Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site Glacier.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!decwrl!Glacier!reid
From: reid@Glacier.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.bicycle
Subject: painting your bicycle and 2500 dead in India
Message-ID: <1852@Glacier.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 12-Dec-84 04:08:41 EST
Article-I.D.: Glacier.1852
Posted: Wed Dec 12 04:08:41 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Dec-84 06:23:36 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Stanford University, Computer Systems Lab
Lines: 22

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