Are Plasma TV's a new risk?

[Poland971]

As a member of my departments Fire Safety Inspection Department we have recently seen the number of Plasma Televisions in our area on the climb... And some very interesting questions have come up that the manufacturers don't seem to know the answer to.

If a Plasma Television is broken:

1. Do the chemicals pose any sort of extraordinary fire hazzard?

2. If there is fire involvment, will the chemicals affect the fire?

3. Would the chemicals be harmful to personel and/or equipment? And if so, what would the deconamination issues be?

4. What are the medical considerations of direct contact (ie. a child breaks the TV and gets the chemicals on his/her hands... hands into mouth).

We have contacted several manufacturers of these units and not only did they not know the answer but thier common response was "Gee, no one has ever asked us that before!"

I am posting this in hopes that someone might have some information that could shed some light on this.

Thanks!

[Adze39]

Interesting question.

I just did a quick search on NC State's website for an old professor. His name is Donald Bitzer. He's one of the guys who invented the Plasma TV. Unfortunately, the faculty directory doesn't list his email address. If anyone feels like calling his office, you can find his number there. Cuz I don't feel like posting his number for millions of people to call, the only thing I have to say is 100010010000010010111010100100 1110

Dal90 should be able to figure that one out.

[Dalmatian90]

That's too easy Adze. I would've put it as 22412EA4E and really made people think.

(Someone rescue me...it's Saturday morning and I'm in programming class again...HELP...Linkers, Compilers, Make Files...I can't take anymore...)

But since Adze dragged me into this, I did some Googling, and after a long search I found this man:


Who founded one of the pioneering companies in making Plasma displays.

Here's there website with phone number: http://www.plasmaco.com/

I'd give them a call, seems like you could get info "from the horses mouth" -- somewhere I'd imagine a MSDS must exist on what goes into the TVs!

[Adze39]

Originally posted by Dalmatian90
That's too easy Adze. I would've put it as 22412EA4E and really made people think.

You know, I actually thought about that...even almost put both...of course 104404565116 would have made people think even more.


moving on...


Is it me or does that look like the man who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart?

[MalahatTwo7]

Ok, I am not going to get into either the Googling or the binary codes, [too much like work ] but you have my attention on the Plasma TV question.

Poland, you presented a very good topic and question. I will do my own looking around as well to see what I can find, but I look forward to comparing notes with anyone else who goes looking.

[Poland971]

Actually, http://www.plasmaco.com was one of the first places that we contacted. They simply scratched their heads and told us that we should talk to the manufacturers.

One would think that there would be MSDS sheets someplace... But I think they are hidden in the bottom of somebody's desk drawer, underneath a 6 month old PB&J!

I really don't want to wait to try to find this information after I have crawled through the stuff!

Anyone else have any ideas?

[MalahatTwo7]

While Pfire is searching through the MSDS "Online", I went to Sony and emailed a message to them with an inquiry for MSDS on their product.

Pfire's online search has yielded about 20 ro 30 different types of "plasma" products, and of course without the core information, which one do "you choose"? So we are continuing.....

[dsblev]

For assistance on this issue, please contact our Flat TV Panel at 1-800-464-1264. There our customer service experts will be more than happy to help you.

This is part of an email that I received from phillips consumer electronics. This is the phone number for the plasma tv dept. I have not been able to get ahold of them yet but I will call tomorrow as I think they are in the office.

If not I will post what I find out on Monday.

[FireCapt1951retired]

Go to this site and you may get some of the information you desire. Plasma is used in many many applications that surround us everyday and its use is becoming very large. There is an eviromental site which exlains its uses in future applications for the enviroment. This site should help you understand a little bit about it's applications and makeup.

http://www.plasmas.org/

[MalahatTwo7]

I sent a message to the Sony Online Support staff. This was their reply, and my subsequent reply:

Thank you for taking time to reply to my query. However, your answer does not relate in any way towards answering the questions I have posed. My query is directly related to heat and damage caused by fire. To use any product there must be a MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEET (MSDS) on the final product. A WHMIS category must also be assigned to a final product, and failure to be able to provide such information is in contravention to EPA directives regarding such things. I have been able to extract MSDS sheets for such items as dish soap, and printer toner cartridges, and any other household or office product.

Thank you once again for your time.

Cheers

----- Original Message -----
From: "ciscesc"
To:
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 11:28 AM
Subject: RE: Television: Direct View (KMM10670729I21924L0KM)

Thank you for contacting SONY Online Support.

Unfortunately the information you requested is not available in any database we have access to, nor is it a published specification available from our engineering department.

The plasma lasts for a long time. How long has not been determined by experience. Gas in the plasma state is used to react with phosphors in each sub pixel to produce colored light (red, green, or blue). After a period of time (30,000 hours approximately) the phosphors lose brightness--not totally but begin degradation. Compare this to a projector which requires bulb replacement at or less than 2,000 hours.

