[HN Gopher] Benzene at 200
___________________________________________________________________
Benzene at 200
Author : Brajeshwar
Score : 159 points
Date : 2025-06-16 15:16 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.chemistryworld.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.chemistryworld.com)
| kccqzy wrote:
| > Its peculiar behaviour, such as its surprising stability
| despite being highly unsaturated, hinted at a deeper mystery that
| would not be fully resolved until the mid-19th century with the
| proposal of its cyclic structure.
|
| How were chemists in the early 19th century able to determine
| benzene must be highly unsaturated without knowing its structure?
| Did they simply combust it and measure the amount of water vapor
| and carbon dioxide produced?
| perihelions wrote:
| I think you're right,
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliapparat
| sndean wrote:
| Yeah an apparatus like that and work out that benzene had a
| very different carbon dioxide to water ratio than something
| like hexane.
| chermi wrote:
| How cool, it's still in the ACS logo! Germans have the best
| names lol. Calibration apparatus.
| namibj wrote:
| No, it's from al kali ne.
| perihelions wrote:
| > _" Calibration apparatus"_
|
| I believe it's kali from German Kaliumhydroxid[0] (KOH,
| what it uses to dissolve CO2), from the same "potassium"
| root as al-kali in English, from medieval Arabic[1]. (And
| also metonymically a name for the coastal salt-marsh
| plant[2] from which medieval workers sourced
| potash/potassium[3]. I actually submitted that plant to HN
| [4] a few days ago, but no one was excited about it. They
| were once an essential ingredient in glassmaking, hence
| their other name, "glasswort").
|
| [0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliumhydroxid
|
| [1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kali#English
|
| [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsola_kali
|
| [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potash#History
|
| [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44128748
| ahartmetz wrote:
| The literal meaning is indeed potassium apparatus /
| device / contraption. The Kali part is indeed shortened
| from Kaliumhydroxid.
|
| Strangely enough, the modern German name is Funf-Kugel-
| Apparat, "five balls apparatus". I found that one simply
| by going through "Other languages" on Wikipedia.
|
| And benzene is called Benzol in German. And gasoline is
| called Benzin - that word has false friend potential
| because it seems more similar to benzene. It is also not
| derived from the name of Carl Benz of Mercedes-Benz fame
| who used it in the first practical automobile that he
| invented.
| isoprophlex wrote:
| What these early chemists accomplished with, to our eyes,
| extremely crude methods is astounding. Physical methods like
| weighing, burning and collecting residue; describing
| crystallization and precipitation behavior, even smelling (and
| sometimes tasting) was at one point a routine thing to do.
| radicalbyte wrote:
| The story of how Oxygen was discovered was super interesting
| and involved all of these methods.
| bravesoul2 wrote:
| Wow. Pre that discovery what did they think explained
| phonomenon like snuffing out a candle. Or blowing air on a
| fire.
| Horffupolde wrote:
| Yes.
| jcranmer wrote:
| There's a two step-process to stochiometry.
|
| The first step, as people have elaborated below, is combust the
| compound and measure the weights of various oxides, which
| (after the atomic masses of the relevant elements were settled
| around the 1820s) lets you work out the empirical formula of an
| unknown molecule. For benzene, this would tell you that there
| is 1 C : 1 H, but this doesn't tell you if it's C4H4 or C6H6 or
| C111H111.
|
| The second step is to determine the molar mass of your
| compound, which requires finding something that depends on the
| amount of substance but not the mass directly. (In modern
| times, this is primarily mass spec). Back in the 19th century,
| this is probably abusing the ideal gas law, which lets you
| compute the number of moles in a gas given the pressure,
| temperature, and volume of a vessel. Combine this with the mass
| of that container, and you know how much a mole weighs. If you
| get out, say, 77g/mol, and you know that the ratio is 1 C : 1
| H, well, the only formula that makes sense is C6H6 (which
| should ideally have 78g/mol, but you might not get the right
| answer for various experimental reasons).
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| I realize the article is asking for a login (a free account).
| Here is the Archived link
|
| https://archive.is/X1iHZ
| chasil wrote:
| "...benzene holds a special place in education. Generations of
| high school and university students have been introduced to the
| elegance of its structure and the profound mystery surrounding
| its stability."
|
| Admire it from a distance.
|
| "Benzene is classified as a carcinogen, which increases the risk
| of cancer and other illnesses, and is also a notorious cause of
| bone marrow failure. Substantial quantities of epidemiologic,
| clinical, and laboratory data link benzene to aplastic anemia,
| acute leukemia, bone marrow abnormalities and cardiovascular
| disease.
|
| "...There is no safe exposure level; even tiny amounts can cause
| harm."
