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Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

You don't hear about this danger as much as you used to--probably because a lot more paints are water-based than used to be the case.

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You hear about stuff like that way more than you used to because every time you go on the internet you have to skim over the low effort comments pointing out the rare failure modes in which everything is dangerous to find the real content.

The world doesn't need a lecture on proper jack stand usage every time vehicles are mentioned and doesn't need a lecture on linseed oil fires every time deck finished are mentioned but it gets it anyway.

I for one am pretty happy about the linseed oil stories in this thread because the low ignition temperature is something that I wasn't aware of.

same

How? There's a warning on literally every product containing linseed oil even in the EU.

Products have warnings about approximately 100 gazillion things that can happen that basically no one reads.

I think that's true for Americanized consumer products which always seem to come with about 2-3 pages worth of "don't do this" in the manual. For stuff like paints it pretty much just says it on the tin: "Flammable. Harmful if swallowed. If ingested, contact poison control center. Do not induce vomiting."

The longest safety hints I've found in a survey of my paints cabinet were these:

> P102: Don't let kids play with this

> P301+310: IF INGESTED, rinse out of the mouth. Do NOT induce vomiting. Contact doctor immediately.

> EUH066: Repeated contact may cause brittle skin.

> EUH208: Contains lemons, wood oil, cobalt-2+-salts. Can induce allergic reactions.

> EU-VOC-limit (some numbers)

> Safety instructions: Rags and stuff drenched with this should be put in an enclose metal container or under water, since they can self-ignite. Note: product itself does not self-ignite.

If you're familiar with similar products you probably don't need to look at this - but if you use something for the first time, why wouldn't you spend the 10 seconds to understand these, in addition to the prep time you need to use a new type of finish anyway?!

I don't have any, never read the packaging, still appreciate the warning because I don't actually read the instructions on every bit of kit that I get, usually they are full of warnings that are either dead obvious ('may cause rash') or ass covering ('may cause cancer when ingested'). Over the years I've become quite numb to these which is a danger in and of itself.

So this is actually a strong motivator to start reading those anyway even for things that seem quite innocent.

When dealing with industrial stuff that I know is dangerous I go over the MSDS in detail and make sure I take all of the proper precautions.

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