Author Topic: Toxic PCBs linger in schools as EPA, lawmakers fail to act  (Read 1376 times)
rjluna2
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Toxic PCBs linger in schools as EPA, lawmakers fail to act « on: October 19, 2019, 10:18:50 AM » Author: rjluna2
I found an interesting article at my local paper: Toxic PCBs linger in schools; EPA, lawmakers fail to act

That includes these pre-1977 made ballast for these existing fluorescent light fixtures.  I have collected these old ballast during the ballast and light refit during my year 2000 contracted job.
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dor123
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Re: Toxic PCBs linger in schools as EPA, lawmakers fail to act « Reply #1 on: October 19, 2019, 10:40:30 AM » Author: dor123
It is great that the European and the Israeli fluorescent ballasts here, never contained PCBs.
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I"m don't speak English well, and rely on online translating to write in this site.
Please forgive me if my choice of my words looks like offensive, while that isn't my intention.

I only working with the international date format (dd.mm.yyyy).

I lives in Israel, which is a 220-240V, 50hz country.

Ash
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Re: Toxic PCBs linger in schools as EPA, lawmakers fail to act « Reply #2 on: October 19, 2019, 11:07:48 AM » Author: Ash
I have in collection 5 Israeli FL fittings from the early 70's with what i am pretty sure are PCB capacitors. They are used as the PFC capacitors parallel to the line input, not as part of the ballasts

The capacitors are epoxy sealed and dont appear bulging or leaking, but there is some brown-ish residue in the fittings in the area near the capacitors - which means that they might have slowly laked tiny amounts of the stuff over the years. Perhaps in an US tar potted ballast the leakage would not get out of the ballast enclosure unless the ballast overheats and melts the tar out

Either way, the article does give me the same vibe as the panic that was here about asbestos as a building material. It have been used in many buildings as roofing material in the 60s, and in sheds and barns right up to the late 70s or maybe even after that. Anyway, in my town there is a primary school built in the early 60s where it was used as the outside wall siding. It had been painted over with perhaps 10 coats of paint over the years. Few years ago, in an "action to eliminate asbestos from schools", all that paneling had been cut out and removed with the use of angle grinders - Leaving more dust settled around on surfaces than ever throughout the school history, from where it really would be carried away over the next few months for everyone to inhale...
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Medved
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Re: Toxic PCBs linger in schools as EPA, lawmakers fail to act « Reply #3 on: October 19, 2019, 01:21:20 PM » Author: Medved
It is great that the European and the Israeli fluorescent ballasts here, never contained PCBs.

And what do you think is the oil filling all distribution transformers and all metal can PFC capacitors (those with the "nice" glass terminal insulators) form before 80's?
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No more selfballasted c***

tolivac
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Re: Toxic PCBs linger in schools as EPA, lawmakers fail to act « Reply #4 on: October 20, 2019, 01:17:31 AM » Author: tolivac
Broadcast transmitters built before 1975 often had PCB filled HV supply caps and HV transformers.Some companies-including the Tx manufacturer-had retrofit PCB kits you used to replace the parts that had PCB.Now-like lead and asbestos if the PCB components are intact and not overheating or swelling-just leave them alone.Inspect them-and if they leak or run hot-then you replace them with a non PCB part.At the site I work now-there are many PCB caps and PCB contaminated transformers-when they fail they have to be replaced with a non PCB component.When 3 older transmitters here were scrapped-their PCB caps and transformers were sent to a facility where they were hi temp incinerated.That is the best way to get rid of PCB parts.And the melted metals could be recycled since the PCB residues were burned away.
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