Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with chemical

Do we need to evacuate?

serazin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:36:31 -0800

name that mysterious acrid smell/taste! Over the last few weeks, my roommate and I have occasionally noticed a sort of smokey smell near the side of our house. Its nothing we can pin down exactly, and not very strong.

Tonight I was lying in bed and I had this sensation in my mouth as if it was being irritated by a chemical or smoke. Eventually my eyes felt irritated as well. I asked my roommate to smell my room and she said she smelled nothing. Then, 10 minutes later, she came to my room complaining that her eyes were itching and she could feel an irritating sensation/smell/taste in the her nose and throat.

We called the fire department and they've just left. They were only here for about 3 minutes and said they couldn't smell anything. Now PG&E (gas company) is here, and his little sniffer wand says there's no gas leak. The thing is, this sensation takes time to notice, so these folks aren't noticing anything in the short time they're staying.

What else should we consider might be causing the problem? Neighborhood meth lab? Broken sewer line? I'm at a loss. We're all asthmatics here - my roommate and I and each of our kids. I felt short of breath when I was lying in bed, but I know there's a certain power of suggestion that might partially be at work here...

The Brain Chemistry of Reading

SaharaRose — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:47:37 -0800

What is the brain chemistry involved in reading a good book? What areas of the brain are stimulated? What chemicals experience an uptick? Is there a particular combination unique to reading for pleasure? I'm a nonscientific layperson (I write book reviews, of fiction mostly.)
Lately, I've been wondering about the brain chemistry and brain activity involved in curling up with a good novel.

What is the neurochemical, and physiological response, and has it been measured, studied? Or compared to some other common act- "Reading a book is like meditation, in terms of the brain areas it stimulates," for example.
I'm not talking about reading to study or learn, but reading for pure pleasure.
I'd love to learn more- especially an explanation that's more conversational and anecdotal, rather than lifted right from the pages of an academic journal.
Thanks!

What could a sudden strange chemical smell be?

still_wears_a_hat — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:02:22 -0800

A sudden, strong, strange chemical smell in the house. What could it be? And how might we find out? Asking for a friend: Last night when he got home, there was a very strong chemical smell in the house. He described it as like silicon-caulk, or maybe spot remover. It's somewhat stronger in one room, but there's nothing in there that seems to be putting out the smell.

No one else lives there, so it's not caused by someone else. It's a freestanding house, and there's no smell detectable outside the house. There was no smell the day before. The heating system is hot water/radiator, so there are no ducts or vents.

He checked all the radiators - there was nothing touching them that could be melting or giving off this kind of smell. He checked all the outlets and electronics for shorts or overheating. There's a radon mitigation system in the crawlspace under half the house, but there was no smell in the crawlspace or the adjoining basement. There's been a lot of work going on in the manholes in the neighborhood and immediate area, but this odor is definitely not sewer gas (we don't know what kind of work they're doing).

The smell was bad enough that he wasn't comfortable staying there, and he's not much of an alarmist. It was still there this morning.

Any ideas of what the smell might be? Or, what kind of professional he'd call to find out?

Will freon poison my food?

Picklegnome — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:20:21 -0800

I punctured the freon line in a GE minifridge. Is the food safe to eat? My roommate (a Chemistry major) is trying to convince me that the food in the fridge (below the freezing unit; freon sinks) is now poisoned. Is he right? Sources would be appreciated. All I've got right now is this which doesn't look terrifically credible.

Better Skin

Fairchild — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:59:44 -0800

Large pores on my face are getting me down. My skin is looking rougher and rougher as the years go by. I'm 36, female. I have a few sun spots on my cheeks and many large pores on and around my nose, on my cheeks, and basically all over the center of my face. I also have some superficial acne scars. I'm looking for solutions to get a more refined look. I'm not expecting miracles but it would nice to see some improvement.

Is there anything I can do besides harsh chemical peels in the doctor's office? I'm not against chemical peels but am concerned about recovery. Anecdotes are appreciated. Also, is there an at-home chemical peel line that you especially like?

