And its worth 6 cents and a lot more. I too had a conversation of this type with our plant EHS manager today. I also suggested that everything be removed off the bench and the surface be DRY before any boards etc. be put back. Pick something with as high a volatile content (then flammability can raise it ugly head) and as non-ionic as you can get to satisfy what you are trying to do. If people screw up we are only looking at less than $200 a pop, not Doug's, I mean anonymous person's, $50K units. Here's how bad it can get: my daughter-in-law who works in health care in western Canada told us of a recent case where a fit 20-something male wasn't feeling well Thursday, was admitted to hospital Friday with H1N1 and was dead by Sunday night. Scary. Bev RIM -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Douglas Pauls Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 12:20 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Germicides and Electronics...deadly mix? Well, here is my opinion, and it is worth every penny you pay for............... Are the practices you describe a hazard to product reliability? Well, it depends (you knew it was coming). As my trusty co-op and I gather more data, this appears to be less and less of an issue, but how we are going about the investigation may not directly apply to you. We clean, you don't. We are Class 3 Aerospace, you Class 2 telecom. We coat, you don't. We have a hostile end use environment, yours is pretty benign. The timing on your question is wierd. I just got off the phone with our lead industrial engineer who asked if we can place the hand sanitizers out on the floor. Our people don't seem to be quite as panic stricken as you describe, but the day is still young. I told him no, that we want to keep these in the restrooms. My concern is two fold: (1) keeping it in the bathroom gives an additional few minutes for the highly volatile agents to evaporate as the operators go back to their work stations; and (2) out in the work area, there is a much greater chance of something stupid happening, like hitting the squirt dispensor, missing your hand and having it land on an energized $50K top level unit. Uhhhhh, not that this ever happens here, but I've heard it happens "other" places......... So the question really becomes, how disciplined is your production floor about making sure that all of your work in progress are in ESD bags or totes or someways out of the work environment before Betty Lou or Billy Bob starts spraying material. If you are satisfied that the discipline is there, then this may be a non-issue. Ask yourself the question of what do I do if the material DOES get sprayed on an assembly. Do you have the ability to clean? Looking up the MSDS for Dynakil (Lord, Google is a handy tool), it has a 18% non-volatile content and has an NFPA health code of 2, primarily because it is both a germicide and an anti-fungal agent. Not sure that I would want this as an aerosol around my workers, even in dilute form. Will workers wear a simple dust mask while spraying to limit inhalation? The active ingredient is N-Alkyl Benzalkonium Chloride and I get REAL nervous anytime the word chloride and electronics are used in the same sentence. The MSDS does list the material as being 100% water soluble, so I would follow any surface cleaning of Dynakil with a wipedown of deionized or distilled water. That would greatly minimize any risk of secondary transfer. My 6 cents worth. Doug Pauls pearl petras <[log in to unmask]> Sent by: TechNet <[log in to unmask]> 08/27/2009 10:23 AM Please respond to TechNet E-Mail Forum <[log in to unmask]>; Please respond to pearl petras <[log in to unmask]> To [log in to unmask] cc Subject [TN] Germicides and Electronics...deadly mix? So,... say a company is getting VERY active with precautions for H1N1... And they supply spray bottles of germicidal cleansers such as Dynakil all over the production floor and make it a requirement to wash down benches every day. Also hand sanitizer dispensers are everywhere (mentioning this due to the recent threads on this forum). Should I be concerned about this? Mfg environment is no-clean solder, with spot cleaning done mainly for things like additions of flux during hand-soldering operations. Electronics built to class 2 IPC, no conformal coating. Nothing for military, automotive or aerospace use. Primarily network infrastructure products, so usually installed in controlled environments. Some externally mounted devices are produced. Instructions are to remove everything from bench, and to spray the cleanser on the cloth and wipe down bench, keyboards, etc, with the cloth. Theoretically products should not be in the path of spray, but there could be secondary transfer from surfaces and hands. Your feedback is much appreciated. __________________________________________________________________ Looking for the perfect gift? 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