Be careful with brake cleaner.....
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Wow!
I ran across this a while ago. Checked to make sure my brake kleen didn't contain tetrachloroethylene.
I've randomly checked some other brands and haven't ran across any that did contain tetrachloroethylene yet, but I haven't checked every brand by any means.
I've randomly checked some other brands and haven't ran across any that did contain tetrachloroethylene yet, but I haven't checked every brand by any means.
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When I worked at Finning we used to regularly use brake clean to clean the propane carbs with the engine running.......until we found out that the smell out of the exhaust was phosgene gas, aka nerve gas. A little while later, we heard that the Edmonton branch sent 4 mechanics to the hospital when they breathed in phosgene gas likely from someone cleaning a propane carb.
I've had this happen to me twice, one time i was welding up cracks on a auto greased 5th wheel compensator and got a wif of chlorine, it just about knocked me out, second time i was welding up inside a alum cross member just behind the upper couple plate with my respirator on i guess it doesn't seal that well with a beard cause it just about knocked me right out, i had shallow breathing for an hour or so before feeling better, then a week later one of our old mechanics phoned us and told us about a guy he worked ended up with severe emphysema and would never work again for tig welding brake clean.
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I've also had it react with my blue nitril gloves and burn my finger leaving a half finger scar patch. Since then I have only used the black heavy duty gloves when using brake cleaner. I love the stuff becuase nothing takes off grease quicker.
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4,911 Posts
..and if you think it ends with brake cleaner think again.
I spent Tuesday night in the ER in Langley Memorial, massive chest pains and a heart rate around 180 bpm (BP a little low but fairly normal - 120/65). I did the brakes on the back end of a friend's car and within an hour of it being done I was becoming extremely dizzy and disorientated, my body trying hard to go unconscious. I tried to settle down, thinking nothing of the incident, but within an hour of it starting it was so bad I couldn't even talk and it was all I could do to fight to stay standing. Major heart palpitations and I heard my heart stop for a a few seconds twice just shortly before the ambulance arrived, and proceeded to empty my lunch in to a garbage bag when I got in to the ambulance. I spent most of the evening in a mild seizure, legs and arms kicking uncontrollably and unable to do much of anything for myself. The doctor diagnosed it as an anxiety attack and gave me an Ativan pill, and when it did nothing they doped me up with a needle full of Gravol which calmed my heart down to ~116 bpm. Being unable to really communicate with any medical personal they had no real idea of what was going on or what happened, and I just had to go with it. I got released sometime in the early morning and driven home, and was still completely out of it when I got dropped off. I spent the next day sleeping the incident off..
I'm not a pothead by any stretch of the imagination, but I have been stoned on a couple of occasions before (and have eaten pot cookies before with no ill effect) so I do have an idea of what to expect with it. I had a single pot cookie with dinner (burger and fries) but I never got "high", it was far beyond that and it wasn't one bit of a paranoid panic attack and I stayed very clear headed and calm throughout the entire ordeal, even though I couldn't communicate. Maybe I just got ROYALLY ripped, but no way in hell one cookie could do that. If all that happened was that I got the high of a lifetime, then I guess I could be happy with it - and if so, you potheads are complete fuking idiots to put yourself though that sort of sh!t, it was beyond insane. I think maybe it kicked off the reaction, thats all. I haven't had an appetite since, and my body's been way off kilter all week, my chest feels like someone's hit me with a baseball bat. This is the only variable in the situation I'm not sure of, and when the hospital staff heard drugs were involved, I was completely brushed off. I haven't been in for a checkup since because of the long weekend and my scheduling.
The only thing I can honestly pinpoint it on was plasma cutting out the bolts on the rear wheel cylinders and heating up the brake lines to break the lines loose to replace them. There was a fair bit of various penetrating fluids and brake fluid cooked off as smoke in the process, and as much as I tried to avoid it I got a fair bit of it in my face being that I was laying under the car in the direct line of the action. There was adequate ventilation so I never thought much of it.
