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Better Living Through Chemistry

A co-worker (cow-orker?) brought this ancient (circa 1953) fire extinguisher, that he came across when he was cleaning out an old house the other day, to work with him this morning.  He thought perhaps he could sell it on E-Bay or something and he wanted me to "Google" it for him.  According to the back of the can it is 90% carbon tetrachloride.  We talked to our building engineer and he told us he knew of this chemical from when he was boy and his father told him it was extremely dangerous stuff.  It turns out that " The fact that high temperatures cause it to react to produce Phosgene made it especially hazardous when used against fires."  Say what?  Phosgene " gas gained infamy as a chemical weapon during World War I."   Oh goody, now get it the heck off of my desk!  :-)

Posted via email from Our Family Blog

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