Bill,

I have been around computer rooms [and halon] since the 50's [1950's not 1850's no matter What BenT says] and halon has been the stable florine compound that Larry described since that time at least.  Only reason it's bad for you [in the short term, at least] is that it displaces oxygen.  Makes it tough to breathe very effectively.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From:   Bill Davidson [SMTP:wdavidson@THEGRID.NET]
Sent:   Friday, November 10, 2000 11:00 AM
To:     vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject:        Re: Halon & extinguishers in general

> > Halon is a brand name for the chemical Carbon Tetrachloride...
> > The county water quality people nearly shut down my water well last year
> > because we got just one reading of .6 (point six) parts per Billion
> >
> > The county gave me some printed information on Carbon Tetrachloride:
>
> Bill,
> I think your county is a bit confused. Halon 1211 is
> bromochlorodifluoromethane, formula CF2CIBR. Halon 1301 (also known as
> Freon 1301) is bromotrifluoromethane, formula CBrF3. 1000 ppm is the
> OSHA PEL. Carbon tetraflouride is CF4, I believe, and is a nasty
> character.

Larry,
perhaps they have changed the Halon formula over the years, but it certainly
was Carbon Tet at one point... which means there may still be some charged
with it out there somewhere... perhaps in Vanagons.... so it's good
information to have here on the list... also, not sure I would trust the new
formulations of Halon either... wonder how many years it will take for them
to do the testing that will tell us how bad that stuff is??? sometimes it
seems that industry is just playing a shell game with our health...

Bill