Any thoughts or previous experience with either pot cookies or burning brake fluid/penetrating fluids? May possibly be the dumbest post of the year here but I am absolutely dead serious about it, I do want to know what happened to me. I ain't dead (that I know of - and if I am this is a cruel joke reincarnating as me again), so for me I'm just chocking it up as a live-and-learn situation for now. LR
I spent Tuesday night in the ER in Langley Memorial, massive chest pains and a heart rate around 180 bpm (BP a little low but fairly normal - 120/65). I did the brakes on the back end of a friend's car and within an hour of it being done I was becoming extremely dizzy and disorientated, my body trying hard to go unconscious. I tried to settle down, thinking nothing of the incident, but within an hour of it starting it was so bad I couldn't even talk and it was all I could do to fight to stay standing. Major heart palpitations and I heard my heart stop for a a few seconds twice just shortly before the ambulance arrived, and proceeded to empty my lunch in to a garbage bag when I got in to the ambulance. I spent most of the evening in a mild seizure, legs and arms kicking uncontrollably and unable to do much of anything for myself. The doctor diagnosed it as an anxiety attack and gave me an Ativan pill, and when it did nothing they doped me up with a needle full of Gravol which calmed my heart down to ~116 bpm. Being unable to really communicate with any medical personal they had no real idea of what was going on or what happened, and I just had to go with it. I got released sometime in the early morning and driven home, and was still completely out of it when I got dropped off. I spent the next day sleeping the incident off..
I'm not a pothead by any stretch of the imagination, but I have been stoned on a couple of occasions before (and have eaten pot cookies before with no ill effect) so I do have an idea of what to expect with it. I had a single pot cookie with dinner (burger and fries) but I never got "high", it was far beyond that and it wasn't one bit of a paranoid panic attack and I stayed very clear headed and calm throughout the entire ordeal, even though I couldn't communicate. Maybe I just got ROYALLY ripped, but no way in hell one cookie could do that. If all that happened was that I got the high of a lifetime, then I guess I could be happy with it - and if so, you potheads are complete fuking idiots to put yourself though that sort of sh!t, it was beyond insane. I think maybe it kicked off the reaction, thats all. I haven't had an appetite since, and my body's been way off kilter all week, my chest feels like someone's hit me with a baseball bat. This is the only variable in the situation I'm not sure of, and when the hospital staff heard drugs were involved, I was completely brushed off. I haven't been in for a checkup since because of the long weekend and my scheduling.
The only thing I can honestly pinpoint it on was plasma cutting out the bolts on the rear wheel cylinders and heating up the brake lines to break the lines loose to replace them. There was a fair bit of various penetrating fluids and brake fluid cooked off as smoke in the process, and as much as I tried to avoid it I got a fair bit of it in my face being that I was laying under the car in the direct line of the action. There was adequate ventilation so I never thought much of it.
Any thoughts or previous experience with either pot cookies or burning brake fluid/penetrating fluids? May possibly be the dumbest post of the year here but I am absolutely dead serious about it, I do want to know what happened to me. I ain't dead (that I know of - and if I am this is a cruel joke reincarnating as me again), so for me I'm just chocking it up as a live-and-learn situation for now. LR
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i smoked some pot once about 8 years ago where i had a bad trip like that. puking, heart rate, nervous, anxiety. in the end i passed out and slept it off but it was a bad trip. it definitely didn't feel like getting high on pot.
i think the brain just panics and shorts out on it's own sometimes for no real reason when certain chemicals are dumped on it. it's the body's natural way of trying to flush out something it senses is wrong and sometimes it over-reacts.
i think the brain just panics and shorts out on it's own sometimes for no real reason when certain chemicals are dumped on it. it's the body's natural way of trying to flush out something it senses is wrong and sometimes it over-reacts.
