Subject: Toxicity Info. (was: Boric acid toxicity (was: L.L. $ B. Co...))

From: "Bruce M. Freeman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1996 19:39:04 -0400

At 09:36 AM 6/10/96 -0400, [email-masked] wrote:
>To All,
>Speaking of toxicity...
>Look up asprin in the Drug handbook. The description of side and toxic
>effects goes on for three pages at least. Then look up all of the chemicals
>present in bituminous coal and their effects on your health. How long can you
>hold your breath?
>Welding? If the UV does not get you, the ozone will.
>Working in a well ventilated shop is one way of at least minimizing the
>exposure.
>
>Hochewa
>
>
I'd like to address the above point, re: aspirin and other things we
generally regard as imbibable, yet which have hazard warnings as long as
your arm.  Think about what's the cause here:  Our US tort system.  If you
make and sell aspirin, and know it can burn holes in your stomach or kill
children sometimes, you're gonna want to get those warnings out there, so as
to guard your ass.  If you make borax as a laundry additive,  you might tell
people not to eat it, etc., but you're not going to tell people not to run
it up to a red heat and use it to flux iron.  (After all, who's crazy enough
to do THAT?)

In short, it's not how long the description of problem is, its how bad the
problems described are, or how low a dose it takes to effect them.  

In shorter, be careful.  Learn what you can about the hazards.

Bruce