>some thoughts on how burning different plastics smell.  If you've
>smelt an overheated or burning paper-phenolic circuit board (used to
>be common, they're tan or dark brown.  Glass-epoxy is more common
>now and are usually colored with a green mask) or have ever smelled
>carbolic acid/phenol that's what burning phenolic plastic smells like.

Sorry, should have said that Bakelite/phenolic plastic burning
doesn't smell like pure phenol.  It's got some formaldehyde that
contributes.  People much older than us knew the smell of pure phenol
because they used it as a disinfectant.  My generation grew up with
Bakelite, Micarta (composite of linen, paper or other things
impregnated with phenolic plastic), early printed circuit boards and such.

If you've ever burned denatured alcohol in an alcohol stove and
gotten a faint nasty eye-burning smell as it warms up, that's
formaldehyde from the methanol used to denature the stove fuel.  By
itself it's sickening, but in burning phenolic it just adds a sort of
tone to the affair.

Yrs,
David