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90% of the whole thing can be attributed to a bad high [which is why I'm willing to say thats what it was], but the biggest thing for me is the complete lack of appetite since (which is rather odd for me) and the fact that I was dead calm the whole time, absolutely no anxiety and no nervousness whatsoever. The seizures I had isn't common with pot 'overdose', but is with CO poisoning. I knew something was very wrong with me and I did something about it, simply and flatly as that, no emotion involved. I put together a checklist mentally of what had to be done and got the girls to do it (ie, lock the house up, phone 911, phone work, ect ect). My head stayed pretty clear the whole time, I just had almost zero motor control and very minimal, quiet and difficult yet clear speech (just a low laboured whisper). Just weird as hell if you ask me, but a lot of the symptoms also point to carbon monoxide poisoning which is the part that bothers me. I personally believe it was a mix of the two, or one kicked the other off. Stupid move on my behalf on both parts, but its more of a warning to others to be careful with whatever you do. Even the simplest of things you have no idea how your body's going to react to them.... and if I'm ever looking for some killer pot cookies that'll completely kick my ass again, I'm pretty sure I know where to find them - but maybe I'll try a half of one next time
LREating pot will give you a godawful unpleasant body stone, or so I've heard.
Don't breath the smoke. Heat breakdown chemicals from penetrants, oils, paints, and so on, are a complete unknown. Mix a bunch of chemicals together, add heat and you've got the mad scientist's laboratory, which is generating neurotoxins and god knows what else. If you're using arc equipment you've even got a bit of ozone in there to make sure there's highly reactive oxygen for your chemical experiment.
Ideally use breathing equipment, lacking that, make sure you have ventilation away from you and keep yourself out of the smoke.
Another point is that as more and more things get made in china we have less and less idea what is in them. Your penetrant of choice may have all kinds of chemical contamination in it that you don't know about, beyond the primary ingredients.
Don't breath the smoke. Heat breakdown chemicals from penetrants, oils, paints, and so on, are a complete unknown. Mix a bunch of chemicals together, add heat and you've got the mad scientist's laboratory, which is generating neurotoxins and god knows what else. If you're using arc equipment you've even got a bit of ozone in there to make sure there's highly reactive oxygen for your chemical experiment.
Ideally use breathing equipment, lacking that, make sure you have ventilation away from you and keep yourself out of the smoke.
Another point is that as more and more things get made in china we have less and less idea what is in them. Your penetrant of choice may have all kinds of chemical contamination in it that you don't know about, beyond the primary ingredients.
i try and avoid brake clean whenever possible, and when i use it spray from like 4 feet back with a pump and spray with the nozzle on a jet spray, not mist. i stilll dont like it.
as for those crazy old weed cookies, ive seen people freak out from eating too many of those, probably 4 or 5 and they were strong! they basically puked and were freaking out the whole night, but not at a dangerous level where they needed hospitalization.
i would say its from that solvent/brake fluid whatever it was smoke you inhaled earlier in the day, like I always say... dont inhale that silly smoke.
as for those crazy old weed cookies, ive seen people freak out from eating too many of those, probably 4 or 5 and they were strong! they basically puked and were freaking out the whole night, but not at a dangerous level where they needed hospitalization.
i would say its from that solvent/brake fluid whatever it was smoke you inhaled earlier in the day, like I always say... dont inhale that silly smoke.
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Excellent thread and info here.
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Never had any issues with pot cookies, I would put a bet down saying it was all the smoke you were breathing. Pretty extreme stuff if it takes grese off like that, I used to use it to clean my hands off, but I never put heat to it before.
Glad your still here Matt.
Glad your still here Matt.
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Yeah, I'm really starting to think that too. My chest still hurts like a mutherfuker and I get winded pretty easily at work. Sucks too cause I have a two week turkey hunting trip in Christina Lake starting on the 12th and its going to be involving a lot of riding and hiking, this is the last thing I need right now. I'm going to book an appointment in for this week with the doc come Monday morning. LR
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Take it easy Matt. Keep us updated.
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