Carbide!!!!!

[cap n chris]

So carbide users are "passive poisoners"....... 

I'd go so far as to write that they are "active poisoners" mesel'.

 

[Downer]

That's weird isn't it? Pure acetylene is odourless but carbide stinks because of the phosphine impurity. But phosphine is odourless and only stinks because of other impurities. No doubt these are also odourless and only stink because of impurities. Surely something actually smells all on its little ownsome?

Phosphine really shouldn't be a problem in the environment as the "relatively low concentrations" required to poison people is still a lot higher than the traces produced by spent carbide (don't forget you will have burned most of it already) and it degrades very fast in the soil.

Which all brings me back to the question what IS the toxin in spent carbide, if it isnt slaked lime, and it isnt phosphine (as thats a gas and has left the mixture...) ???

...or is it just residual gas still being slowly released...

...or perhaps its that if it is ingested, stomach acid will release just a bit more phosphine and kill you. That sounds plausable.

BTW kids,  dont make pasta with water from you carbide lamp, bad thing...

Eating the stuff aside, has it actually been shown to be "toxic" to any great degree? Bad for aqueous environments, yes, but buried in the tip or spread over the cabbage patch, I wonder?

Industrially produced carbide is not particularly pure. I found a scientific article on the web which states definitively that carbide often contains traces of arsenic. Like many heavy metals, arsenic is pretty poisonous even in small quanities, and poisonous levels can build up cumulatively both over time and up the food chain.

So the answer to your question is yes.
Mark

Yes, arsenic would be a consideration. Even so, it's not all that toxic (LD50~500mg), it just has a bad name for use by murderers!

As it's made from lime and coal/coke we can immediately get a rough idea of how much is likely to be present in a drum of carbide. i.e. much the same as in a bucket of coal. I'd be more concerned with inhaling it from a burning lamp than any residual traces dumped in landfill. I'm sure "green" people will have a fit at that!

 

[Downer]

One other thing. Lime dumped in a cave is going to absorb CO2 so it's obviously a GOOD thing