Fire Safety in the Lab

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by charlie1218

I would stop doing this ASAP, this is not only not fire safe, but you are compromising the copper wiring by heating it rapidly, this can lead to failures, shorts and fires.

This is news to me. I'm curious why that is? I can see why it might be an issue with some kinds of insulation (like paper... ugh). However, I don't understand why the temporary heat would be affecting the copper in that manner, except for possibly adding energy that could speed up the oxidation reaction.

Originally Posted by ebarker

Another safety hazard is the things things that are commonly lit with a lighter, in other words ditch the lighter and the things that go with it....

Just to be clear, I don't smoke and I never intend to start. Being near smoking actually causes me to cough incessantly (which is really annoying... I have to hold my breath while walking through certain areas of my school). My family has a long history of cancer, so that is a strong motivator away from smoking; in addition, I just don't see the draw of essentially committing delayed suicide in order to inhale the smoke from burning some random plant. I purchased my lighter shortly after a 4th of July when I burned on my thumb several times on a safety lighter. That wouldn't be so bad, except the little wheel thing shredded my skin over a night of using it and so the burn (while not severe) was extremely annoying. I have yet to either burn my thumb, or shred my skin with my Zippo, and it makes lighting a charcoal grill a breeze, even in a strong breeze. Plus, it makes that cool clicking sound when you open/close it.