Slashdot Mirror
Toxic Fumes From Mac Pros?
Fanboi Killa writes "Apple is investigating damning claims, published in a leading French newspaper, that its computers emit a toxic odor containing chemicals including the cancer-causing benzene. Apple has not denied the accusations. Its spokesman, Bill Evans, told Macworld the company had not found any evidence to support the claim but Apple would continue to investigate. Posts on Apple's own discussion boards suggest the Mac maker knew about potentially toxic odors being linked to its computers as early as December last year."
It's just the smell of smug.
If there's any truth to it, then I'm fairly sure this only applies to MacPros (see http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=2319).
The article (and 'internets' hype) cleary state the problematic machines to be the Mac Pro (manufactured pre 2008)
blaah !
Saying "Apple has not denied the allegations" is sensationalistic, and doesn't belong in the summary. They "found no evidence", which, logically, is as strong a denial as can possibly be made.
I thought we'd known that Apples give off ethylene forever. What's one more gas?
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
Source of the reality distortion field revealed!
Further studies show that the fumes also cause a false sense of self worth and belonging as well as an elitist attitude.
"I don't have to think. I only have to do it. The results are always perfect, but that's old news." - Meat Puppets
The smell has been variously described as "new car smell", "musty", "rotting carpet" and even cannabis.
So, computer geeks smelled something musty, rotting, or something similar to pot. Uh, that's nothing new. They probably just need to clean up their rooms and smoke outside.
Read the article -- the whole thing is sensational.
Even if the Greenpeace lab did detect chemicals with known health risks you still need to know the concentrations.
You can get a all sorts of poisonous fumes coming off of anything with silicon caulk -- like aquariums -- especially when they get warm. Good stuff like toluene and ethylbenzene -- just not in concentrations that can actually harm you.
I'm NOT trying to claim there is no problem. I'm just saying that there is nothing from the article to support that there IS a problem either -- just some anecdotes and a bit of scientifically illiterate journalism.
With the strong smells coming off some machines, it is worth running a few tests to make sure that whatever is being emitted is not coming off at dangerous concentrations. In the meantime, though, not much to see here.
Life is short: void the warranty.
Wow, what a discovery...
Plastic is amongst the "dirtiest" compounds in manufacturing. They commonly contain plasticisers, colorants, residual monomers, oligomers and solvents, all of whom can, and most likely will evaporate. Depending on the choice of plastic, this is much, little, odourless or smelly.
It looks like only the mention of Apple Mac these days will get your news posted..
B.
Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
Would the author of the summary prefer if Apple denied the allegations without investigating the matter?
Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
Guess that one was misleading.
""My entire room smells bad and I have had to resort to a few air fresheners just to be able to work on it," one report read."
"I recently have had a bird die 'mysteriously' which was caged near my MacPro which has had the terrible smell for months. The vet said it was likely he inhaled something toxic!!!"
Both of those "quotes" or "reports" are pulled from the Apple forum. With no follow-up, no real names, and no fact checking. I guess it's good that they did in fact link to the posts... I'm sad to see Slashdot posting this article.
I wonder if there is some particular manufacturing issue with certain mac pros, or are users primed to be unusually sensitive about their experience with expensive hardware? I ask because there doesn't seem to be anything unusual about the mac pro. Aluminum case, not much outgassing there, industry standard drives, RAM, chipset, chips, nothing there that isn't in 10s of millions of boring beige boxes. All the specific components, motherboard, PSU, etc. are presumably sourced from the same OEMs that manufacture for everybody else.
I can imagine that people would be more apt to notice galling details in a machine they paid over 2000 for, but I am hard pressed to believe that the mac pro is actually emitting any chemicals that numerous other machines wouldn't also be. PCB manufacturing isn't all puppies and roses, and everybody's PCBs are manufactured in essentially the same way.
``They "found no evidence", which, logically, is as strong a denial as can possibly be made.``
No, as strong a denial as can possibly be made is "That is incorrect. It is not true. Our products do not emit the fumes referred to."
All "found no evidence" means that where they looked, using their methods, they couldn't find the fumes.
I'm not saying they -didn't- launch a thorough investigation, but there's nothing in particular to indicate that they did, either. Certainly there's people with complaints.. unless they're all making things up, I suspect that their "[continued] investigation" will dig up some particular packaging material or electronics supplier that happened to have a bad batch.
Just about any polymer used in a modern consumer good is going to off-gas chemicals to SOME extent, over time (it's probably even worse with "environmentally friendly" plastics meant to more quickly degrade over time). Singling out Apple is this regard is just petty. I'm sure you could find just as much in any computer made by a French company (not that France is ever going to complain about THAT, though).
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I was in the Apple store when I was in Paris recently, and I let an SBD rip.
That's all. Soap-box science is fond of the "X contains Y, Y causes Z!" without considering the exposure, which is the absolute be-all and end-all of toxicology. As a rule of thumb, the air around you contains non-zero amounts of anything you claim to mention. Your computer mouse could quite possibly have a whole molecule of deadly hydrogen fluoride on it. This will not kill you.
100 spin points to Greenpeace for changing VOC from "volatile organic compound" to "volatile organic contaminant", by the way. It's nice to know that I can order in 99% pure bottles of "contaminant" from Sigma, or indeed that my air freshener is busily filling my surroundings with "contaminants".
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Apple goods are infused with narcotic addictive fumes, so you'll KEEP ON BUYING THEM. And you can't complain under the NDA. Because Apple is EVIL.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I seem to recall Greenpeace going after Apple in the past as well. Haven't they been trying to slam Apple for not being ecologically friendly for years now? Not saying there isn't a problem, just saying Greenpeace isn't exactly a neutral party. Maybe one of these problem systems should be sent off to a lab that really is neutral and can say for sure whether there's a problem or not.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
It looks like they corrected that.
You know, for people who are so unwilling to let us edit or delete our own posts, they sure are willing to make corrections to their stories without noting that there even was one.
From the Slashdot FAQ:
Will you delete my comment?
No. We believe that discussions in Slashdot are like discussions in real life- you can't change what you say, you only can attempt to clarify by saying more. In other words, you can't delete a comment that you've posted, you only can post a reply to yourself and attempt to clarify what you've said.
In short, you should think twice before you click that 'Submit' button because once you click it, we aren't going to let you Undo it.
Think twice, indeed.