[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: Green Cleaners

[Keith Winston]

Just to be clear, since I got several personal emails on this:

It wasn't the scent. I didn't get high. I was using the Simple Green 
that came in a spray bottle, which is already diluted I think (though 
perhaps this is where I went wrong).

I was cleaning the shower from inside, with water running to hose down 
the walls, in order to scrub off thick scum on the glass walls.

I almost died. I am not being melodramatic.

The last time I remember coming that close was when I used an industrial 
paint sprayer to spray stain-blocker primer through an entire house and 
then later noticed it said "do not apply with a sprayer." It screwed up 
my lungs for months. It had some nasty ammonia-based solvent that made 
breathing almost impossible (I can be remarkably stupid when I'm in a 
hurry. It's really problematic, given how often I'm in a hurry. I should 
have stopped, in both cases, within seconds of starting.).

I still don't know what happened with my Simple Green experience, but 
one person wrote me personally and said they'd had a similar experience. 
I like the fact that Simple Green is out there, making everyone think 
about the toxicity of their cleaning products. But, in an enclosed 
space, it almost knocked me out.

I don't know why the MSDS doesn't reflect anything about that risk. I 
assume it has something to do with the water, aerosolization, or 
something. Feel free to duplicate my experiment, most people won't be as 
calm about almost dying as I'm being here.

Just have someone handy to drag you out. And the good news is, the 
entire experience will only take a couple minutes! Oh, one other thing: 
I didn't spray it on 2 square inches at a time, I sprayed several square 
feet and then started scrubbing with a brush. That might be an important 
experimental procedure for those excited about duplicating the results.

Of course in retrospect this was all very stupid (did I mention this was 
stupid?), but it seems unlikely to me that I could be THAT overcome in 
one case, and it's all friendly and yummy when used in smaller 
quantities. But I don't really know about that.

Keith

Lawrence Lile wrote:
> We used an industrial version of Simple Green to clean epoxy resins.
> Pure orange oil. Worked pretty well in cleaning up resin.  I did the
> first test of it, and promptly got quite a high on the fumes. I walked,
> or rather glided, out to get some fresh air, and decided that orange oil
> was not going to be the Green solution to our solvent problems.  Also, I
> really enjoyed the pink elephants, purple hippos and yellow giraffes
> that had somehow started dancing around with Timothy Leary in our
> parking lot. 
>
> Pure orange oil is quite a mean solvent, about as effective as Methyl
> Chloride on the chemicals we were using, but we'd have to use it in a
> glove box or a fume hood to make it work.  Simple Green is made of
> diluted orange oil, but it still can create some fumes and if you are
> sensitive, watch out! 
>
>  
>  
> Lawrence Lile, P.E., LEED AP
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
> [mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Keith
> Winston
> Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 5:36 PM
> To: Greenbuilder list
> Subject: [BULK] Re: [Greenbuilding] Green Cleaners
> Importance: Low
>
> I used Simple Green to clean the inside of a glass shower stall a while 
> back. I very nearly abruptly passed out. I was astonished. I can't 
> remember the last time I was so quickly and complete overwhelmed by 
> chemical fumes. I don't know what it was, when I look at the MSDS it 
> looks very innocent. Feel free to try the experiment. Maybe it reacts 
> with water? I don't know, but it was INTENSE, and frightening!
>
> And no, I'm not in the pay of "Complicated Yellow" or anyone...
>
> Keith
>
>
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>   

-- 
Keith Winston
Earth Sun Energy Systems
Hyattsville, MD 20781
301-980-6325
send me mail at 
keith at the company below
www.EarthSunEnergy.com