The USAF discontinued use of carbon tetrachloride as a cleaner and
degreaser around 1951 (when I first became a USAF civilian employee) due
to its extreme toxicity. Not only are the vapors very harmful, but it is
easily absorbed through the skin.
Carbon tet was replaced as a general purpose cleaner/degreaser by
trichlorethylene (spelled trichloroethylene by some) which wasn't much
of an improvement from the toxicity standpoint. We had guys in the radar
shop who got quite woozy and "high" after a few hours standing over the
cleaning vat. This was before the days of OSHA, of course. Trichlor was
also ultimately banned for general cleaning use, but I don't know what
it was replaced with as I was no longer working in the shops by that
time.
FWIW,
Ed Greeley
William R. Benson wrote:
>
> For those of us who spent a lot of time at the dry cleaning solvent tanks at the
> armory, this is both new and disturbing. Any further light that can be shed on
> htis subject, the better...
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 01 2001 - 07:42:39 PDT