[TowerTalk] Heath Cantenna

[Jim Lux]

Oil, or askarel?  transformer oil, per se, isn't likely to be contaminated with dioxins (the real problem).  Oil has almost always been cheaper than the PCBs, so if the utility had a choice, they'd probably fill with oil, being a generally cost sensitive bunch. PCBs were used in places where the flammability of oil is a problem (in buildings, in capacitors, etc.)

However, Bob is right.. if it's 30 years old, you really don't know.  It could have been filled from "that bucket over there in the corner that we drained out of the transformer".

As a practical matter (flame war about to start), though, PCB contamination is more of a logistical and legal problem than a health problem.  The amount in a dummy load isn't going to cause any real problems, especially if it's sealed and not leaking. The problems that HAVE been reported with PCBs have been with chronic  exposure, or in connection with very high concentrations of dioxins (i.e. manufacturing waste dumps), not with ppb amounts that are an omnipresent contaminant in all sorts of things.

The real problem is that once it's found, it triggers a huge regulatory infrastructure designed to make sure that it's in the "trivially small" amount category, not the "oh yeah, we used to clean out the tanks in the back parking lot with solvent" category.  The regulatory and remediation process isn't all that expensive for a small amount IF you think in terms of decent size businesses (i.e. a few thousand dollars), and it might be covered by your insurance in any case.  It's cripplingly expensive if you think in terms of scrounging insulating oil at hamfests.

It's enough of a problem that it is essentially impossible to buy surplus/scrap  electrical switchgear which is liquid insulated from the utilities in southern California.  They don't want the risk that it "might" be contaminated and that you will "mishandle" it, triggering their liability (since it's "on the list" it triggers cradle to grave responsibility.. everyone who touched it along it's life path is liable for cleanup: designed to prevent waste generators from hiring "abc disposal" and claiming that it's abc's problem).  Even worse, they worry that you might take their (known clean) stuff and intermingle it with something contaminated in your scrapyard, then you get tagged with it, and because they can't establish traceability, they go back and hassle everyone who supplied anything to your yard.  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: BobK8IA at aol.com 
  To: jimlux at earthlink.net ; mark at concertart.com ; towertalk at contesting.com 
  Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2004 12:24 PM
  Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Heath Cantenna


  In a message dated 6/6/04 11:24:15 AM US Mountain Standard Time, jimlux at earthlink.net writes:
    Why would it be deadly?  They're filled with oil.


    You're probably thinking about PCBs?

  Let's not get too hasty and complacent here. In the early-mid 70s before the PCB transformer notoriety, in Detroit for sure, many amateurs were having their dummy loads filled with transformer oils. The guys in Salvage at Detroit Edison back then made this a standard deal to their friends.Unknown to them they were PCB oils since the PCB "problem" didnt raise its ugly head until later in the decade.  



  I am sure their were many other utility people that offered the same "service".

  I.e. Mark....you have no idea what is in that Cantenna. 


  73, Bob K8IA
  in the shadow of the Superstition Mtns
  Arizona USA
  http://www.members.aol.com/bobk8ia/index.htm