Two days ago a sat through a day of OSHA training on Material Safety and SDS reading. My industry uses a fair amount of solvents and monomers/ polymers. It was a great day and while I thought I was knowledgeable already I learned a lot.
In thinking of our hobby during this class clearly we know the dangers of the alcohol that we make. But what was eye opening for me is that Citrus oils and solvents made from citrus are more dangerous (as far as ppm exposure) than standard hardware variety of solvents. SO to be precise when you add citrus zest to your beer you technically would be safer to add an equivalent amount of paint thinner instead (if you could actually know the amount of citrus oil you are adding). If you are using Citrisol in your garage because you think it is safer than Naptha than just stop using it. If your wife has some kind of essential oil aroma therapy device in your house, get rid of that too. If you have candles (candles alone are no good) that have natural aromas be careful with those. And know that anything with the zest of citrus in it is not particularly good for you. Just think, the oranges and lemons evolved these skins to keep themselves from being eaten, they are natural pesticides.
Did you mean candles alone are good?
So is the small amount of zest we would use from an orange dangerous if you were to only brew something that you use it in occasionally? I also wonder what kind of pesticides are on fruit that will not wash off very easily. Eye opening info squeege.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing brother!
Nice read
Thats why we use DDT up here… won’t hardly hurt you! …Just clowning there… Yes OSHA has alot of technical hygiene info out there, and some is hard to digest… I will have to do some more reading to honestly dis the citric based solvents… In my end of their rules, now cement dust is like a death sentence… You know it as the silica dust derived from… Cement dust! I have a Leary eye on their hypothesis… Sneezles61
I’m just wondering which industrial solvent company sponsored the research. Cui Bono.
Guess agent orange. Not a good product either than
Did they go into the actual mechanisms by which it harms the body? What body systems are affected?
Basic rule of them is… if something is burning indoors it is hurting you. Candles are unregulated anything could be in those fragrances and even wax in its purest beeswax form is not safe.
Just to be ABSOLUTELY CLEAR the alcohol that I am going to continue to imbibe is more dangerous than the citrus zest I’m putting in my drink. I will most likely keep putting zest in my beer but I will not be using Citrisol as a solvent and if something is labeled with the “natural” cleaning power of oranges I will choose another product.
@sneezles61 I did ask about silicosis and our instructor surprised me by telling us that farmers, the tillers of earth, have some of the highest rates of silicosis. Finally I have confirmation that going to the beach is killing me (points fingers at wife)
Also the label “Nontoxic” means nothing in the US. It means that the chemicals most likely have not been tested yet and if they have been tested that less than 50% of the rat/mice that were fed the ingredient died in 2 days. SO because lead, cadmium, cobalt and asbestos take much longer than a few days to kill they would technically fall into a non-toxic label.
Our class did not go into the mechanics of citrus danger except that because people consider natural to mean safe they use more of it without PPE and because it doesn’t smell bad they can be completely reckless about cleanup.
Here is a link to Lemon Oil Natural sds. This SDS conforms to the new, much stricter, EU safety standards. You will see that it does not have a warning icon, it has almost all of them. LOL
What is sad about agent orange is that it is the Dioxins that continue to hurt the people where it was used. Amazing the 2 linked oxygens could F you up so bad
It was a intresting read.
