I didn't know you were a chemist. Do you have a white lab coat?

 

only when I have to be in the lab

 

fancy!

 

Umm... I've been burning the coating off my copper wire for years! Literally from age 16 (shortly after I got my first ranger and began hauling junk) to about 19, when I got my first "real job" and stopped hauling big loads of junk... I knew that the smoke smelled horrible... Oddly enough, I am around hot, molten plastic all day at work, and when I assist in changing over a large line, you can smell the stuff, it smokes like an old dodge!(no offense Rube)... The largest I helped with was 18" SDR7.3... It was around 18.1" in outer diameter, and around 12.5" in inner diameter... Each 50 foot joint of that stuff weighed nearly as much as my car..., and the smoke was so think you couldn't hardly see, and I coughed until I thought there would be blood...

Sometimes I hate my job...

 

I can get you a job working with me as a cook. We are in desperate need of help!

 

ummm

that sounds like it has OSHA violation(s) written all over it.

Do they give you the opportunity to wear respirators?
(not necessarily required to (if vapors are known to be lung irritants or contain toxic substances, you might have a case)

Do they provide you with MSDS sheets (Material Safety Data Sheets)?
By law, they must make available an MSDS sheet for any chemical substance you handle. I don't know what the law is w r t intermediate processing steps but if they know the general composition of the "smoke" you are regularly exposed to, they should be offering appropriate PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), be it gloves, goggles, helmets, respirators if they give a damn about you AND don't want to get sued by you into next Thursday 20 years from now.

The real dangers of plastics giving off toxic stuff is when they are

1)smoldering and giving off that thick smoke. Like when people burn trash in the yard, the plastic is smoldering, gives off all kinds of nasty toxic fumes (depending on the plastic). It's not hot enough to actually burn the plastic--only to make it smolder. Nasty. Do not do this. If you're not breathing it in, your neighbor probably is.

2) House fires, where the plastic starts to burn, giving off truly nasty and dangerous by products like cyanide gas, dioxins, etc. As stated before, the fumes from burning plastics are often what kill people in house fires. Firefighters now wear resp w tanks because of this. If they don't want to breathe it trying to save you, you don't want to be breathing it---and hopefully you're still alive when they find you.

I don't know what your job actually entails. Sounds like some type of plastics manufacturing plant, If so, they should know what they are required to do by law.
Raw materials used for making polymers can be nasty -- hence the requirement for MSDS for each and every compound.

I doubt they are "burning" plastic at your plant (unless they are using/reusing existing plastic as a raw ingredient).

The vapor that choked you is probably a combination of some type of acid wash (sulfuric maybe) and then followed by a final rinse bath that also cools the material down and likely does not really get rid of 100% of the acid wash. Those kinds of vapors can be very irritating to the lungs.

Also remember that molten is not the same as smoldering or burning. Plastic will assume different forms depending on temperature and the molecular weight, among other things. They are heating it until it is liquid enough so it will flow when it needs to be moved from point A to point B, or heating it to a specific temperature to drive a desired chemical reaction.

SDR7.3 is High Density PolyEthylene (HDPE). I'm not familiar with the manufacturing process so I don't know the raw ingredients, intermediates, or the volatile (airborne vapor given off) byproducts of processing, nor the finishing cleaning steps and associated volatiles.

If you can tell me what chemicals are used I can do some digging for you.
Rules: Do NOT tell me the entire process--that is proprietary. For that matter don't tell me the company name. Just the starting chemicals (I can figure out from that the synthesis method they are using, and any chemicals added along the way, and what chemicals they use at the end for cleaning etc.

Oh by the way, I'm NEVER in the lab so I never wear my lab coat.

And my training is in Polymer (Plastics) Chemistry heee heee heee
(Disclaimer: Not all polymers are plastics)

 

So if you make plastics, start making Saturn body panels!

 

front me $2M and I might write up a business plan

 

Someone on the redline group actually came across a company that had the machinery that Saturn used to make newer model body panels. They tried working up a business plan for it.
I really don't want to see the numbers for it

 

Yes, they provide us with MSDS sheets and the opportunity to use respirators, or at least in the lower building, with the largest line...

All we run is HDPE pipe, in sizes ranging from 1/2" SIDR17(the wall thickness and unit of measurement) to 18" SDR7... We make pipe for water, gas, and plain conduit material, in various colors, but the process is the same... Some virgin material in pelletized form is mixed with some color and/ or some recycled material and extruded through some vacuum tanks starting at nearly 400 degrees... The only fluid used is water, for cooling purposes... The pipe comes out clean, and requires no fort her process, other than cutting to length and putting it on a coil/reel/pallet of sticks...There is no smoke when starting up a line running 12" or smaller pipe, but the bigger pipe that runs slower, smokes pretty bad when it's first started up...

Now, I don't think I divulged any sort of secret and I didn't use our name...