Brake Cleaner = Phosgene Gas ALL WELDERS PLEASE READ

Interesting information...
http://www.brewracingframes.com/safety-alert-brake-cleaner--phosgene-gas.html

http://www.brewracingframes.com/id75.htm

 

at one shop i worked at the welder warned me of ANY aerosol around a torch or arc and was vey adamant about it. he had an incident that darn near killed him.

they say when you can't breathe, nothing else matters. the vapor causes chemical burns when it contacts flesh, once in the lungs it travels by bloodstream to the organs. the liver and kidneys, who's job it is to filter it out... well, that's why they call it a LIVEr

similar to Carl's PPE post about respirators, suits and shooting paint, the paint these days isn't paint. it's a batch of colored chemicals, and it'll kill ya

 

Tricky stuff there. You get phosgene gas also when you burn freon. Watch out for air conditioning parts when you torch off parts in the junkyard.

 

Damn and I used that stuff not too long ago and did make some vapors and did get a whiff of some of the fumes. The fumes did choke me a bit but never had the symptoms that poor guy had. Good info there and will no doubt keep that in mind for future jobs.
One thing is if you completely let the brake cleaner dry and only use it on good clean metal you will be fine from what I can tell. Ah maybe I will just stick to using xylene for cleaning purposes. I lucked out a while back and got myself 2 55 gallon drums of the stuff for 200 dollars.

 

So it got cold Carl??...

Just thought I would share something I found. Just bought a new mig for some upcoming projects, but I have always used lacquer thinner as a final cleaner, better see what I have been inhaling...

 

also very bad stuff, you don't want it to contact your skin, it'll disolve the fat right out of your living tissue. highly carcinogeneous.

best used for octane boost.

 

I looked it up in the past and it's not considered to be a carcinogen. I see Xylene stated as a carcinogen very often probably because it's an aromatic like benzene and if you look at the chemical name it's called dimethyl benzene but it's not the carcinogen that benzene is.
Works as a good paint thinner and spray gun cleaner too, I mix it with acetone and it works like a laquer thinner in most cases. I have gotten it on my hands and yes as you said it will dry them out.

 

Dennis,
Yep......., you and me both......

 

well i dont use any cleaners on stuff a weld being on the fire dept going through haz mat i dont use them at all, i just grind or sand my area if it needs cleaning i will use gasoline and then wait a day or 2 before welding.
on another note people dont think but milk is very dangerous to the evorment, when it gets in a stream or creek and it sours it produces a bactria that does a lot of damage

 

Holy Crap.. Good to know.. I usually use Carb and Choke Cleaner when I am Tig Welding.. I never thought about Brake Parts Cleaner.. The Stuff already smells bad, I never gave a moments thought about it being able to seriously injure or kill you.. :-(

 

Brake cleaner

Thanks for the super up date. I will be a Hell of a lot more careful when using brake or carb cleaners. Nasty stuff, but it sure works.

Bill

 

Nasty ass stuff.......

 

I'm glad I read that, I use it all the time before I weld, the good part is it dries quickly, and I always try and have air in the compressor to blow out any excess. Welding anything galvanized can mess you up too.

 

Even in death, CJ is helping others. Good one ya, Boy!!

 

And that is exactly why I always buy non chlorinated brake cleaner, sometimes it is cheaper anyway. Bad stuff