Since there have been more than a few threads on stripping paint, even some products used by some to clean track, the following should be of interest to many. This is about, specifically, products containing methylene chloride (dichloromethylene) and NMP. So, just for awareness.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/16/methylene-chloride-epa-bans-chemical-used-popular-paint-strippers/3190041002/
Googling will provide the background, including cases of fatalities in some cases of ample use of these in enclosed spaces. It is certainly worthy of awareness. Other articles indicate that many retail outlets have earlier eliminated sales of consumer products containing these items.
I presume that most of us on the forum tend toward reasonable precautions; e.g., in spray painting of solvent based paints. I was surprised that these products containing methylene chloride or DMP are uniquely hazardous. These are quite different from the denatured alcohol or Superclean (caustic type) i have used in paint stripping factory rolling stock.
In looking around the web, I found it difficult to detemine whether the MSDS sheets on some products contain these unique offenders, as the ingredient descriptions tend not to be specific. I do not tend to over react, but intend to go through my shelves to see what I have and whether I am confident these ingredients are not included. I expect the doubtful items will not be MR use items as opposed to general paint removers.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the information. I never liked working with the stuff to begin with.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
It would be nice to know specific products. A couple of Google searches shows Goof Off, but no other specific products.
I was never a furniture refinishing type guy, so my experience with paint strippers is limited.
Mike.
My You Tube
It's nasty stuff. The US is pretty behind the curve on this one as scientists have known about the dangers of these chemicals for a while now and many simliarly advanced countries have outlawed their use in consumer products for years now.
For strpiping paint, sometimes I'll use MEK outside and on metal only but I generaly stick to Purple Power or Super Clean which rely on 2-butoxethanol. It's not the nicest chemical when it comes to drying out your skin, but it's harmless to plastic, relativey safe, biodegradable, not going to poison you with fumes, etc.
As a bit of context, 2-butoxethanol is the chemical that used to make Simple Green so good at stripping paint from plastic before they deemed it not quite safe enough to have in Simple Green and changed the formula.
Visit the Chicago Valley Railroad for Chicago Trainspotting and Budget Model Railroading.
The "other bad news" Methylene Chloride is also used in some of the best stryrene solvent cements. This may make it harder to obtain good plastic cement to assemble our models.
binder001Methylene Chloride is also used in some of the best stryrene solvent cements.
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Does anyone know which cements might be effected?
I have used Testors cement exclusively for decades.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
peahrensSince there have been more than a few threads on stripping paint, even some products used by some to clean track, the following should be of interest to many. This is about, specifically, products containing methylene chloride (dichloromethylene)...
Methylene chloride is dichloromethane, something very different.
Note that the current hazard appears to be similar to industrial Freons in that the solvent's vapors are 'heavier than air' and pose an asphyxiation hazard in closed 'bowls' like bathtubs, particularly when 'loss of consciousness' results in nose and mouth being further submerged in the gas pool. Seems comparatively unlikely that most model-railroading uses of stripping involve this situation.
Not that there aren't reasons aplenty to avoid breathing even low concentrations of dichloromethane!
n-methyl pyrrolidone is particularly interesting as the most commercially useful solvent for 'clean coal' SRC -- it dissolves the carbon and some of the volatiles, very effectively leaving the ash, sulfur, and other contaminants out of solution; as it is vacuum-evaporated it leaves the carbon very finely divided (this is IIRC how the fuel for the coal-burning Eldorados was made, in case some here weren't aware of that technological miracle). Basically, don't use it if you're pregnant or want to be. (This rules out a great many model railroaders!)
While it is wise to know even the more esoteric forms of chemical toxicity, it is also important to check precisely how and why a given compound poses its risks.
(BTW, in IUPAC and the United States at least it's "2-butoxyethanol", with the "y". And I know it's a typo, but DMP is a crosslinker for polymers, not anything remotely related to NMP in terms of use.)