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzene#Health_effects
| aszantu wrote:
| Lots of sunscreen and other beauty products seem to be
| contaminated with benzene. Johnson & Johnson was caught a few
| times putting it in baby powder or something
| dylan604 wrote:
| J&J's baby powder situation was related to asbestos[0]. So it
| must be under your "or something" hand wavy qualifier. If
| you're going to sling dirt, at least make it accurate. The
| benzene use was in other products like sunscreen[1]
|
| [0]https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-
| report/johnsona...
|
| [1]https://www.jnj.com/media-center/press-releases/johnson-
| john...
| bee_rider wrote:
| They mention the sunscreen in the other sentence of the
| post.
|
| I gotta say, your post comes off (maybe I'm misreading it)
| as a bit critical, given that you seem to agree with the
| other poster as to the underlying problem (frequent
| contamination issues).
| dylan604 wrote:
| I'm critical of making correct accusations. Baby powder
| never had a bezene problem which was being implied. Baby
| powder definitely had issues, but different issues. J&J
| as a company definitely plays fast and loose with product
| ingredients vs health safety, but when making
| accusations, accuracy is important.
|
| You wouldn't want chatGPT or claude to start saying that
| J&J was using benzene in baby powder after scraping HN
| for training data because we played it loose with facts
| would you? In fact, we call LLM incorrectness as
| hallucinating, so would you be less upset if I said that
| the other person was hallucinating?
| bee_rider wrote:
| Sure. I basically agree that their comment was sloppy, I
| just think for example:
|
| > If you're going to sling dirt, at least make it
| accurate.
|
| Something that might fit your sentiment better could be:
|
| > It is right to sling dirt, but it is important to make
| it accurate.
|
| There's a ton of pro-corporate propaganda out there, so
| the good guys should stick together too.
| dylan604 wrote:
| There's another reason too, and inaccurate accusations
| could become libel/slander for evilCorp to come back at
| you for making such inaccurate accusations.
| badgersnake wrote:
| > You wouldn't want chatGPT or claude to start saying
| that J&J was using benzene in baby powder
|
| That would be annoying, but since everyone checks their
| outputs against trusted sources, it wouldn't be a major
| issue.
| dylan604 wrote:
| oh wow, you just won the "makes me spit up my drink from
| such an obviously funny lie" of the day line
| hildolfr wrote:
| Reinforcing the strength of a future corporate product by
| doing their fact checking for them has got to be one of
| the weakest reasons for correctness and precision I've
| ever come across.
|
| Please use a better example for the virtues of being
| correct, there are heaps better reasons.
| dylan604 wrote:
| In my quick search, the domain names were not filling me
| with confidence on the reliability of the site. Since J&J
| released a statement acknowledging their malfeasance,
| might as well take it from the horse's mouth.
| isoprophlex wrote:
| Yeah, indeed it aint healthy... but that didn't stop me from
| smelling it just once in undergrad. I _had_ to get at least one
| whiff of this iconic compount
| kybernetyk wrote:
| How does it smell?
| cenamus wrote:
| Sweet, but still kind of like hydrocarbon if I remember
| right. Definitely strang
| pumnikol wrote:
| Sweet? I'd rather liken it to period blood, but more
| metallic and kind of... vicious. Its smell is hardly
| comparable to its relatives xylene, toluene, ethyl
| benzene.
| ortusdux wrote:
| That was the smell of cell damage /s
| isoprophlex wrote:
| I liked xylene most, followed by toluene. Maybe it's bias
| because you know it is carcinogenic... but indeed benzene
| isn't as nice as the others. Vicious undertones, that's
| very apt.
| cwmoore wrote:
| Xylene, yes, very dangerous, used some for cleanup after
| painting swimming pools, threw up in traffic an hour
| latet.
| ortusdux wrote:
| I do miss the smells of O-chem lab. It is like hearing a
| crips clear note played when you have only ever heard
| chords. I think my favorite was thymol, a thyme extract.
| Something I've smelled a thousand times but never in
| isolation.
| dekhn wrote:
| I'll never forget bromine, fuming brown off whatever high
| school reaction we were doing that day.
| landl0rd wrote:
| You can get a little dose and it's likely not going to hurt
| you. "No safe dose" doesn't mean "any dose is massively
| injurious". You smell it regularly when you pump gasoline.
