Re: Glycol

[Tass Mailing List <tass@mail.alembic.net>]

Date: 11 Oct 2006 08:43:52 +0100
From: David Huen <smh1008@cam.ac.uk>
To: Tass Mailing List <tass@mail.alembic.net>
Subject: Re: Glycol

On Oct 11 2006, Tass Mailing List wrote:

>Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2006 20:03:13 -0500
>From: Thomas F. Droege <droege@fastmail.fm>
>To: tass@tass-survey.org
>Subject: Glycol
>
>Dan is up putting Ethylene Glycol into the cameras.  Talk about a safe
>chemical.  It is used in food.  They also use it in animals for some
>purpose.  If Veterinarians feed it to missie's pudy cat you know it must
>be safe.  However, in the past whenever I have put anti-freze in tom1 it
>has leaked out through my bedroom ceiling.  Sigh!
>
I think there may be a confusion here between ethylene glycol and glycerol.
If it is the former, as antifreeze tends to be, will certainly terminate
your missus's cat like in this:-

http://vetmedicine.about.com/od/diseasesandconditions/f/FAQ_antifreeze.htm

It has been misused on various occasions in the past with toxic
consequences on humans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene_glycol

As its main route of toxicity is oral and it requires significant
quantities to harm you, the contamination of your ceiling is unlikely to
harm you but I would not treat the compound as benign.

Best wishes,
David