Also consider that normal TV is experiencing the same phenomenon--compare a 5 year old TV next to a new one.

What are the advantages? Wide angle viewing of at least 160 degrees, vibrant and vivid colors, works in bright ambient conditions, connect to a multitude of devices, 16:9 without letterboxing, absolutely flat screen, can be mounted almost anywhere, all in a package that is less than 6 inches wide.

Thank you for the opportunity to be of assistance.

-----Original Message-----
From: rabbitgo@shaw.ca [mailto:rabbitgo@shaw.ca]
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2003 4:39 AM
To: Customer Focus Services
Subject: Television: Direct View


Email Address: rabbitgo@shaw.ca
Future Mail : No
Sol/Survey : NA / NA
Name : Hills, Richard
Address : PO Box 236
:
: Malahat, AE V0R 2L0
Phone : 250-743-0529
Product Type : Video
Prod Category: Television: Direct View
Subject : Digital TV/HDTV/Hi-Scan Questions
O/S : Not Applicable
Model/SN : KE-42TS2 /
Type : Support

Message : I am Firefighter in my area and am looking for MSDS
information regarding the plasma television units. Specifically what are the dangers inheirent to when a plasma unit is exposed to high temperature/flame, and how does it react when under such extreme onditions? Please send either via fax to 250-743-9879 or to the above email address. Thank you for your time in this matter.

Makes ya feel safe for those of you who have a Sony warehouse in your area.

[StayBack500FT]

Malahat27 -- Please tell me why I'm ROTFLMAO at your first line...there's something about the PO'ed smilie and "A Response From Sony...." OMG...My sides are killin' me. It's like Look out Sony...here comes 27!!!

It's like you hit them with this serious question and they were like, "Thank you for your inquiry about Sony. We are pleased you enjoy using our products and have sent you a coupon for two nine-volt batteries. We hope our service department can be of help to you in the future."





Now as I control myself...it is a very serious issue that should have warranted a better response.

[MalahatTwo7]

I went, I came, I kicked MUTT BUTT!!! Not even 20 minutes went by between my second request and the following message. My reply to them was very courtious and polite....

Thank you for contacting SONY Online Support.

I possed this inquiry to one of our trainers. The answer was not available to us. However, he will pursue this all the way to Japan to see if we can come up with the Material Safety Data Sheet for you. Hopefully we can have a reply to you by fax or email by the end of the week.

Thank you for the opportunity to be of assistance

[PFire23]

@ the visual I have gotten of Stayback attempting to control himself .......

Hearing the Mission Impossible theme in the background

[dsblev]

I went to the plasmas.org website posted a few posts earlier and was unable to find the information that we are trying to ascertain. I sent an email and as of a few minutes ago I have not received a response yet. You think that you would be able to find some information on this somewhere. its bad when you are able to find msds

for such items as dish soap, and printer toner cartridges, and any other household or office product.

but not something that is as big and expensive and potentially deadly electronic component. All I can say keep trying. sooner or later one of us will come up with the correct answer.

[dsblev]

I went to the following web page http://www.ilpi.com/msds/index and they claimed to be an extensive site for msds. They to came up a blank when looking for plasma or plasma tv. Ever wonder if you are looking in a blackhole. Nothing to be found

[StayBack500FT]

Originally posted by MalahatTwo7
However, he will pursue this all the way to Japan to see if we can come up with the Material Safety Data Sheet for you. [/color] [/B]

Malahat: " Wahooo!! PFire!!! I got the MSDS!! ***opens it*** Uh....PFire...Can you read Japanese???"

[StayBack500FT]

[N2DFire]

Hey Adze & Dal - just remember one thing.

There are 10 kinds of people in this world - Those who understand Binary, and Those who don't.

[stillPSFB]

I'll try to see what I can shake loose down this end of the world. I'll try our department headquaters first, but I'm not really hopeful after our last effort at trying to get information when all the Anthrax scares started just after Sept 11 -
Us (on the phone to HQ) - "Could you please send us via fax or email all the information you have on dealing with possible Anthrax attacks"
HQ - "What is Anthrax?"
Us - "It's a biological weapon"
HQ - "What's it used for?"
Us - "It's used by terrorists to make people sick"
HQ - "How do you spell it?"
Us - "A-N-T-H-R-A-X"
HQ - "No, sorry nothing listed in our database"

Some days you just have to agree that it can be difficult to soar with the eagles when you are surrounded by turkeys, and then get on with trying to do the best you can with what you already have.

[HeavyRescueTech]

I just wanted to say that BOTH Adze39 and Dalmatian90 must be really geeky . Then again, i'm not that much better, considering i was able to translate both the hex and bin numbers with only a pencil and paper

since we are looking up a MSDS for plama TVs, anyone have one, or know where i can find one, for a regular TV?

Dan