|
| Funny enough benzene used to be used (a hundred years ago) for
| aftershave and even for douches. I don't even want to think
| about what that did to those people's bodies.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| Apparently Lysol used to be used as douche. If you have a
| long drive, this is worth a listen:
| https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-stuff-you-should-
| know-26...
| robocat wrote:
| > You smell it regularly when you pump gasoline
|
| The EPA limits the percentage of benzene allowed in gasoline
| to a yearly average of 0.62% by volume (with a maximum of
| 1.3%).
|
| (Edit: replaced original sentence that was misleading)
| cyberax wrote:
| It's likely that benzene's danger is a bit exaggerated.
| Certainly don't smear it casually on yourself, but it's
| unlikely to be in the same league as something like
| acrylonitriles.
| kccqzy wrote:
| When I studied organic chemistry in high school, everything was
| theoretical and done on paper. We had lab sessions for only
| inorganic chemistry.
| chasil wrote:
| In 1986, I made nylon, and I am 98% sure that we had benzene.
| ncfausti wrote:
| This.
|
| When an alarming number of friends (all under 40 years old)
| from the same small neighborhood in my hometown were diagnosed
| with leukemia I started to look into the superfund site nearby.
| The pond that is connected to the stream that supplies the
| municipal wells in the area was still disgusting (with visible
| oily residue on the surface) nearly 15 years after the company,
| Congoleum, stopped operations and the plant was demolished.
| Soil testing some years earlier revealed benzene, which has
| been linked to AML.
| GloriousKoji wrote:
| I want a better list than the IARC because their Group 1 has
| substances like benzine and asbestos along side things like
| Alcoholic beverages, Chinese-style Salted fish and processed
| meat.
| oidar wrote:
| The evidence is very strong for all of those. They should be
| in Group 1.
| dekhn wrote:
| the evidence may be strong, but the effect size compared to
| the relative dosing shows they are probably misclassified.
| oidar wrote:
| The IARC grouping isn't for effect size though, it's for
| certainty about carcinogenicity outcomes with exposure.
| It's not going to tell you how much exposure you need to
| get cancer. There are different measurements for that.
|
| IARC Grouping Levels: Group 1 - We are certain this will
| cause cancer Group 2 - Probable it causes cancer Group 3
| - We don't know if it causes cancer Group 4 - Unlikely to
| cause cancer
|
| So when looking at something like tobacco smoking, we
| have lots of evidence that people who smoke get lung
| cancer. So it doesn't fit in group 2,3,4. So it goes in
| group one.
|
| For scales that measure exposure needed for negative
| outcomes, most of the time these are for chemicals that
| are/have been used in work environments. So EPA (and
| probably OSHA) has a threshold scale for benzene, but not
| for tobacco cigarettes. Most of the time, there aren't
| MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) for consumer products
| like cigarettes.
|
| But really, what is more likely - a person getting cancer
| from tobacco smoking or benzene? I would offer that
| tobacco is more of a danger than benzene d/t the easily
| available nature of it. So in practice, tobacco is more
| of a danger than benzene.
| lazide wrote:
| That is why the categories are absurd in practical usage.
|
| Benzene will definitely fuck you up faster and more
| thoroughly at similar dosages than cigarettes.
| lazide wrote:
| Having a glass of wine a day is extremely unlikely to cause
| any detectable negative health outcomes.
|
| Replace the alcohol in that wine with benzene (21ml/glass
| give or take), and it would _not_ play out the same way.
| jhallenworld wrote:
| I went looking for such a better list. One thing I found is
| this, for drinking water contaminants:
|
| https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S240584401.
| ..
|
| It would be nice to have a list like this for the Group 1
| substances, I mean something that shows the amount vs. the
| risk and the number of cases caused by the substance.
|
| For benzene in drinking water it has 0.15 mg/L corresponding
| to 10e-6 lifetime cancer risk. Estimated number of cancer
| cases from benzene in drinking water in the USA is 1 vs.
| 43500 from arsenic.
| _WhySoSerious_ wrote:
| Kekule who dreamt of 6 serpents each eating others tail and
| discovered the hexavalent structure, meanwhile cries in a corner.
| No mention of Kekule in the article.
| carbocation wrote:
| This does seem like an important omission.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Agree:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Kekule#Kekule's_dream
|
| (I had the impression from somewhere else that his "reverie or
| day-dream" might have instead been a pipe dream -- as in the
| literal _pipe dream_ (opium?). But I can now find nothing to
| substantiate this at all so, maybe just ignore.)
