The Lethal Danger Of Combining Welding And Brake Cleaner
hackaday.com
With the availability of increasingly cheaper equipment, welding has become far more accessible these days. While this is definitely a plus, it also comes with the elephant-sized asterisk that as w…

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.

  • JASN_DE@feddit.org
    4·
    18 hours ago

    Unless there’s a massive leak it will oftentimes work out fine, IF the medical services are on top of it early. Everyone entering a facility which uses or contains phosgene will have to wear an indicator strip which tells you the exposure level and will be used as a treatment decision help.