no more naptha in LA county

BobD · Oct 13, 2011

I went to my local hardware store to buy another can of naptha and there was none on the shelf. I asked a store employee and was told that naptha could no longer be sold in Los Angeles County until it was "reformulated" whatever that means. I tried a couple other stores and found the same thing. I did locate some Ronsonol (last can) in one local grocery store.

The hardware stores do have "mineral spirits" which the can says leaves no residue and I wonder if that is an acceptable substitute for cleaning shutters, etc. Does anyone know?

John Koehrer · Oct 13, 2011

Naptha and mineral spirits aren't equal I've only used MS once and went right back to Naptha. I don't believe it evaporates anywhere near as fast as Naptha, I tippled a little bit on the bench & rather than evaporating as I expected, it laid there until I wiped it up. No sign of evaporation at all.

Bob-D659 · Oct 14, 2011

This will help explain, Southern Ca is banning products that are 100% VOC. http://www.mgchemicals.com/downloads/appguide/appguide0607.pdf

David A. Goldfarb · Oct 14, 2011

Naphtha does evaporate much faster than mineral spirits. That's why it makes a good fuel for lighters and things like culinary torches. It can also be used to thin oil-based paints, when one wants the paint to dry faster.

Newt_on_Swings · Oct 14, 2011

wow really? its stuff like this... common, people have used this stuff for years.

ugh ridiculous over regulation, a burden to taxpayers and stores selling it. no one wins.

M. Lointain · Oct 14, 2011

Try to find Coleman Stove Fuel. WalMart usually has it in the camping section. Dries real fast. Cheap too. I just did a Ilex #5 for a friend with it. If you can't find that then a pharmacy could sell you 99% Isopropyl alcohol. Don't use the 91%.

michaelbsc · Oct 14, 2011

Take a Saturday drive up north to farm country, where sane people live, and you should be able to buy some.

Get a few gallons, bring it back into the belly of the beast, and hoard it with your canned food and bullets. (Oh! Wait! Wrong message board.)

MB

Copperrein · Oct 14, 2011

I would suggest 'white gas' which may be what Coleman calls Stove Fuel. It's very flammable and evaporates very very fast and clean. It should be available where ever they sell MSR camp stoves.

Mike Wilde · Oct 14, 2011

Sure this is not related to trying to crack down on the production of methamphetamine?

If it was all VOC's how will the ladies learn to live without nail polish?

steven_e007 · Oct 14, 2011

Just looked Naptha up on wikipedia:

"It is a broad term covering among the lightest and most volatile fractions of the liquid hydrocarbons in petroleum. Naphtha is a colorless to reddish-brown volatile aromatic liquid, very similar to gasoline."

So... how can anyone justify banning Naptha.... without banning cars?

BobD · Oct 14, 2011

michaelbsc said:
Take a Saturday drive up north to farm country, where sane people live, and you should be able to buy some.

Get a few gallons, bring it back into the belly of the beast, and hoard it with your canned food and bullets. (Oh! Wait! Wrong message board.)

MB

Good ideas (all of them).

Sirius Glass · Oct 14, 2011

Newt_on_Swings said:
wow really? its stuff like this... common, people have used this stuff for years.

ugh ridiculous over regulation, a burden to taxpayers and stores selling it. no one wins.

Obivously you are not concerned about the quality of the air you breathe. Duh, you are in NYC!

Photo Engineer · Oct 14, 2011

Benzine, Naptha and Ligroin are 3 synonyms for the same thing. They are roughly equal to Gasoline which contains so many additives that it looks and smells quite different. Any alteration of the formula would be difficult and might render the product useless for cleaning applications.

BTW BENZINE is not the same as BENZENE. The former is a mixture like Naptha, and the latter is a pure organic molecule with a totally different structure than any of the ingredients in BENZINE.

PE

Bob-D659 · Oct 14, 2011

steven_e007 said:
Just looked Naptha up on wikipedia:

So... how can anyone justify banning Naptha.... without banning cars?

