OT Don't read this (was Re: Altair MBL source)

[Geoffrey Thomas]

Yes you're right about it not absorbing oxygen , but given that it was a
missile room , I think it's fair to say that they would have pumped a hell
of a lot of it in as quickly as possible - and it does have toxic
by-products when subjected to high temperatures.

http://erd.dli.state.mt.us/safetyhealth/brochures/halon.pdf


----- Original Message -----
From: <shoppa_classiccmp at trailing-edge.com>
To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 6:12 PM
Subject: Re: OT Don't read this (was Re: Altair MBL source)


> > Apparently the whole area gets flooded with halon (sp?) to quickly
absorb
> > any oxygen from the air, so if you hang about ......
>
> "Absorb any oxygen" is a bit harsh.  Halon is pretty good at stopping
> things from burning but it doesn't make it impossible to breathe.  It's
> not the most healthy thing to breathe but in the 80's and earlier a
> very common demo of halon extinguishers had the salesman in a halon filled
> booth, demonstrating how all fires go out, while happily breathing the
> stuff.
>
> Now, CO2 oxygen-displacement extinguishers, that's a different story.
>
> Tim.
>