The fire retardant in the seafood chain
78 points - last Saturday at 7:37 PM
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Does anyone remember the 90s when as a laymen it seemed like an open debate whether humans would occasionally combust spontaneously? I guess it stopped happening once falling asleep with a cigarette lost popularity
But my point is I wasn’t aware that “spontaneous combustion” was a real thing one has to worry about it. Linseed oil rags will do this too, and that’s why patent leather shoes are coated in plastic now instead.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/24/1194759...
re: spontainous combustion, there is a biological process called 'the heat of evolution" that is used to describe the heat given off by ALL ripening and oxidising biological materials, and MANY foods will combust if packed too tight and insulated, case in point are bannanas that must be kept seperate and refrigerated and the whole bannana industry was built on specialy designed refrigerated ships, as there was no good way to ship them before refrigeration. as for 'heat of evolution' there are charts that give the btu's/ton per hour used in refrigeration design, as the heat is substantial and will overwhelm the systems, with fire a real possibility. this is different than dusts and powders exploding due to the 'right' mix and a spark, which might just possibly coincide with a decomposition fire, if a ship was that unlucky. but with so many ways that things can go wrong, it is astounding to find out someone got the idea to prevent food fires by covering everything in poison.