Xref: utzoo sci.chem:512 sci.med:12627 sci.bio:2362
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!jk3k+
From: jk3k+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joe Keane)
Newsgroups: sci.chem,sci.med,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Butane death
Message-ID: 
Date: 27 Sep 89 23:51:27 GMT
References: <4655@cps3xx.UUCP> <9977@multimax.Encore.COM> <22452@cup.portal.com> <16129@vail.ICO.ISC.COM>,
	<3412@kitty.UUCP>
Organization: Mathematics, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 13
In-Reply-To: <3412@kitty.UUCP>

Larry Lippman writes:
>In any event, the propellant in a can of Pam is isobutane; scary to be
>intentionally spraying a mixture of ethanol and corn oil propelled by
>isobutane around a stove, huh?  How the makers of Pam can afford the
liability
>insurance for their product is a mystery to me.

Presumably because it's pretty safe.  If a dozen people blew themselves
up every year because of this, i'm sure we'd hear about it.  Here's my
analysis.  If somehow you managed to spray it into an open flame, you'd
have a small blowtorch for a little while.  It _might_ explode if you're
stupid enough to keep doing this for a while.  Of course throwing it
into a fire is another matter...