I've had microdermabrasion in the past. I do think microdermabrasion is beneficial for looking more refreshed, but it does nothing to improve the texture of my skin, nor does it fade sun spots.

Thanks so much.

Distillation - VLE Database?

whatzit — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:09:29 -0800

Separation filter: Where do you get your VLE diagrams, or the boiling point data used to make them? Bonus points if you have a link that will walk me through sizing (trays, diameter, height...) of a distillation column. I have Perry, King, and some other reference books, but no textbooks, and no library to speak of. The system I'm specifically working with is C3H6-C3H8. I hoped I would never need to do this in real life, but I was wrong.

Why does this fabric smell so bad (and can I fix it)?

egg drop — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:51:50 -0800

Why does this fabric smell so bad (and can I fix it)? I bought a bedsheet in India. If it had any particular smell I definitely didn't notice. After I got home I washed it, and now it has such a strong chemical smell that it's noticeable from a few feet away, even after being aired out for a few days. Has anyone come across this before? I'd like to know why it happened and if I can do anything about it. Repeated laundering hasn't helped so far, but admittedly I've only tried twice.

Chemical societies

yoyo_nyc — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:41:50 -0800

I need a list of of foreign chemical societies. I need a list of of foreign chemical societies.
Two examples:

* American chemical society

* Gesellschaft deutscher Chemiker

If you know more (foreign) chemical societies/associations then please post it.

Thanks a lot.

I don't want to be evil.

liesbyomission — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 07:21:12 -0800

I'm a junior in college currently pursuing a chemical engineering degree...but what can I do that won't have me working for evil companies or make me part of Big Pharma or the military-industrial complex? Currently, I'm having a pretty large crisis about what to do with my life. I had a pretty awful semester, which certainly isn't helping any. And now I have to think about summer internships, which I failed to get last year, despite having a high GPA and lots of leadership, if not work, experience.

The problem is... I don't really know what I want to do. I know what I don't want to do. I have no interest in biology and I suck at organic chemistry, so that throws pharmaceutical companies out the window. I'm not really interested in materials research, or academic-type research at all, really.

That doesn't really leave a whole lot left, it seems. And then there's my current extreme dissatisfaction with the state of the world, with how the upper echelon trades the lives of the lower class for money in their pockets, how social mobility is on the decline, how completely messed up the US is, etc. I don't want to be a part of something that helps perpetuate that.

Also, for years I have had a secret desire to become a teacher. Probably a math teacher because after being burned by orgo, I don't know that I really want to be doing chemistry forever, and I think teaching calculus would be fun. I am a natural teacher, and I am very good at explaining concepts to others. However, there's the money issue, and the money to be found in chemical engineering jobs is very alluring.

Switching majors at this point is not an option. I would not be able to graduate on time if I did. The curriculum in my major is extremely strict, and as a result I can't really take the classes I want to take, which is not so much fun. Combine this with a high-stress and high-pressure environment, and I am pretty miserable, but I will just have to suffer through it.

I have tried explaining my moral qualms to my dad, but his response was pretty much, "Get over it."

The career office at school is extremely unhelpful, so that is not an option either.

I just don't know if I can be a slave to corporate America for the rest of my life and be okay with that.

So, what do I do? What sorts of jobs can I look for that fit my pretty narrow criteria? Beyond that...what do I do with my life?

Name this chemical!

frankie_stubbs — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:47:19 -0800

Name this chemical! Someone given this drug would essentially be paralyzed, yet conscious and still able to feel pain. I believe it was used on animals at one point.

What's the strange smell that's causing our cough?

rez — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 19:37:11 -0800

Someone in my apartment building is smoking/making/cooking something that causes my girlfriend, daughter and I to cough. Any idea what it might be and what I could do about it? It started last summer and for a few weeks there happened every other day. During the winter, it's happened very little but now they're doing it pretty regularly again and it's really badly affecting my four-month-old baby. It's not a constant cough but one that makes you cough very hard every five minutes or so and it makes my nose run. It smells awful and has a bit of a chemical smell to it. It permeates the apartment hallways and is difficult to pinpoint. Any idea what we could do about it?

