On Wed, Feb 02, 2011 at 01:15:29AM -0500, Craig Scott wrote:
> Probably contaminated the yard with PCBs.
Sure, but none of us had nervous systems or brains in those days, so it
didn't affect us in the least. :)
Seriously, though: PCB-containing caps are usually pretty easy to
identify. Pretty much all of them had a welded seam and a fairly
characteristic physical shape and can type. I got into electronics
toward the end of the 70s, at which point they weren't being made
anymore - and we got an earful about'em and the safety procedures on
working with (most disposing of) them. There were only a couple of
companies making them, as I recall - somewhere over in the Niagara Falls
area.
Sucks that the stuff is so bad, though; its electrical and thermal
characteristics are just fantastic. It's just, well, active chlorines
are pretty much the definition of malicious evil when it comes to human
cells.
Neal Stephenson did an outstanding job of describing the mechanism of
the damage that covalent chlorine causes in "Zodiac" (fantastic,
street-smart, wise-cracking book that he accurately bills as an
"Eco-Thriller".)
"Okay, you're asking me: why is chlorine so incredibly toxic in dioxin
and not in table salt?"
"I guess that's what I'm asking."
"Two reasons. First, what it's attached to. That biphenyl or
dibenzodioxin structure - the twelve-pack - dissolves easily in fat. Once it
gets into your body fat, it never leaves."
"That's what they said about the Agent Orange, that it sits in your body
forever."
"Right. That's the first bad thing. The second bad thing is, the
chlorine there is in covalent form, it's got the normal number of
electrons, whereas the chlorine in salt is in ionic form. It's got an
extra electron. The difference is that covalent chlorine is more
reactive, it has these big electron clouds that can fuck up your
chromosomes. And it slips right through your cell membranes. Ionic
chlorine doesn't - the cell membranes are made to stop it."
"So the six-packs are like the vehicle, the gunboat, and the chlorines
are like the soldiers with the machine guns who ride on it."
"Yeah, and the electrons are their ammunition. They ride up and down the
river - your bloodstream - and slip into your cells and shoot up your
chromosomes. The difference between that and table salt is that table
salt is inorganic, ionic chlorine - soldiers without a boat, with no
ammunition - and this other stuff is organic, covalent chlorine - bad
stuff."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Zodiac"
Ben
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