[Milsurplus] Bathtubs

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

As much as I would like to say otherwise, that turns out not necessarily to 
be the case.  A little research reveals that PCB's were first produced in the 
late 1920's although use of the term dates only from the late 1960's.  All that 
I could conclude after an hour is that if the capacitor you are working on 
was made by GE and has either Pyranol or Pyrenol stenciled on it, it contains 
PCB's (those were GE's two trade names).  Beyond that, the desciption of the 
typical physical appearance of PCB containing liquids is about the same as that 
of mineral oil (clear to slightly yellowish liquid).  And I couldn't find any 
mention of any easy to use ID methods to differentiate PCB containing liquids 
from mineral oil.  Although it would appear that if a sample soaked into a 
paper towel is easily ignited and burns rapidly, it's probably mineral oil.  So 
what I would recommend is a better safe than sorry approach.  Wear disposable 
gloves (available dirt cheap and probably a good idea anyway) and a disposable 
paper nose and mouth mask (vaporized mineral oil isn't something you would want 
to breath routinely).  

In a message dated 12/21/2008 10:33:00 PM Central Standard Time, 
kargo_cult at msn.com writes: 
> Oil in the bathtubs wouldn't be of any toxic
> sort anyway, no? Wasn't that before the
> golden age of PCBs ?  -Hue  K7HUE

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480
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