I was a stage hand with IATSE (THE theatre and stage workers union) and the road crew for the band seemingly forgot about us. So there were five union members just standing there watching the road crew finish putting up the stage for about 3-4 hours (5?). As union members, the 'employer' is contractually obligated to send us on break and after a certain amount of time give us a hot meal. We missed all of those, so by the time some one noticed us we were already on quadruple time (penta time?). I was paid ~$1000 to do nothing for 4 hours. I love unions. :3
One of the issues with relying on published NPFA triangles to judge the answer to this question is that some of them don't seem to be very reliable given the known properties of compounds.
According to one of its suppliers ClF3 has a rating of 4-0-3. So it would not count very highly here. This seems about as inaccurate as describing dimethylmercury as only mildly toxic. I mean how in hell can it have a zero on the fire score and only a 3 on the toxicity score?
Here is how John D Clarke describes it in Ignition (his history of rocket fuels):
It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water—with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals—steel, copper, aluminum, etc.—because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminum keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal–fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.
So for example, while the compound itself is arguably not flammable, absolutely everything else is flammable in its presence. And given that those reactions tend to produce far more benign compounds like HF gas, it can hardly be considered as only a 3 on the toxicity scale either (though, perhaps, if you are dead already from the corrosive or explosive effects of its reactions, the toxicity is not a major concern).
To put it mildly, ClF3 is one of the most dangerous compounds that is commercially available on any reasonable metrics and damn those published NPFA triangles.
jia_tan @ jabathekek @sopuli.xyz Posts 93Comments 1,739Joined 2 yr. ago
HERETIC