Removing the smell from plastic

[Kim]

You missed my goth phase...

[Valiant]

Isopropyl might work?

[TimO]

Plastics do seem to give off pongs of varying degrees of odour and duration.  I know we tend to avoid using plastics on spacecraft because these materials (often the plasticisers) can evaporate in a vacuum, and then cause damage if they redeposit themselves onto optics, or cause arcing in high voltage environments (particle detectors often have such high voltages in them, that they are very hard to test on the Earth's surface, where it's difficult to produce a hard enough vacuum).

This does make for some very quaint situations.  We still use string to bind the cable harnesses together, where in any other environment you'd probably be using cable ties.  We can get space qualified cable ties, but they're expensive.  String is cheaper, although it still needs to be space qualified string!

[hubner]

I've got some Marples chisels with very smelly plastic handles:



They must be at least 15 years old but they still pong like new.

[Arch]

Plastics do seem to give off pongs of varying degrees of odour and duration.  I know we tend to avoid using plastics on spacecraft because these materials (often the plasticisers) can evaporate in a vacuum, and then cause damage if they redeposit themselves onto optics, or cause arcing in high voltage environments (particle detectors often have such high voltages in them, that they are very hard to test on the Earth's surface, where it's difficult to produce a hard enough vacuum).

This does make for some very quaint situations.  We still use string to bind the cable harnesses together, where in any other environment you'd probably be using cable ties.  We can get space qualified cable ties, but they're expensive.  String is cheaper, although it still needs to be space qualified string!

Is that where string theory comes from?

[Wombat]

I don't know what a pear drop smells like.  Ethyl ethanoate, probably.

It's certainly significantly rubbisher for removing nail polish.

Amyl acetate.  thats what smells like pear drops.

Yes, proper lino as manufactured by Nairn, in sunny Scotland, is the dogs danglies if you want a really hard wearing floor.  I used to use in for shops, including cashiers countertops.  No good using even the best "Formica" for that, the constant rubbing of coins soon goes through it.

I have recently encountered entirely natural nail varnish remover, at an eco event.  There is some other acetone free stuff, but among other things, it also contains MEK (which I was convinced was illegal in almost all circumstances, being carcingenic and all that...)

I have rubber matting in my workshop, which makes it smell as if I either mend a lot of faerie visitations in there, or use a lot of condoms.

[hellymedic]

Ethyl ethanoate is the IUPAC name for amyl acetate, I think...

[pcolbeck]

Ethyl ethanoate = Ethyl acetate

amyl acetate smells like bananas according to Wikipedia.

Pear drops use Isoamyl acetate (isopentyl acetate) to give them that smell. Presumably it is similar enough to Ethyl acetate for them both to have the same smell.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ethyl acetate
Isopropyl alcohol
Aqua
Caprylic/capric triglyceride
Parfum
Denatonium benzoate
Benzyl alcohol
Citral
Limonene
Linalool
Hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde
CI 21230
CI 61565

Doesn't smell of pear drops to me.

But see here:
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1081/CLT-66081

Introduction. The following case report highlights the dangers of acetone-free nail polish remover products which are widely regarded as safe. Case Report. A 15-month-old presented with coma and cardiorespiratory collapse after sucking on Boots Conditioning Nail Polish Remover Pads®, which was complicated by features of upper airway obstruction, bilateral pneumothoraces, and pneumomediastinum. The child required intubation and ventilation for 5 days along with full supportive management before making a complete recovery. The clinical features in this case resemble those of poisoning due to gamma butyrolactone, the principal component of this nail polish remover. Gamma butyrolactone is rapidly metabolized to gamma hydroxybutyrate on ingestion, a compound whose toxicity is well recognized. Package labeling gave no indication of the potential toxicity of its components. Conclusion. We wish to draw attention to the potential toxicity of gamma butyrolactone containing nail polish removers and the need for appropriate labeling of product packaging. Since alternative products are available, these products should be removed from the market.

[Si_Co]

Pear drops = ethyl acetete, but it's all kind of subjective, some things that smell absolutley vile in their neat form form have very nice smells when used in part per million qantities, a lot of thiols, awful smelling when neat, are used as flavouring agents in ppm quantities.

Most esters are usually reffered to as smelling of 'pear drops', gone are the days where you see papers published where a chemist would state, 'isolated white crytals that melt at x degrees, smells of socks and tastes of cheese' 

Lab workers didn't used to live long and went mad early