Comments on: HDTV gas worse than carbon dioxide

By: Harry

Harry — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:23:34 +0000

“In fact, there are more deaths in industry due to nitrogen asphyxiation than all of the know deaths (zero) ever caused directly by NF3.”

nitrogen asphyxiation? The air we breathe is 79% nitrogen. Surely it’s not the nitrogen that kills you in that case, it’s the lack of oxygen?

By: Ruben Zevallos Jr.

Ruben Zevallos Jr. — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:57:05 +0000

Very funny, but as I can see, the NF3 is not so harmfull like you said… anyway… any waste is not good…

By: PhDChemist

PhDChemist — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:08:14 +0000

For the record. NF3 is a gas used in the production of LCD flat panels and is not found inside of the flat panel that is sitting on your desk. It is used to clean the chambers where the flat panels are fabricated. NF3 is a “green” replacement for the gases that were traditionally used, such as carbon tetrafluoride, hexafluoro ethane and SF6. Because the breakdown of NF3 in the production process is greater than 99%, very little gas is rejected from the chamber and what gas is, is broken down into nitrogen and fluorides and captured in a waste water stream. This contrasted with the other fluorocarbons mentioned earlier that were very hard to break down and thus were vented into the atmosphere. SF6 is much worse than NF3 when it comes to greenhouse gas global warmig. As far as the toxicity, NF3 is about as toxic as moth balls. Also, electronic grade NF3 is odorless. That’s right, just like nitrogen, you can’t smell it. The exact means of how NF3 damages the human body is not known for certain. But, even nitrogen at high enough concentrations will kill. In fact, there are more deaths in industry due to nitrogen asphyxiation than all of the know deaths (zero) ever caused directly by NF3. How would I know - I have been in the manufacture of electronic gases such as NF3 for over 20 years.

By: matto

matto — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:49:03 +0000

What a worthless, content-free article. You couldn’t be bothered to even fact-check enough to find out which “flat-panel” technologies present these, apparently world-ending, dangers?

By: Michael LaBossiere

Michael LaBossiere — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:45:17 +0000

Electronic waste is a rather serious problem (http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/?p=330). Of course, electronics are a critical part of modern civilization. For example, without computers you’d not be reading this blog.

By: Samuel Lopez De Victoria, Ph.D.

Samuel Lopez De Victoria, Ph.D. — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:46:39 +0000

I am amazed at how this religion of the Church of Global Warming is taking over society. I can already see The Inquisition coming by Global Warming Police forcing you to use tricycles, bankrupt you via exorbitant killer taxes, putting your business/job out of business, and turning you into a Socialist/Marxist by force. You will have no more power of choice except to attend their services.

(Never mind that the Antarctic region is expanding (press doesn’t tell you this), never mind that there are thousands of scientists that get shut up, never mind that the seas are cooling, etc., etc……

Samuel Lopez De Victoria, Ph.D.
http:www.DrSam.tv

By: LeftyX

LeftyX — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:43:22 +0000

And don’t break your -plasma- TV, because the stuff in there is hot as the sun! (A co-worker actually convinced someone this was true - LOL!)

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:39:28 +0000

My reading of the article is that the gas is used in the LCD production process, not contained inside the TV as you report. This means that the problem is ongoing, rather than that building up waiting for the disposal of existing HD TVs.

Also, it would suggest that all flat panels are involved, so that probably includes flat-screen monitors, not just HD TVs. I have no idea what the proportion of monitors to TVs is in the world.

By: zeasar

zeasar — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:32:00 +0000

Im sorry but USA has been shipping rubbish to china for years, be it e-waste or normal household rubbish.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 03:35:21 +0000

I feel bad for the Indians who will be recycling our first world e-waste for scrap metal. This won’t affect us but I would expect a lot of additional health problems for those poor folks.

Jon
http://woodmarvels.com - Create Unique Memories!

By: LightAce

LightAce — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:34:57 +0000

Looks like I’m not getting an HDTV anytime soon. I really hope they fix this thing soon