From: George Walton <g.c.walton**At_Symbol_Here**REACTIVES.COM>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] odor question
Date: September 19, 2012 5:27:12 PM EDT
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: <BLU171-W370909B00F7B62F79D8E50C89B0**At_Symbol_Here**phx.gbl>


After doing about two decades of spill cleanup on active Navy ships, I would NEVER trust a nose to identify, even a tentative semi-quantitative I-think-it-smells-like try-ethyl merman.  As with other responses, physically hunt for source(s) and / collect some samples.

 

George Walton

Reactives Management Corporation

1025 Executive Blvd., Suite 101

Chesapeake, VA  23320

Office:  757-436-1033    Fax:  757-548-2808

 

From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU] On Behalf Of Dan Herrick
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2012 4:08 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] odor question

 

Greetings all,

We are investigating an Indoor Air Quality issue in an infrequently used faculty office which is full of books, papers, a computer server, etc.  The odor is mothballs, and we cannot locate the source.  (Believe me, we've been trying!)  We've done a lot of work already, investigating, ruling things out, etc.  My question to this list is:

Has anyone had an odor issue where a mothball odor was caused by something other than mothballs?

I am aware that the chemical which causes the distinctive odor in mothballs is either naphthalene (older products) or 1,4-Dichlorobenzene (newer products).  This faculty member is not doing any chemistry but rather investigates materials and their mechanical properties.

All thoughts are appreciated.


Thank you,

 

Dan

 

--------------------------------------------------------------

Daniel C. Herrick

EHS Coordinator, MIT

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Laboratory for Manufacturing & Productivity (LMP)

Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE)

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

email   herrickd**At_Symbol_Here**mit.edu

phone 617-253-2338

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 3-056

Cambridge, MA 02139-4307

 

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