[rescue] Re: CRAY-2 coolant

Steve Pacenka sp17 at cornell.edu
Thu Feb 7 14:08:19 CST 2002


On Thu, 2002-02-07 at 13:24, Fogg, James wrote:
> ~ -----Original Message-----
> ~ From: sej at mail.gofast.net [mailto:sej at mail.gofast.net]
> ~ byproduct turned out to be phosgene gas. This is what precipitated the
> 
> I have heard of two instances where someone was working with a degreaser
> (one was blanket cleaner used in print shops) on very hot metal rollers. One
> person I met personally, the other is an employee of a friend. In each case,
> the person passed out cold and when they came to, they had NO memory. No
> learning, almost no language, didn't recognize family, had to go back to
> primary school and enter grade 1. I was told that the suspected chemical
> created by the heat + degreaser was phosgene, but no website lists this as
> an affect of exposure. 
> 
> Will phosgene do this? If not, what will?

There might not even have been a chemical reaction; just breathing in a
high concentration of the vaporized degreaser.

Search under "acute neurotoxicity" for other stuff that might have wiped
these poor people.

-- SP



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