[Amps] Bird 1KW+ Load Resistor/possible danger !

[Nils Petter Pedersen]

Hi Carl !
Global warming may not affect you seriously in your lifetime...but it could 
affect
your grandchildren.. that does not concern you ?
But to stay on topic:
It is true that PCB is not an acute health risk to humans. You will not die 
tomorrow
unless you drink a substantial amount of the stuff.
What is less known is that PCB's are regularly contaminated with much more 
toxic
agents such as dioxines. These are results of either the manufacturing 
process or are made by
heating PCB's to high temperatures. An incident in Japan with PCB 
contaminated
cooking oil left 1500 people seriously sick with multiple symptoms. It was 
found that
PCB content in the oil was quite low,- but as the PCB's were heated a 
chemical reaction
caused formation of extremely toxic substances.
When I worked in the labs of Philips electronics we had very strict routines 
for handling
PCB contaminated materials. Not so much for the PCB's itself, but for the 
very toxic
byproducts.
Just in case you are not correct on the assumption that PCB is not a health 
risk,-
here are some of the symptoms you could expect:

these are common responses to PCB intoxication:
-wasting syndrome

-skin disorders

-hyperplasia of epithelial cells of the bile duct, gall bladder and urinary 
tract

-lymphoid involution: thymic and splenic atrophy

-immunotoxicity

-liver damage

-porphyria

-endocrine and reproductive dysfunction

-teratogenic effects: kidney, cleft palate

-carcinogenic effects

*************************************

Why take the risk ??  Is your attitude a heritage from the famous cowboy era 
?  :-)

73's Peter

LA7SL



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "jeremy-ca" <km1h at jeremy.mv.com>
To: "Nils Petter Pedersen" <la7sl at online.no>; <amps at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2007 8:21 PM
Subject: Re: [Amps] Bird 1KW+ Load Resistor/possible danger !


> Worrying about PCB oil is about as ridiculous as worrying about global 
> warming. Both will take a long time to hurt you and thats even 
> questionable.
>
> Take reasonable precautions, dont bathe in it or mix with vodka.
>
> Carl
> KM1H
>
>
>
>