Smelly Conductive foam - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Curiosity8
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 02, 2015, 05:53:20 am
content: Hello,I've recently started Electronics as a hobby. So I gathered alot of IC chips, and have heard that conductive foam works best when storing them.I bought two 30cm X 30cm conductive foams yesterday from a shop I searched online. But oh boy, it stunk like hell.Has anybody experienced such issues?I washed it with water many times but the smell isn't going away. Is it okay if I used a detergent for this? Any tips?

author: metalphreak
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2015, 10:47:08 am
content: Not so much conductive foam that's required, just anti-static.Stuff I've bought from Element14 was the denser harder foam stuff, and that didn't smell at all.

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2015, 11:09:26 am
content: Ah, another wonderful fragrant quality product from the R.O.C.One suspects the Hoo Flung Dung recycled plastics and waste disposal factory uses old engine oil as the plasticiser and floor sweepings from the local slaughterhouse + other even less savoury materials as extenders in their mixes. Foamed plastic is an opportunity for them to experiment with non-conventional foaming agents as well.Joking aside, cheap stinky Chinese rubber/plastic products are extremely common. If the smell doesn't wear off with a few days exposure to direct sunlight + unrestricted air circulation, its generally reckoned to be uncurable. Your foam would probably corrode the chip pins and you've already compromised any antistatic properties it may have had even by washing it with water so trashing it and going upmarket for the replacement would be the best option.

author: cdev
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2015, 02:31:24 pm
content: I vaguely remember reading at one point that leaving a little bit of soap residue made (something) less prone to static buildup. Also, they have those dryer sheets. Generally I would trust my body if its telling you you don't want to use it, because there are some very nasty chemicals in some foams that they use as flame retardants. (They are common in cushioning in furniture that's more than just a very years to months old) For more on that seehttp://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/123-a56/andhttp://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/123-a44/andhttp://cen.acs.org/articles/91/web/2013/11/Gymnasts-Exposed-High-Levels-Flame.htmlThe ESD mats and other foams especially if they are deteriorated in any wy, I think should be a matter of concern. People should vaccuum with a HEPA cleaner and wear a HEPA mask when you are vacuuming to get rid of the dust. Make sure to use HEPA and perhaps it would be a good idea to not handle foams without washing hands afterward, especially before eating.This probably includes the rubber mats that many people like to use for gym and workout areas. The flame retardants of concern are EDCs, endocrine disrupting chemicals.------quote-------Flame Retardant ExposuresHundreds of millions of padded items containing flame retardants are currently in use in the United States, estimates Arlene Blum of the Green Science Policy Institute. That estimate doesn’t include the many hundreds of millions more items already in landfills. Blum and her organization spent eight years campaigning for the changes in California’s flammability standards while also urging lawmakers to find a good way to dispose of older items that contain treated foam.Because flame retardants are not chemically bonded to the foam, they are able to escape into the surrounding environment.21 Indoor air and dust are thus major sources of exposure to some flame retardants.22 The National Toxicology Program is currently assessing specific PentaBDE congeners for carcinogenicity,23 and peer review is planned for June 2015. Multiple prospective U.S. birth cohort studies have reported a 4.5- to 5.5-point decrement in IQ for each 10-fold increase in PBDE body burden.24,25,26 Other flame retardants found in newer furniture include tris (1,3-dichloropropyl) phosphate (TDCPP), which is on California’s Proposition 65 list of substances known to cause cancer or reproductive harm.27 Another flame retardant mixture known as Firemaster 550® has been associated with obesity, anxiety, and developmental problems in in vitro and animal studies.28,29 Little toxicity information is available for still another chemical used as a flame retardant in foam, 2,2-bis(chloromethyl)propane-1,3-diyltet?rakis(2-chloroethyl)bisphosphate.Components of these flame retardants have been found in homes, cars, and foam samples taken from baby products.30,31 Several studies suggest that children receive greater exposures than adults, with one study detecting the major metabolite of TDCPP in children at levels nearly five times higher than in their mothers.26,32,33 Data collected via the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) indicates that PentaBDE congeners are present in the blood of virtually all Americans and at higher levels in children than adults.34,35North Americans’ levels of PentaBDE congeners are significantly higher than levels in Europeans or Asians largely because the product was essentially made and used only in North America as the domestic market sought to comply with TB117.36 Within North America, sampling suggests that Californians have the highest average concentrations of PBDEs in their homes and their bodies, once again possibly a result of the state’s flammability standards.37Research conducted over the past decade has shown that socioeconomically disadvantaged communities and people of color may be disproportionately exposed to flame retardants indoors. These studies, which have relied on nationally representative NHANES data, showed that non-white Californians living below the poverty level had some of the highest levels of PentaBDE congeners ever documented.37,38,39,40 More recently, studies carried out on opposite sides of the country reported that lower maternal educational attainment (California) and lower socioeconomic status (North Carolina) were associated with higher levels of some PentaBDE congeners and other flame retardants in children.41,42 Other work links lower body burdens of PBDEs in an ethnically diverse population of 6- to 8-year-old girls in California and Ohio with higher-educated caregivers.43 This study also found the highest body burdens among black girls.Researchers have also found that low-income residences tend to have higher levels of flame retardants in dust.44 Little has been published on levels of newer flame retardants in the bodies or homes of lower-income populations.Few hard data exist to explain these disparities in flame retardant exposures, says Ami Zota, an assistant professor at George Washington University’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. It is possible that the physical weathering and crumbling of treated foam in older or cheaper furniture, which is more often found in lower-income homes, may release greater amounts of flame retardants into indoor environments.45 Housing quality, ventilation rates, and the number of residents per square foot may also play a role, Zota says.....rest is at:Hand-Me-Down Hazard: Flame Retardants in Discarded Foam Products (Feb 2015)http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/123-a56/Tracking Alternative Flame Retardants: Hand-to-Mouth Exposures in Adultshttp://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/123-a44/

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2015, 02:37:02 pm
content: Was the foam you bought conductive in the first place, did you try measuring resistance

author: Curiosity8
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 02, 2015, 08:07:08 pm
content: Yes, it was conductive when I first bought it; they tested it with some device, showing around 10^4~10^5 ohms, if I recall correctly.After washing (with detergent), is it okay to put my IC chips in there? Or would there be problems due to some static build up in the foam? (Due to washing and friction) If so, is there a way to make it usable again?

author: elgonzo
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 02, 2015, 08:12:21 pm
content: Quote from: Ian.M on April 02, 2015, 11:09:26 amYou think the Taiwanese are the masters of fragrance? Try some products from P.R.C.

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 02, 2015, 10:06:34 pm
content: My mistake. Of course it should have been P.R.C as I had the mainland and its well known issues with adulteration of foodstuffs and other commodities in mind.