Re: What has everyone got against PCB?

["Bill Lemieux" <gomez-at-netherworld-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

On that fateful day 8/10/00 6:20 PM, thus spake Tesla list:

> Original poster: "Garth van Sittert" <garth-at-mediasupplies.co.za>
> 
> Just what exactly is the disadvantages of using PCB caps or transformers?

Cancer.

> Just
> wanna make sure:  what exactly is PCB for the slightly ignorant (like me)?

This is how it was explained to me by a PSCO lineman:

PCB's (a family of chemicals, not just one) are (if my memory serves me
correctly) Poly-Chlorinated Biphenyls, chemicals added to mundane oils to
make them flameproof for use in transformers.

 (someone correct me- do they also have any benefit toward dielectric
strength?)

 In the bad old days, when pole transformers overheated, melted down, and
blew up on a hot summer night, they tended to rain burning transformer oil
down on all and sundry below, ruining your day if it happened to be you,
your house, or your car that got immolated.

 So mandates for flame-proof oils were enacted.  PCB's were a quick fix.  I
don't know what is done to modern transformer oils to make them
fire-retardant.

 PCB's are powerful carcinogens, it turns out.  They are not death on
greased wheels (as compared to say, nerve gas), but they are to be avoided.

- Gomez

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