Better soup-making

Blazecock Pileon — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 06:07:33 -0800

SoupFilter: Why do soups taste better after aging? In the case of soups, for example, I throw batches of a fennel minestrone I've justed cooked into the fridge. Over the course of three days, the soup tastes progressively better. I also place one batch into the freezer, thaw it out a month later, and it is very easily the best of the batch. I've tried this with other soups I've made (a recent tomato, basil and cheese soup) and obtain the same result.

• What chemical processes take place (in soup) which improve the flavor of the end product?
• Are there strategies with the storage and cooking processes to improve efficiency, both in terms of speed and amount of flavor extracted from the various ingredients?
• Also, what general types of soups can or cannot be safely frozen to preserve flavor (without causing food poisoning)?

I smell chemicals in my brain

wackybrit — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 13:48:34 -0800

Why can I smell chemicals in my brain? When I've finished exercising (and sometimes during) I can smell acidic 'chemically' smells 'in my brain'.. that is, the sense of smell comes from there in some way. I know certain acids (lactic acid, etc) go whizzing around the body, but why can I sense them as a smell?

As a teenager (it's less common, thought not totally gone, now) whenever I got angry, upset, or surprised I also used to get strong smells in my mind which would dissipate quickly but were certainly acidic (though different to exercise - perhaps adrenaline?)

I haven't found anything worthwhile on Google about this but may be using all the wrong words. Why can I sense chemicals in my blood stream as smells in my mind? Or am I? Could they be going through the blood vessels in my nasal cavity and I'm smelling them that way? Is there a name for this phenomenon?

bitchy, not itchy

yesster — Tue, 16 May 2006 08:47:07 -0800

Does it make sense that unknown exposure -- allergies or sensitivities -- is making me wildly moody? Just last night, I detected a correlation: new job, new mood swings, new sinus troubles.

I've been on the job 5 weeks. Started out great. But the last couple of weeks I've been exceptionally emotionally unstable, and I think it's related to the new job, and involves chemical exposure.

Normally, I'm a very easy-going person, hard to provoke to any strong emotion. I'm fine when I go in to work. Then, after about 2 hours, I have sniffles and dry eyes, then my mood gets wonky. Last thursday, I was in tears; friday and yesterday, I experienced intense anger. These emotional disturbances last for a couple of hours after work, then dissipate. And, last night, I noticed my sinus trouble going away right about the time the mood lifted

There are no unusual chemicals were I work. Nobody else there seems to have a problem. I do have a history of strange chemical sensitivity.

I have an appointment with an allergist next week.

I'm strongly inclined to discuss my "theory" with my boss, who is probably concerned about my temperament.

I'd appreciate any other personal stories related to this, and links to good resources.

Examples of radioactivity in nature

0bvious — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 06:54:50 -0800

Are there any animals that have evolved a use for radioactivity? If so, what ways is it used? If not, why has this not happened? Creatures have evolved that can use electric energy to search for food or stun their prey. Animals have evolved the ability to use chemical energy to light up their tails or attract food. Animals are well practiced in symbiotic relationships with chemicals, bacteria and each other, but what about radioactive elements?

What is this mathematical/set notation?

hototogisu — Wed, 11 May 2005 02:16:00 -0800

Two mathematical syntax questions--one easy, one astoundingly maybe not so complex Ok, here are the guts of the easy one:
What does this mean?

l?{l:l>BID}
(or if that doesn't show up)
l (epsilon) {l:l >BID}

the epsilon is the typical "element L is a member of the following set"...BID is the bypass ID (related to the problem)--I presume it's an integer. L is also an integer...but what is the colon, exactly? I'm used to seeing a " | " in that place for a "such that", but this is throwing me for a loop. Would the significance change if it were a semicolon? The paper does have it that way once, and with a colon all other times (I'm used to random typos in academic papers these days)...

