Welding + Brake Cleaner = DEADLY

[RWEST]

Got this at another forum - a guy was welding some parts that had been cleaned with brake cleaner, it produced phosgene gas!!!

[amigauser]

WOW, now that is very scary. Thanks for the warning.

[tallyho8]

Burning freon produces phosgene also. This is why you should evacuate the lines before you solder them.

[Scooby074]

Yep. Chlorinated solvents plus high heat is bad.

[dex3361]

Thanks for the warning.

[Transit]

Yep. Chlorinated solvents plus high heat is bad.

To say the least, if you are exposed, don't play macho-man. Get medical help. Symptoms may take up to 48 hours to show up. And be very careful of clothing, it can absorb the gas and contaminate others, like taking it home with you to the kids.
Other chlorinated compounds are bad news too. Carbon tetrachloride is a slow, slow death. A family friend working for the navy in WWII was exposed for years maintaining ship compasses. The Navy turned their backs on him. His lawyers made them pay up for his care.

[Scooby074]

.
Other chlorinated compounds are bad news too. Carbon tetrachloride is a slow, slow death. A family friend working for the navy in WWII was exposed for years maintaining ship compasses. The Navy turned their backs on him. His lawyers made them pay up for his care.

Ive worked with a guy who spent his day handling perc in heated dip tanks for electric motors. Aweful what those solvents can do. Most of those guys had some form of cancer.

Even brakeclean or carbclean should be handled with latex or nitrile gloves. Just look at what happens to the nitrile after a few mins contact. Now imagine its your liver. Green Solvex gloves are what i usualy wear when handling carb or brake clean if theres any chance ill come in contact.

Or try spraying some brake clean at a flying insect....

[JoelD]

Thanks for the warning, good to keep in mind there are many things we take for granted or have become complacent too.

Scarey stuff.

Joel

[JohnDeere4300]

Thanks for the warning!

[horse7]

There are a lot of hazards in welding though I mostly think of the vaporized heavy metals and explosive gases. I have wondered why welders generally don't have remote air supplies particularly if they are welding dirty mystery metal.... a little old cadmium plating could ruin the future although not nearly as fast as phosgene.

Just handling volatile fluids can be problematic, when trying acetone on Versatex (a PVC construction material) the acetone did an excellent job of penetrating the thin nitrile gloves I was using. The nitrile works great with greases and oil (as in oil changes) though... perhaps Solvex at 22mil, although quite expensive, would work better with acetone. [the acetone wasn't effective with Versatex in my opinion. The purpose was to seal the surface so that crud would not soak into the pores and stain the surface over time. Heat might work if I could adequately control the temperature]

A lot of the skin absorption numbers are based on the palms of the hands, and volatile compounds will be absorbed faster through other skin areas. I remember one guy would clean off grease using the conveniently available solvent ... gasoline... and leaded gas at that! (tetraethyl lead is a good way to get lead poisoning). I told he was daft to use gasoline as a solvent for him and his kids.