Don't worry, CARB has been working on that one for years, BBQ's are on their agenda as well. Not surprising with the population density in LA County, and all the polution held in the area by the surrounding mountains. I remember being up on a viewpoint in a national park east of LA, you could see the brown soup(air) way down there to the west.

Sirius Glass · Oct 14, 2011

Bob-D659 said:
Don't worry, CARB has been working on that one for years, BBQ's are on their agenda as well. Not surprising with the population density in LA County, and all the polution held in the area by the surrounding mountains. I remember being up on a viewpoint in a national park east of LA, you could see the brown soup(air) way down there to the west.

It has gotten much better since the EPA and the AQMD started regulating things such as outlawing burning of leaves and trash. On the other hand, the area always smelled better than NYC! [Just another cheap shot at post #5! My bad!]

Steve

Copperrein · Oct 14, 2011

Just get some Taco Bell and wait

Ralph Javins · Oct 14, 2011

Good morning;

Speaking as a former resident in and around San Diego, the Los Angeles Valley has had a reputation for years for having a "strange atmosphere." The Los Angeles Indians even talked about how the smoke from their fires would rise up to a certain level, spread out, and stay there.

Still, the criticism about the legislative banning of lighter fluid, Iso-Propyl Alcohol, and a few others, is valid, and will have interesting consequences in other industries that the guys up in Sacramento failed to consider in their "deliberations." It is comforting to know that the legislators are remarkably similar in all regions of the country, including Washington, D. C. And, D. C. is another place were I lived, so I can justify my criticism there also.

Newt_on_Swings · Oct 14, 2011

Sirius Glass said:
It has gotten much better since the EPA and the AQMD started regulating things such as outlawing burning of leaves and trash. On the other hand, the area always smelled better than NYC! [Just another cheap shot at post #5! My bad!]

Steve

Haha! I didnt know smog was so aromatic!

Gerald C Koch · Oct 14, 2011

Don't know if this will help but circuit board manufacturers have switched to using orange peel oil as a cleaning agent for grease. For many years this was an unwanted byproduct of the frozen orange juice industry. They would give it away if you brought your own jug. Today you'll have yo buy it but it is environmentally safe. Try products such as Goo-Gone

Leigh B · Oct 14, 2011

Ralph Javins said:
It is comforting to know that the legislators are remarkably similar in all regions of the country, including Washington, D. C. And, D. C. is another place were I lived, so I can justify my criticism there also.

Absolutely.

We have the best legislators money can buy. :devil:

- Leigh

michaelbsc · Oct 14, 2011

steven_e007 said:
So... how can anyone justify banning Naptha.... without banning cars?

And you don't think that's next?

DREW WILEY · Oct 14, 2011

Naptha has been banned around here for about twenty years, along with other conspicuous smog-formers. Staggering quantities of related chemicals were once used in the area. The regulation has nothing to due with human heath and carcinogens (which is the responsibility of the EPA), but with
smog per se, per Calif Air Resources. If you don't like these regulations, then you can always move
to Bakerfield or Houston and cough and wheez.

Bob-D659 · Oct 14, 2011

The visible smog bowl was only 4 or 5 years ago.

GooGone is 80-95% light petroleum distillates, the current version will disappear too.

amuderick · Oct 14, 2011

GooGone and 99% IPA will both leave residues. There really isn't a substitute since the exact property you desire (complete evaporation without residue) is exactly what they are banning. Send your thoughts to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (http://www.aqmd.gov/). Theoretically they report to elected officials and should respond to your inquiries.

Photo Engineer · Oct 14, 2011

I first flew into LA in 1959 and from the airplane you could see a pink smog dome. In fact, the pilot pointed this out to us passengers. So, that smog dome is appreciable and has been there for nearly 1/2 century.

As for residues, only pure hydrocarbons can clean without residue! Others may work but may leave a residue. Residue is often unimportant with solid state devices, but residue is critical when working with devices that have moving parts. And so, you have to take that into consideration with camera equipment vs electronic equipment.

PE

no more naptha in LA county

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