You took it? So now nobody else will ever learn not to? Gah, so evil…
No. No, man. Shit no. I believe you’d get your ass kicked saying something like that.
This happened (more than once) at places where I worked.
In every instance it was the fault of electrical engineers.
Not even joking.
This looks like a still from next season’s Stranger Things.
You are more likely to have problems from the ozone produced by a laser printer than the toner particles. If you are printing a lot, ventilate the room or move the printer.
I really just think this is ground zero for the toner war…
“See, there’s mites around all the time. They use sparkles to talk to each other,” Harv explained. "They’re in the food and water, everywhere. And there’s rules that these mites are supposed to follow. They’re supposed to break down into safe pieces… But there are people who break those rules [so the] Protocol Enforcement guys make a mite to go out and find that mite and kill it. This dust - we call it toner - is actually the dead bodies of all those mites.
From The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson.
Published by Bantam Books in 1995
I’m in the middle of rereading that, good timing!
I hope they don’t use a normal vacuum cleaner to try to clean this up. If they do, they face two big problems. First, that the filter on the vacuum won’t be good enough to filter out the very fine toner particles and they’ll end up spraying the toner around worse. Second, toner can build up a charge from contact with plastics inside the vacuum. If they develop enough, it can cause a spark that can start a fire. This turns the vacuum into an inside out flame thrower with the operator holding the flamey side of the rig.
Secondary issues like it messing up the motor, etc. may also arise–if you’re not on fire at that point.
TL;DR: Don’t mess with toner unless you really know what you’re doing.
There is also the threat of a particulate explosion, you ever seen a grain silo explode?
Previously here on BoingBoing:
http://boingboing.net/2017/08/01/corn-silo-collapse-gets-hotter.html
Upvoted liked for “anti-glitter”.
Gotta find a use case for this one.
Always keep one Goth around the office just in case you need someone who can clean up after a situation like this without ruining their entire wardrobe.
much like asbestos, the issue is dust small enough it can enter the cells of the mesothelium and physically interfere with DNA
I would Like your comment, but I just can’t.
Thanks for the further encouragement to get the hell away from the thing and its effluvia.
“WARNING. The National Parks Service has declared
this area to be a National Sacrifice Zone.
The Sacrifice Zone Program was developed to manage
parcels of land whose clean-up cost exceeds
their total future economic value.”
Yes, that would come under scenario #2 where the toner combusts due to a static discharge. Depending on the particulars of the vacuum, it could be a small explosion rather than a flame. I didn’t mention it so as to avoid being click-batey and Michael Bay-ish.
I’m thinking toner and Potassium Nitrate would be an interesting mixture. . . .
See, someone always has to go all Michael Bay.
Just, for the record, that’s not what toner is. That’s what carbon black is, and it’s a component of toner, but it’s bound. Your body is capable of expelling this stuff. Also, more like coal dust than asbestos, but whatever, don’t breathe any of the three.
