> wrote in message news:mailman.22.1197389330.36895.rec.food.sourdoug ...

> I have survived too from doing many things that I would not think of doing
today. As a chemist, I still warn you from ingesting carbon tetrachloride
(tetrachloromethane). It was once used as a fire extinguisher, but it was found
that the danger of phosgene was too great for that use and for using it as a dry
cleaning agent. It has been banned from consumer products in the Us since
about 1970. We learn as time passes on, or else we pass on. <

> AGAIN, DO NOT USE CARBON TETRACHLORIDE IN FOOD. <

How does the chemist feel about benzoyl peroxide and chlorine dioxide, those
substances used to bleach flour, and potassium bromate, which bleaches as well
as strengthens gluten, and unlike the first two, remains in the flour until after
it is sold (but probably not after it is baked)?

Does he think that a few drops of carbon tetrachloride used to fumigate a
sealed bucket of whole grain remains, to any extent at all, after the grain
is milled and baked? Does he believe that carbon tetrachloride combines
chemically with the grain?

Does he believe that the fumigants used by an exterminator will injure or kill
the (human) occupants when they return? Do I dare spray my apple trees with,
for instance, malathione? Do I dare drink water that has been treated with
chlorine? How about the chlorine in my salt shaker, and the hazard of water
poisoning when canoeing, or water-boarding?

Is a person educated as a chemist smart enough to take his email client out
of rich-text mode?

--
Dicky

Carbon dioxide is also good for fumigating grain. It works by being heavier than
air and asphyxiating any air-breathing thing that is immersed in it. I asked for
some solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) at the pharmacy counter of my Walgreens
and was referred to the chief pharmacist. (They get frozen stuff packed with
dry ice several time a week). I explained to him that I wanted to put a chip of
it in a ten-gallon bucket of grain and let it vaporize to drove the air out through
a small hole in the lid, and suffocate any bugs, larvae, eggs, etc. He refused it
to me. Apparently he feels it is too dangerous for non-professional use.

Well, heck, I still have a half full bottle of Carbona.
..