|
| EDIT: perhaps I was reading too much into this page from the
| Golden Book of Chemistry:
| https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/the-golden-book-of-chem...
| FlyingSnake wrote:
| Omitting such an important story from the article feels sloppy.
|
| For me, no other story from Chemistry is as fascinating as
| Kekule dreaming up Benzene's molecular structure. An important
| reminder to me about the power of narrative and storytelling.
| epiccoleman wrote:
| For a tangent on Kekule, I really enjoyed Cormac McCarthy's
| essay The Kekule Problem - published in 2017 and apparently his
| first published work of non-fiction.
| jihadjihad wrote:
| Link to essay: https://nautil.us/the-kekul-problem-236574/
| twojacobtwo wrote:
| For members only, apparently.
| meepmorp wrote:
| Yeah, and it's especially sad because they specifically mention
| that the structure was worked out later in the 19th century.
| Why not include a fun little detail like that?
|
| The answer is probably because the author hasn't taken organic
| chem and so never heard the story.
| gavinray wrote:
| I immediately "Ctrl+F" for "Kekule" and saw nothing on the
| page. Disappointing.
|
| When I read a "History of Organic Chemistry" textbook, Kekule
| and Benzene were essentially the springboard.
| jd3 wrote:
| Was going to make the same comment.
|
| https://i.imgur.com/EGyYmkX.jpg
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/16/science/the-benzene-ring-...
| vondur wrote:
| I've read that back in the day chemists used to nearly bathe in
| this stuff. Now it's rarely used in instructional chem labs. Heck
| as an undergrad in the 90's we were using Potassium Dichromate as
| an oxidizer. I spilled some on me and it ate through my lab coat
| and shirt beneath it. Probably should have had an apron on too...
| andygeorge wrote:
| I was a kid when there was a Benzene spill up where I lived at
| the time (Duluth, MN). I remember having to evacuate to our
| aunt's house out of town. My dad stayed at home doing yardwork
| until he felt "a little lightheaded" and finally joined us.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Nemadji_River_train_derai...
| ThrowawayTestr wrote:
| Benzene is really bad for you
| scottlawson wrote:
| I love articles like this that give the context and history to
| important but not often talked about molecules. I enjoyed this as
| much as the "chemicals I will never work with" series.
| jasonthorsness wrote:
| Seattle's Gas Works Park has some strange equipment to address
| the benzene contamination. Bold move to make industrial sites
| into parks (it is one of the best in Seattle though!)
|
| Edit: better link
| https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/cleanupsearch/site/2876
|
| Original link was older 2005 report:
| https://apps.ecology.wa.gov/cleanupsearch/document/1509
| robocat wrote:
| Relevant sections from the 2005 report: 3.1
| Benzene. On the east side of the Park, south of the Play Barn
| the groundwater is contaminated with benzene. An interim action
| removed a benzene containing LNAPL that had been discovered
| during site investigation. The remedy chosen for benzene was an
| air-sparging/soil vapor extraction (AS/SVE). The AS/SVE system
| covers approximately 1.5 acres of the Park. It is unnoticeable
| to Park users except for a small equipment box near the Towers.
| . An action level was calculated based on MTCA Method B surface
| water criteria and a dilution attenuation factor (DAF). The
| calculation used to set the DAF and the action level for
| benzene is given in appendix 1. 4.1 Benzene. Benzene
| concentration in the compliance well OBS-1 remains below the
| action level but above the method B groundwater cleanup level.
| The remedy, therefore, remains effective. See figure 3 below.
| divbzero wrote:
| It amazes me that the same person who discovered benzene also
| discovered electromagnetic induction and Faraday's laws of
| electrolysis.
| ipdashc wrote:
| > and Faraday's laws of electrolysis
|
| Wow, what are the chances he discovers something with a name
| like that?
| nanna wrote:
| And wasn't Faraday also a self-taught amateur whose maths was
| so poor that he couldn't even do trigonometry?
|
| A beacon of hope for those of us without doctorates in physics
| out here...
| groos wrote:
| I once pulled on a glass pipette too hard and got benzene in my
| mouth. This was 36 years ago, still doing well :-)
| joloooo wrote:
| Interesting article. I have always viewed Benzene as a bogeyman
| of sorts. My parents both interacted with it often throughout my
| life. My dad was a chemical engineer for an oil company, and he
| often spoke of spills and incidents. As a kid, I never understood
| what it was, but the tone and urgency were always something
| scary.
