is part of what can make case studies valuable; i.e. “this sequence of events is highly unlikely to happen again in this specific way, so let’s examine it closely and see what we can learn from it.”