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

[Paul Koning]

>>>>> "Michael" == Michael Sokolov <msokolov at ivan.harhan.org> writes:

 Michael> So if halon is really so benign, why did they ban it?  

Enviroscares.

I'm puzzled by some of the earlier discussion.  In particular, the
"displace all air" stuff sounds bogus.  I remember the Halon setup in
our lab at DEC; I don't think those tanks were anywhere near big
enough to displace a substantial fraction of the oxygen from the
room.  Note that the body works perfectly well with substantially less
air than you get at sea level -- that's how you function in an
airplane. 

>From what I remember, the concentration of Halon in the air for fire
suppression is only a few percent.  The real puzzle is how that can be
-- there's lots of oxygen left, yet the fire goes out.  I don't
remember the mechanism.  But the key point is that, as far as I have
heard, Halon does NOT function by "displacing all oxygen from the
room". 

       paul