is this safe?

[theDotster]

Hi,

So my 4 year old comes back from nursery with his folder of what they've been doing this term, inside is a picture of him taking apart a DVD player with one of the staff and they are handling the PCB, I assume taking bits off it.

I'm horrified to see this, thinking there could be who knows what charges left in it, am I right to be concerned?

Paul

[KirkLasVegas]

Hi,

So my 4 year old comes back from nursery with his folder of what they've been doing this term, inside is a picture of him taking apart a DVD player with one of the staff and they are handling the PCB, I assume taking bits off it.

I'm horrified to see this, thinking there could be who knows what charges left in it, am I right to be concerned?

Paul

This is a joke right?

[poppo]

Assuming it's not a joke, there is nothing in an unplugged DVD player that is going to shock anyone. And any modern day (last 20 years or so) electronics that might still use high voltage components and capacitors that would hold a charge, have bleed off resistors to discharge the caps in a short time.

[tacman]

The only problem I see is leaving the kid alone with YOUR dvd player and other electronics now.  You may find them with all your toys taken apart just like they learned in nursury school!! 

 Dan (tacman)

[theDotster]

This is a joke right?

I only wish it was!

Thanks for the info Poppo, set my mind at rest. I do worry.

Yes Tacman, if he's anything like me I have to be concerned, I remember taking apart a an old portable TV when I was 9 and breaking the thin end off the tube hearing the air rush in, I won't touch my monitors now for fear of getting a jolt.

[KirkLasVegas]

The days of "High Voltage" are pretty much over. If it has a CRT or Plasma it's still there. Computer (Switcher) supplies take the AC line (120) and multiply it by 1.414. This is chopped at a high freq.They DO have bleeder resistors, so it doesnt stay in the caps.While "Shocks" are not pleasant they are rarely dangerous,caps dont hold a lethal dose are usually require it from the left arm/across the chest to be really dangerous.
The boards have LEAD on them (Solder) but your kid would have to EAT the PCB to get any real amount of lead....
The IC's are doped with ARSENIC, but then again...eating chips is not tasty.
Florescent lights contain Phosphorus and Mercury and radiate strong UV energy....
If you could actually SEE RF energy..you would not be able to see across the street......
Dirt contains "Spores" that live for DECADES, he is exposed on a daily basis.....
You ARE exposed to "High Voltage" daily...thousands if not more,static, a lot higher then the VCR supply could ever deliver....

RELAX.....remember in the 50's? we drove around without SEATBELTS, we survived...
Radios had mercury vapor rectifiers...we survived..
TV's had Selenium rectifiers...we survived....
We tested the tubes in the TV set, we survived....
Gasoline had lead in it...we survived....
A lot of homes have Asbestos in them....we survived...
You are exposed to X-Ray and Gamma Rays on a daily basis, more so at higher altitude...we survive...
As long as the teacher doesnt have a cigarette hanging from his lips while your son gets a "How its made" lesson....he will do fine....

[poppo]

Radios had mercury vapor rectifiers...we survived..

I remember as a kid breaking bunches of thermometers to play with the mercury. I guess it is a good thing we never tried to drink it though. 

[KirkLasVegas]

YEP!
Did you ever "Coat" a dime with it? makes the dime real slippery and shiny....
You handled a dangerous heavy metal....and lived to tell

We used to break open Mercury switches for the metal in them...quite a bit in there actually.
Here is another one, "Super Glue" when heated with a soldering iron releases small amounts of CYANIDE. It's composed of Cyano-Acrilate(sp) it wont kill you..but it will take your breath away.
Freon in a car fire when heated by the flames turns to PHOSGENE (sp) gas.....

[stayouttadabunker]

4 years old?  Jeesh! I think I was playing with Tinkertoy...or Slinky down the stairs...
or trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole...

[Railroad94]

WOW Kirk  after reading your post I don't feel so good

[tacman]

Reminds me of many years ago coming home after a bing and leaning over the tiolet and taking along drawn out pee.  Woke up several hours later with a bump on my head.  Wife had poured bleach into the bowl for cleaning. Still don't know if I passed out from the liquor or the chlorine gas from the bleach an ammonia from the urine! 

 Dan (tacman)

[jay]

You just described the perfect murder.

Ammonia in the bowl, bleach in the tank.
Man in locked room (bathroom).

One flush - man in locked room dies.

Evidence is conveniently washed away.

By the time the person is discovered and residual gas traces are long dissipated.

[KirkLasVegas]

YUP!!!
been there...done that!
Wife goes into the master bath and dumps a quantity of clorine bleach into the toilet bowl. I go in there, and proceed to play "Fireman". The amount of ammonia that results from that is STAGGERING!.
Now if you have a bathroom that sleeps six your OK, but if it's like this one, i have to drop drawers, throw it into reverse and back (ass first) into that tight spot and park it. human nature dictates you DUMP first...followed by the waterworks.
Thats when the gas cloud attacks! It will at the very least, ruin your morning......

[theDotster]

Now we've reached the toilet level (it had to happen!  ) thank you to Kirk and Poppo for putting my mind at rest.

And thanks for the info amount bleach and wee, I never new that!

[uniman]

Reminds me of many years ago coming home after a bing and leaning over the tiolet and taking along drawn out pee.  Woke up several hours later with a bump on my head.  Wife had poured bleach into the bowl for cleaning. Still don't know if I passed out from the liquor or the chlorine gas from the bleach an ammonia from the urine! 

 Dan (tacman)

YUP!!!
been there...done that!
Wife goes into the master bath and dumps a quantity of clorine bleach into the toilet bowl. I go in there, and proceed to play "Fireman". The amount of ammonia that results from that is STAGGERING!.
Now if you have a bathroom that sleeps six your OK, but if it's like this one, i have to drop drawers, throw it into reverse and back (ass first) into that tight spot and park it. human nature dictates you DUMP first...followed by the waterworks.
Thats when the gas cloud attacks! It will at the very least, ruin your morning......

Hmmm, fact or urban myth? 
Chlorine bleach mixed with ammonia will create nasty stuff.
Human urine is usually in the nuetral pH range and has very little if any ammonia. So I don't see a release of Cl2 (chlorine) or NH3 (ammonia). Butt, if you DUMP first, all bets are off!       

Now Jay's idea would difinetly create di (NH2Cl) and mono-chlorimines(NH2Cl2) that cause severe respiratory problems in tight quarters.

[theDotster]

Butt, if you DUMP first, all bets are off!       

Was that 'Butt' a deliberate typo!!

[jay]

Pecunia non olet (Latin for Money Doesn't Stink).
Debunking that urine doesn't contain Ammonia.

The Urine Tax (Latin: vectigal urinae) was a tax levied by the Roman emperor Nero in the 1st century upon the distribution of urine. The lower classes of Roman society urinated into pots which were emptied into cesspools. The liquid was then collected from public latrines, where it was sold and served as the valuable raw material for a number of chemical processes: it was used in tanning, and also by launderers as a source of ammonia to clean and whiten woollen togas. The buyers of the urine paid the tax.

The tax was eventually discontinued, but it was re-enacted by Nero's successor Vespasian and applied to all public toilets within Rome's now famous Cloaca Maxima (great sewer) system. The Roman historians Suetonius and Dio Cassius report that when Vespasian's son Titus complained to him about the disgusting nature of the tax, his father held up a gold coin and told him, "Non olet! ("It doesn't stink!").

This phrase is still used today to show that the value of money is not tainted by its origins. Vespasian's name still attaches to public urinals in France (vespasiennes), Italy (vespasiani), and Romania (vespasiene).