|
| I also strongly suspect my mother's Benzene exposures (nurse
| cleaning lab slides with Benzene and no PPE) led to me battling
| Langerhans Histiocytosis throughout my childhood.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langerhans_cell_histiocytosis
| quietbritishjim wrote:
| I'll admit I know very little chemistry, but I think the article
| would've been much better for people like me of it included any
| specific examples _at all_ of benzene uses. It 's filled with
| assurances that it's important and used all over the place but I
| didn't find that very enlightening.
| philipkglass wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzene#Uses
|
| _Benzene is used mainly as an intermediate to make other
| chemicals, above all ethylbenzene (and other alkylbenzenes),
| cumene, cyclohexane, and nitrobenzene. More than half of the
| entire benzene production is processed into ethylbenzene, a
| precursor to styrene, which is used to make polymers and
| plastics like polystyrene. Some 20% of the benzene production
| is used to manufacture cumene, which is needed to produce
| phenol and acetone for resins and adhesives. Cyclohexane
| consumes around 10% of the world 's benzene production; it is
| primarily used in the manufacture of nylon fibers, which are
| processed into textiles and engineering plastics. Smaller
| amounts of benzene are used to make some types of rubbers,
| lubricants, dyes, detergents, drugs, explosives, and
| pesticides._
|
| It's an important feedstock in the chemical industry but it is
| no longer used directly in household products. It used to be
| common in solvent/glue/grease remover formulations before the
| health hazard was widely appreciated.
| andrewflnr wrote:
| It's kind of hard to explain how widespread a usage like
| "solvent" is. A huge amount of chemical reactions are most
| convenient to do in a liquid, a liquid that can dissolve the
| materials you're working with. That's a solvent. Benzene can
| dissolve a lot of things, including some that are really hard
| to dissolve otherwise. So it can be used for a huge variety of
| reactions, but as the sort background player that you might not
| pay attention to unless you can't have it.
|
| It's a little like asking "what are the uses of water in
| chemistry", where you're tempted to answer, "um, everything?"
| Not quite, but not that far off either. (And with more cancer
| of course.)
|
| Edit: disclaimer, I'm not a chemist, just an interested layman.
| pcthrowaway wrote:
| Benzene was what made decaf coffee possible in 1905 (if can you
| consider this a productive use).
|
| The beans were soaked in warm water then rinsed (several
| times?) with benzene, which was able to extract the majority of
| caffeine, and presumably not much else affecting the flavour.
|
| It would have the benefit of evaporating with no residue given
| enough time, but due to the possibility of residue and the
| difficulty of working with it safely, decaffeination processes
| have since moved on.
| trebligdivad wrote:
| The article talks about the wonders of bucky balls and nanotubes
| - does anyone know what useful stuff has come out of those yet? I
| think I heard there's some work on nanotubes coming up on
| transistors in the next gen of chips? Not sure what bucky balls
| and other fullerenes are being used for? (I remember originally
| there was talk of lubricants?)
| bell-cot wrote:
| > does anyone know what useful stuff has come out of those yet?
|
| Quip: Every chemical researcher's #1 need is for research
| funding, no?
| lightedman wrote:
| For useful carbon nanotubes, look no further than nanotape.
| That shit is extremely strong and will happily peel the paint
| or wallpaper from your walls.
| euroderf wrote:
| Benzene must've been examined down to the nth degree in quantum
| analysis. Maybe there's an article ?
| jabl wrote:
| I remember in high school chemistry (or physics?) we had a wooden
| model of the benzene ring with the ground state molecular
| orbitals. Diameter about 30cm.
| k__ wrote:
| I did an internship at a chemical laboratory once.
|
| The older folks told me that they aren't allowed to use the
| awesome stuff anymore.
|
| Back in the days, they would use Benzene for everything, the only
| stuff that would get the lab floors clean at the end of the day.
|
| Same with asbestos, leaded fuel, and whatnot. Compounds that are
| perfect for their use cases, yet highly toxic.
| pumnikol wrote:
| One of my elderly colleagues once told me that at the end of
| each day, they'd put all the lab coats in a big vat of benzene
| to clean them. The next day, they took them out, let them dry
| for a short while and then just put them on again. I think it
| was in the early 80s? He did develop cancer later.
| fuzzfactor wrote:
| This was the traditional solvent for cleaning up and removing
| excess ink in print shops all over the place.
