reid@Glacier.ARPA (12/12/84)
Tonight as I sat down to read this week's issue of Time and contemplated for the first time the identity of the poison gas that killed 2500 people in India recently, I suddenly remembered that the gas, Methyl Isocyanate, is a close relative of the substance that is used as the catalyst in Imron paint. (Imron is everyone's favorite bicycle paint.) The Imron documentation describes the catalyst as consisting of polyisocyanates. To quote Bike Tech 3:4, page 6: ...the nonindustrial use of Imron is not officially endorsed by DuPont because, during pouring, mixing, and spraying, Imron releases isocyanate vapors which are very harmful if inhaled in any quantity. Only rigorous attention to air filtering and ventilation will guarantee a painter's health. That issue of Bike Tech contains some instructions for how to use Imron safely (such as shaving off your beard and wearing scuba gear to provide uncontaminated air while you are painting), but it seems to me that a better instruction is to stay away from this stuff, completely, regardless of how wonderful it makes your bike look. Brian Reid, Stanford Reid@SU-Glacier.ARPA decwrl!glacier!reid