is dark gray heatsink paste poisonous?

A

Anne Onime

We find a "computer graveyard" in our street, a abandonded
warehouse full of old Pentium 4 computers. Our family
strip them for scrap metal. My uncle make me take out
the heatsinks, which have 250 gram of aluminum. The metal
buyer wants clean metal, so I must remove the metal foil
from the heatsink, what has dark gray paste sticking it.
I do hundreds of these, now I get sick. I am very tired.
What is in the computer paste?
 
T

ToolPackinMama

We find a "computer graveyard" in our street, a abandonded
warehouse full of old Pentium 4 computers. Our family
strip them for scrap metal. My uncle make me take out
the heatsinks, which have 250 gram of aluminum. The metal
buyer wants clean metal, so I must remove the metal foil
from the heatsink, what has dark gray paste sticking it.
I do hundreds of these, now I get sick. I am very tired.
What is in the computer paste?
Click to expand...

I don't know.

Use Goo Gone to remove it.
 
J

John Doe

Anne Onime said:
We find a "computer graveyard" in our street, a abandonded
warehouse full of old Pentium 4 computers. Our family strip them
for scrap metal. My uncle make me take out the heatsinks, which
have 250 gram of aluminum. The metal buyer wants clean metal, so
I must remove the metal foil from the heatsink, what has dark
gray paste sticking it. I do hundreds of these, now I get sick.
I am very tired. What is in the computer paste?
Click to expand...

It is not Oreo cookie filling.

You might want to wear gloves, keep your hands away from your
mouth, and wash thoroughly afterwards.
--
 
D

david

We find a "computer graveyard" in our street, a abandonded warehouse
full of old Pentium 4 computers. Our family strip them for scrap metal.
My uncle make me take out the heatsinks, which have 250 gram of
aluminum. The metal buyer wants clean metal, so I must remove the metal
foil from the heatsink, what has dark gray paste sticking it. I do
hundreds of these, now I get sick. I am very tired. What is in the
computer paste?
Click to expand...

Only if you eat it.
 
P

Paul

P

Paul

Anne said:
We find a "computer graveyard" in our street, a abandonded
warehouse full of old Pentium 4 computers. Our family
strip them for scrap metal. My uncle make me take out
the heatsinks, which have 250 gram of aluminum. The metal
buyer wants clean metal, so I must remove the metal foil
from the heatsink, what has dark gray paste sticking it.
I do hundreds of these, now I get sick. I am very tired.
What is in the computer paste?
Click to expand...

Are you grinding the material off, and making clouds of dust ?

Are you using powerful solvents, to remove the material ?
Like gasoline or trichloroethylene (dry cleaning fluid) ?

It could be the way you're doing it, which is dangerous.

Also, is anyone "cooking" printed circuit boards near you,
over an open fire ? Perhaps you've been exposed to lead or
mercury, from the methods used to recycle the electronics ?

http://www.ban.org/photogallery/china_guiyu/pages/burning_long_pic.html

Paul
 
T

TVeblen

We find a "computer graveyard" in our street, a abandonded
warehouse full of old Pentium 4 computers. Our family
strip them for scrap metal. My uncle make me take out
the heatsinks, which have 250 gram of aluminum. The metal
buyer wants clean metal, so I must remove the metal foil
from the heatsink, what has dark gray paste sticking it.
I do hundreds of these, now I get sick. I am very tired.
What is in the computer paste?
Click to expand...

From one tech blog source. Your results may vary:

"Most standard thermal compound consists of silicone. However, silicone
doesn't have a high thermal conductivity, so they also contains zinc
oxide to improve this. The zinc oxide also explains its white colour.

High-End thermal compounds are usually silicone-free, and use
metal-based additives (e.g. aluminum oxide or nitride, or even
pulverized silver!) instead of Zinc Oxide.

I have heard people saying that heat sink compound contained heavy
metals and was poisonous. Neither silicone nor zinc oxide are poisonous
However, especially with advanced thermal compounds, other ingredients
may have been used, and are usually not declared. But despite strict
laws on marking poisonous substances in Europe and the US, I have never
seen a thermal compound that was marked as poisonous. Still, use common
sense, and don't confuse it with tooth paste."
 
F

Franc Zabkar

We find a "computer graveyard" in our street, a abandonded
warehouse full of old Pentium 4 computers. Our family
strip them for scrap metal. My uncle make me take out
the heatsinks, which have 250 gram of aluminum. The metal
buyer wants clean metal, so I must remove the metal foil
from the heatsink, what has dark gray paste sticking it.
I do hundreds of these, now I get sick. I am very tired.
What is in the computer paste?
Click to expand...

Decades ago, heatsink compound contained beryllium oxide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_grease

Safety data for beryllium oxide:
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/BE/beryllium_oxide.html

"Extremely toxic by inhalation and ingestion. Typical LD50s [50%
lethal dose] for beryllium compounds are between 0.5 and 5 mg kg-1.
Probable human carcinogen. Serious respiratory irritant. May be
harmful by skin contact."

- Franc Zabkar
 
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