Warning, Will Robinson. Danger, danger.
Jun. 18th, 2009 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerApropos of nothing particularly, except that it was interesting. The Japanese TV show Science Zero the other day showed us what happens if you do those things that the labels say don't do.
For example, dry ice machines are common in Japanese grocery stores. There apparently are warnings on these machines to not put dry ice into bottles. So they took a 2 L plastic bottle, such as drinks come in, put some water in it, poured in some dry ice, and put the lid on. Then stepped behind the safety shields.
The camera stayed up close, so we got to see the bottle swelling and then exploding. Fairly impressive. Not something you would like happening in your hand.
Or how about the little packages of desiccant -- stay dry -- stuff that comes in crackers and other foods here in Japan. They skipped the first warning -- do not eat -- but they did point out that the second warning says to keep away from water. Now why would that be? Well, first they put some of the contents in a pyrex bowl, put the sensor for a digital thermometer into the pile, and measured. 25 degrees centigrade. Then they poured some water into the pile. In a very short time, it was over 200 degrees centigrade!
They also showed an experiment with the normal sink trap -- a plastic one -- here in Japan. They put a paper filter in it, as is common in kitchens here, and the contents of one package of desiccant. As if a housewife had torn it open and dropped it into the trash. Then they poured water over it. It steamed like the first one, and then the paper filter caught fire! Apparently this is a reasonably common result of disposing of these little bags of desiccant. They get mixed up with other trash, then watered one way or another, and catch fire. The show recommended putting these into the non-burnable trash to help avoid this.
Seeing what happens certainly gives the warnings a little bit more emphasis.
For example, dry ice machines are common in Japanese grocery stores. There apparently are warnings on these machines to not put dry ice into bottles. So they took a 2 L plastic bottle, such as drinks come in, put some water in it, poured in some dry ice, and put the lid on. Then stepped behind the safety shields.
The camera stayed up close, so we got to see the bottle swelling and then exploding. Fairly impressive. Not something you would like happening in your hand.
Or how about the little packages of desiccant -- stay dry -- stuff that comes in crackers and other foods here in Japan. They skipped the first warning -- do not eat -- but they did point out that the second warning says to keep away from water. Now why would that be? Well, first they put some of the contents in a pyrex bowl, put the sensor for a digital thermometer into the pile, and measured. 25 degrees centigrade. Then they poured some water into the pile. In a very short time, it was over 200 degrees centigrade!
They also showed an experiment with the normal sink trap -- a plastic one -- here in Japan. They put a paper filter in it, as is common in kitchens here, and the contents of one package of desiccant. As if a housewife had torn it open and dropped it into the trash. Then they poured water over it. It steamed like the first one, and then the paper filter caught fire! Apparently this is a reasonably common result of disposing of these little bags of desiccant. They get mixed up with other trash, then watered one way or another, and catch fire. The show recommended putting these into the non-burnable trash to help avoid this.
Seeing what happens certainly gives the warnings a little bit more emphasis.
