Our union represents workers in the paper industry. Paper, of course, is made from wood fiber, and the process of extracting the fiber leaves behind a lot of
natural oils and other materials that are highly flammable and can form explosive vapors. It's a serious hazard in the industry. Just because something comes from a plant doesn't mean it's safe. (Actually, gasoline comes from plants. It just takes a while.)
Mike
Michael J. Wright
Director of Health, Safety and Environment
United Steelworkers
412-562-2580 office
412-370-0105 cell
"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change
the world."
Jack
Layton
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU]
On Behalf Of Monona Rossol
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2017 2:21 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] LETTER: Beware of flammable chemical in wood stain, shed caught fire
Yup. Linseed, tung, poppyseed, walnut, citrus oil, and a bunch of setting oils are used. Some of these need a metal drier in them to speed the reaction, so don't
try ingesting any setting oil.
To clarify, "boiled" linseed oil is a misnomer. Years ago, they would boil linseed oil to get it to set up more quickly, but that process also made it tend to
set up in the container. So now they don't boil the oils to start the polymerization, that add a metal drier. The most common ones were lead driers, now we are likely to see a variety of other metal compounds used to initiate the exothermic setting reaction.
But heating the oils also will work. And in this case you can worry about all natural oils. There has been a bunch of spontaneous fires in piles of laundry still
warm from the drier that have been attributed to olive oil and some essential oils used in massage that didn't completely wash out of the sheets and robes.
I'm sure it's pathological, but something about that story makes me very happy.
Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A., Industrial Hygienist
President: Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.
Safety Officer: Local USA829, IATSE
181 Thompson St., #23
New York, NY 10012 212-777-0062
-----Original Message-----
From: Debbie M. Decker <dmdecker**At_Symbol_Here**UCDAVIS.EDU>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Sent: Wed, Jul 12, 2017 1:08 pm
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] LETTER: Beware of flammable chemical in wood stain, shed caught fire
Monona Rossol wrote:
There's your fuel and the fire-starter, PLAIN OLD TUNG OIL. All these "natural" plant-derived setting oils will do this.
Is this a cousin of linseed oil, well-known self-combustible?
Debbie M. Decker, CCHO, ACS Fellow
Past Chair, Division of Chemical Health and Safety
University of California, Davis
(530)754-7964
(530)304-6728
Birkett's hypothesis: "Any chemical reaction
that proceeds smoothly under normal conditions,
can proceed violently in the presence of an idiot."
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secretary**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas
--- For more information about the DCHAS-L e-mail list, contact the Divisional secretary at
secretary**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org Follow us on Twitter **At_Symbol_Here**acsdchas
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