Can the smell of electronics be dangerous? New/old/burnt out?

Thank you for your input!! If I kept it relatively simple and didn't use any very old tech, or any very new tech to avoid off-gassing, for example, I take a part a TV remote from the early 2000s and utilize the plastic, rubber buttons, PCB, do you think I would run into any issues there with toxicity?
Not at room temperature, outgassing is minimal, a few parts per million at most.
Now above, say, 70-80-100C , things change.

In a way, easy to detect; once parts start to smell hot/toasted/burning, the concentration in air rose dramatically.

We Humans have a terrible sense of smell, our brains focused on Visuals and ... ahem! .... Sound 😄

So when we smell anything, it means there is a lot of it floating around 😫

If not, in principle it should be quite safe.
 
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Did you read it at all?! They are mentioning cancer risk, lung damage etc., these things have to be taken seriously. Period.

BTW I recently purchased a device to measure particles in the air. After some 30mins of soldering in my workshop it displays numbers of 600 or 700 and alerts with strong warning messages. Normally it reads way below 20 where I live.
 

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Looking back I should have been more specific.

Yes the subject matter and associated toxicity is a valid concern without a doubt.

I am sceptical about the OP, what 'artist' would possibly want to recreate this odour and for what purpose (yes Stuey I saw your comment and had to laugh)? Not much of thread history either.
 
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@JMFahey I would not be heating it at all, just room temperature. I am using a technique called enfleurage where I would basically coat it in fat, it would absorb any scent, and then scrape it off, or heat it slightly (maybe 30C max) to melt it off.
Yes, I know enfleurage, it's used to capture subtle scents for fine perfumes.

Not sure who would use *Moteur brûlé" perfume on a date with a nice girl but hey! .... maybe I am too old fashioned 😄

Guess you already watched this Movie.
If not, I recommend it 🙂

 
There was a point that many of the smells were added to the mix in case there was a fire. You smell the unpleasantness and your instinct is to investigate. Natural gas has no smell it's added. You should smell the additive before it's diluted, it will make you wrench, no matter how tough a constitution. Styreen is another example, it's so powerful and sweet it'll make you run.

Insulation on @Romex has that smell (if burned) added.

Of all the bad smell on earth nothing compares to biowaste in my book. I worked for Peterbilt and Mac at one time and both
were tractors for waste haulers. After working around the Hazardous side for 19 years of my 45, you collect a lot of information about why certain chemicals are used. We had a complete site at IT Corp. just for cyanide (S). The protocols for different poisons are different but some are just plain lethal at any exposure level.

TEL
Sodium cyanide
Hydrofluoric acid

TEL Have at best a "Lily" smell, sweet.
SC Almonds, only if you have the recessive smell trait.
HF an egg smell. You get it on you, you'll likely die, it's a calcium seeker, 24 hours your heart stops! no cure, your done.

Electronics and solder tables for assembly are now equipped with downdraft just like most morgues with any volume.

1900-2000 an easy million death from just soldering. Add sealing mercury, and many other heavies to the mix it's in the 100,000,000 range over protracted periods. Remember your fillings were pretty toxic, the more you had the greater the exposure.

Every war effort had as many casualties at home after the wars. Bombs! Cordite, mercury, lead, PCB, dioxin, defoliants, DDT, solvents by the aircraft carrier FULL and exposure that no one is responsible for. Lead paint is STILL PPM, you just add sand
to the sandblasting material.

Dilution is the solution. (99% anyways)

Metal implants for breaks and repairs. You'd be surprised how many have to come back out.

London's air pollution in the 17-18-1900. Mexico City right now! Mercy it's worse than smoking two pack a day of nonfiltered tobacco. I was in Delhi India and wore a forced air full-face for 74 hours total, working on a drill in an excavation 25 meters deep. You couldn't see the top of the excavation. BTW it was 1000 degrees Kelvin. I'm an American Sioux/Irish, I've been abused. LOL Some of my favorite people to work with.

I chuckle for one reason. Think of all the TIRE and BRAKE dust from bicycles, cars, PU, OTR trucks, and trains in one town alone. Let me say this, stay off the railroad tracks, they spray more poison for weed abatement, along with brake dust, grease, oil, and whatever else leaks from any and everything. Second is a city streets, Wear a mask! :cool:

We knew about paraquat and lung cancer in the 70s, NOW it's Parkinson's. Worry about your yard, your house will just
run you out if there is a problem. Drywall from overseas was off gassing formaldehyde for a while.

RAYDON! Check your house that is a killer? It can be in the house next door and not yours. Weird stuff!

Maybe mold and fungus? But I'm a serious fungus consumer, puffballs, chanterelle, horse, meadow, morels, Porcini and of course, shiitake either domestic or imported.

Regards
 
Did you read it at all?! They are mentioning cancer risk, lung damage etc., these things have to be taken seriously. Period.

BTW I recently purchased a device to measure particles in the air. After some 30mins of soldering in my workshop it displays numbers of 600 or 700 and alerts with strong warning messages. Normally it reads way below 20 where I live.
Yes I did! That if heated/burned it would become a definite problem, which it wouldn't be, and would not be soldered, just room temperature, functional electronics. I hear you all loud and clear, that's why I am asking since you all definitely know more than I do! It is becoming clear that this IS NOT a great idea haha, and I will not be pursuing it, I appreciate yours and everyone else's feedback.
 
TEL
Sodium cyanide
Hydrofluoric acid

TEL Have at best a "Lily" smell, sweet.
SC Almonds, only if you have the recessive smell trait.
HF an egg smell. You get it on you, you'll likely die, it's a calcium seeker, 24 hours your heart stops! no cure, your done.

I have a bottle of aluminium brightener which was sold here for years under then name 'Alibrite' which contained HF (the formula has now changed). I read it was very dangerous so don't use the stuff and intend to dispose of it, but what surprises me is that the health warnings on the bottle are no more serious than they would be for any other common acid such as sulphuric. Crazy! I cringe about the one time I did use it with just goggles and long rubber gloves for protection.
 
albeit a potentially dangerous one it turns out
Given that you've described a low-temperature process where you are just capturing the natural smell, I'm having a hard time imagining that what you are proposing is any more dangerous than just smelling the actual article. 30 °C is cooler than a lot of older electronics run.

If you somehow concentrated it and released some dramatically unnatural amount of the collected material, maybe there'd be more risk, but a single event of even that scenario seems of limited risk since we're talking about smell, and not some release of actual particulates.

And of course there are things like lead on older circuit boards that have some inherent issues, but it's not like you're proposing slathering your body in electronically scented fatty goodness (or at least I'm assuming you're not ;)).
 
Adding to my previous post: if you were taking your scent compound and putting it into a candle and burning it, that could increase risk. If you atomized the material and people breathed in the solution, it would also increase risk.

If you are just having someone smell the compound at room temperature or slightly above, I think the risk is much lower and essentially back to the risk of smelling the original article given your description of the scent gathering process.

With most chemicals, how they are going to be practically used and the anticipated concentration/exposure level is part of the determination of risk. It's not just "is there any conceivable way this material could be bad for you."

Zero risk is hard to find in the world.
 
is formaldehyde ,offgassing a lot in old pcb
Bakelite is a thing for cabinets, knobs and controls. PCBs are mostly FR4, and should be ok unless heated / burnt. Besides, they're also generally smaller, However, it is always better (for the environment) to reuse old PCBs wherever possible instead of dumping them, as glass fibre in landfills lives forever and does not decay.

In regular life, the two safest and most recyclable materials would be glass and stainless steel, followed by aluminium. However, since recycling uses energy, it makes sense to use things as far as possible.
 
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