Ok, second question.
If one were to come across the following in an equation, how would you interpret it?

constant*( Max ( 0, ( variable/constant ) - constant ))
This is all within a quadruple summation, so there are actually a lot of them. The only reasonable suggestion I've heard yet is that it has something to do with setting the derivative equal to zero--finding the max, etc.

It's from this paper, if it helps:
Efficient Multilevel MINLP Strategies for Solving Large Combinatorial Problems in Engineering, by A. Sorsak, S. Kravanja, and Z. Kravanja, Computers and Engineering.

bad smells at work what to do

naxosaxur — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 13:32:12 -0800

Noxious cooking, chemical, and exhaust fumes at work [m.i.]: I am currently working through my first couple of months of relocation at an old, neglected office building with about thirty floors. My office is on one of the top floors, in a sixty-by-fifteen-foot rectangular, tiny space. Downstairs in the lobby, there is a fully functioning deli with a grill and ovens, and they do a high volume of cooking throughout the day. Every morning and lunchtime, my office fills with the smells from the deli: various fried food odors, raw onions, a weird peanut smell, barbeque, etc. By the time I get home, my clothes and hair stink of crap and grease, and are completely saturated down to my undergarments. So it's clear that whatever is being done in the deli travels into the office (via stairwell, through doors, up the elevator shaft, etc.), and I’m constantly breathing this in. Some mornings upon arrival to the office, the entire space is saturated with the smell of stale cooking grease.

Anyway, that's bad enough, but it gets much worse: Since October 2004, I've noticed that on most afternoons, at least 3 times a week, from about 3:00pm-6:00pm, my office fills with fumes of a chlorine-tinted, heavy, burnt cooking odor. The smell is definitely coming from the deli, because I can smell the same thing in the lobby if I go downstairs. The only way I can properly describe the odor is like maybe they're cleaning the ovens with bleach and it mixes with burnt food. It definitely has a chlorine odor, and its kind of a 'burnt foody' smelling. I unfortunately can't pin down the composition of the fumes, because I’ve never smelt anything like it before.

The fumes are so strong that by the first hour, I am dizzy, disoriented, and unable to concentrate. My eyes burn slightly from it, too. The first month of this, I developed congested lungs, and would 'decongest' for like 3 hours each night after work by coughing-up phlegm, but I must have gained a tolerance to it, because that doesn't happen much anymore. My lungs still do get inflamed a little after breathing the fumes for about an hour. If I take a walk outside, my head clears up within twenty minutes, so I know the physical reaction is from the fumes.

The building is old, so we have opening windows, which is the only way to combat this. So I leave the windows as far open as I can tolerate (but it’s 7 degrees fahrenheit today), and run a fan at the window. As much as this makes it a little better, the fumes are still very cloying, and I still get dizzy with burning eyes. My superior here knows about it, but he sits on the opposite end of the office, and the fumes do not reach him very often. He knows I have a problem with it, but he has told me to keep up with the issue on my own end, so he clearly does not want to get involved. Which is fine, but I can’t take it to him.

And by the way, yes, I've taken it up with building management and the acting manager, and that's not what I want to focus on. It is extremely frustrating because it takes about 20 identical requests to get anything done with management. I have sent about a dozen emails to the building manager since October 2004, and I really only complain when the odors are particularly strong. I smell them everyday incidentally, but some days I can deal with it better than others. Management promises that they're doing something about it, and that's all I can get from them.

So here's my question: Obviously the deli is doing some sort of chemical cleaning to their equipment after the lunch crowd rush, as I always smell the chemical fumes start around 3:00 pm or 4:00 pm, and it usually lasts three hours. I have no experience of kitchens and cooking, as I have never worked in a restaurant at all. Therefore, do delis clean their ovens and grills daily like that? Do they use chemicals? Do they use bleach? Do they 'burn off' food after the big crowds? What is responsible for making me so goddamn dizzy? Is there not proper ventilation for the building? Why are the fumes traveling all the way up here like 30 floors? Is this normal for older buildings? Does anyone have a similar experience? What did you do? Is this something I should bring up with OSHA or the EPA?