|
| Often still known by its archaic name Benzol when I was growing
| up. In high school, walking by the student print shop you could
| smell it way down the hall at all times. The chem labs were not
| nearly as bad because they had better ventilation to begin
| with.
|
| Plus before my time benzene had also been prized as high-octane
| motor fuel for early cars back when it was obtained for sale
| naturally by removal from aromatic crude oils in some
| refineries. This was not such pure benzene however the
| significant percentage of impurities at the dispenser acted
| with an "antifreeze" effect and it handled no differently than
| regular gasoline below 32 degrees F.
|
| Pure benzene freezes at about 40 degrees F, and that pure of a
| hydrocarbon ended up being too expensive to burn anyway.
|
| IIRC it can really make a lawn mower cut taller grass than
| premium gasoline, and scientifically it does have about 100
| antiknock rating so it's no surprise.
| k__ wrote:
| _" Often still known by its archaic name Benzol"_
|
| In German, that's the regular name, haha.
| chasil wrote:
| That would actually imply that an OH group replaced one of
| the hydrogens, forming an alcohol.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_(chemistry)
|
| So Benzol is not benzyl alcohol.
|
| Edit: this is not what I was expecting.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzyl_alcohol
| ricksunny wrote:
| That would make it phenol.
| timthorn wrote:
| The Royal Institution, where Faraday first isolated Benzene, is
| celebrating with a Discourse next month:
| https://www.rigb.org/whats-on/discourse-celebrating-200-year...
| chrisjj wrote:
| > Celebrating the molecule that changed the world
|
| "The"?? There are multiple.
| 7thpower wrote:
| Story Time:
|
| After I graduated, I went to work for a large PE firm that most
| of you probably hate, working for one of their subsidiaries
| focused on energy who happened to have a couple refineries. As
| someone passionate about renewables, I was actually excited to go
| see the underbelly of one of the most _evil_ companies. I also
| wanted to learn more about the energy industry and the maze of
| pipes that looked like steel spaghetti to me.. it was also always
| in the back of my mind that those student loans wouldn 't pay for
| themselves.
|
| I started off in IT but eventually was fortunate enough to land a
| job focusing on their developing new products with other
| portfolio companies that focused on addressing challenges in O&G.
| One of the things I prided myself on was spending time, boots on
| the ground, with the people who were doing the day to day work
| and learning about what there problems were. This included a lot
| of escorted trips through the plant learning about the chemical
| processes as well as work processes, etc.
|
| One of the things I had picked up on was how nasty benzene was,
| this was widely acknowledged at the time by the company, and not
| in the typical window dressing sort of way that these things are
| often glossed over.
|
| Well long story short, one day I'm standing on top of grating
| resting above a concrete pit coming off a refining unit while
| they are using a truck sized vacuum to extract the liquid (guess
| what the truck is called), which is told is an every day
| occurance. Standing a few feet above the liquid, it looks like
| dirty water. As an afterthought, I ask "what is this liquid?".
|
| "Oh, it's just benzine"
|
| ... _taps 4 gas meter that 's supposed to keep me safe from
| anything_ "well isn't this thing supposed to go off?"
|
| "Not all the time"
|
| Never did that again.
|
| I was surprised it was treated so nonchalantly, but when your job
| is to deal with dangerous stuff day in and day out, I guess
| certain things don't raise alarms. I, of course, didn't ask what
| concentration it was, etc., I just filed a few lessons away. But
| it's always stuck with me how routine some of this incredibly
| dangerous work can seem, and how difficult it must be to
| differentiate types of danger when they're not things that are
| obviously dangerous, such as having your finger chopped off, or
| worse, ruining a nice set of steel toes.
|
| Anyway, that's my benzine story.
| jeffhwang wrote:
| Hope it's ok to share my chemistry Instagram with a plastic model
| of Hexabenzocoronene (HBC) that was mentioned in the article.[1]
|
| I posted similar photos of other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
| (PAH) including napthalene, which are also mentioned in the
| article. [2]
|
| In all, I had about 10 posts on PAH's for laypeople and chemists
| who want to admire the structure of these fascinating saturated
| planar hydrocarbons.
|
| [1]
| https://www.instagram.com/p/CxUs8YzO28Y/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ...
|
| [2]
| https://www.instagram.com/p/CxFCSueOrA2/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ...
| bravesoul2 wrote:
| More than OK to share. Thanks!
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-06-16 23:00 UTC)