>So before I turf unwanted spares in the garbage, for delighted
>scroungers on the municipal rubbish dump to ingest, inhale or otherwise
>eat the crushed contents of blue bags, and before I breathe in heaps of
>the stuff trying to achieve water cooling and similar kinky technology,
>does anyone have some advice for me on handling these tubes. Assuming
>they do, in fact, contain beryllium, or am I on no-no (taboo) territory?
I don't know about these tubes containing beryllium-oxide, but as for
beryllium-oxide in general: It isn't toxic unless it is in powder form
and then only if inhaled. No deaths (as far as I know) have been
attributed to its use. I belive Brush-Wellman is the only company that
makes the stuff and they have a great safety record. One does not want
to pulverize it into little bits and snort it, but normal contact that a
person has will not hurt them one bit. As far as I know most if not all
Alumina substrates have BeO in them. It "probably" wouldn't hurt
anything to even put BeO containing products into your local garbage heap
(I am being very politically incorrect here), but I would probably be
wary of doing it - particularly due to the fact that you folks on the
other side of the pond have very stringent rules about such stuff and as
you say what if some of it gets crushed and seeps into local water
supplies, etc.
73,
Jon
KE9NA
-------------------------------------
Jon Ogden
KE9NA
http://www.qsl.net/ke9na
"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
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