An EM Science, OSHA acceptable material safety data sheet warns "Provide adequate general ventilation. Protect eyes and skin with safety goggles and gloves. Do not take internally. Wash thoroughly after handling.'' In case of ingestion: "Get medical assistance.'' These warnings are for sucrose (ordinary table sugar).
More dangerous still, "Material should be handled or transferred in an approved fume hood or with adequate ventilation. Protective gloves should be worn to prevent skin contact. Safety glasses with side shields should be worn at all times.'' This is advised for soluble starch.
The Compuserve Executive News Service for 1/18/95 reports that two indicted men in Florida face 20 years in prison and fines of more than $2.2 million for smuggling freon into the United States in violation of the Clean Air Act. Their crime was claiming the freon would be shipped to Mexico when, in fact, it remained in the U.S. without consumption allowances issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. Apparently CFCs are O.K. if released in Mexico.
Meanwhile, Civil Defense Perspectives11, No. 2, p 2 (1995), available from Physicians for Civil Defense, 1601 N. Tucson Blvd., Ste 9, Tucson, AZ 85716, reports that the Arizona legislature House Environment Committee has approved a bill that would allow the possession, use, manufacture, transportation, or sale of CFCs in Arizona. Perhaps federalism can stop the CFC ban mania.
Coleman has stopped making radioactive mantles for camper lanterns because of the "dangerous'' radiation that they emit. (Product warnings on the old mantles resemble those for sucrose and starch above.) Cresson Kearny reports (letter to AtE) that he measured gamma radiation of 0.25 mr/hr with an older mantle pressed against the open 1.3 cm2
window of a Wallac RD-8 meter and 0.05 mr/hr with the window closed. Background (Montrose, CO) measured 0.02 mr/hr. A camper worried about this risk had best restrict his activities to the seashore, since background radiation in mountainous areas is comparable to that from the mantles. Hormesis fans, however, will want to grab some old mantles and head for the mountains to lower their cancer risk.
