Another thread regarding selenium rectifiers prompts my question.

Selenium is said to be an essential mineral for human nutrition, but in higher doses is quite toxic. Has this issue ever been raised with respect to selenium rectifiers, particularly when they fail and give off noxious gas? Just wondering.

I have several radios with selenium rectifiers that are working OK. I haven't chosen to replace them as long as they are working.

I just saw a reference somewhere on the net about selinum as a poison. In fact there was a link there to a movie about it starring the late John Ritter based on a true story.
Leathal Vows
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212304/plotsummary
He tried to kill his wife by scraping off the surface of old rectifier and gringing it into a powder. There is a scene shown there with his wife spying on him late at night with a bunch of old radios as he's scraping the rectifier.

Here's 2 true stories about it. One that the movie was based on.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2001/02/02/MN160255.DTL

:Here's 2 true stories about it. One that the movie was based on.
:
:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2001/02/02/MN160255.DTL

Any metal, if ingested in excessive quanities, is toxic. The "heavy" metals, such as lead and cadimum are toxic in smaller amounts. Even iron, which we must have is poisenous if we get too much of it. I'm 72 years old and in great health. I've been exposed to selenium rectifiers all my life and deny any ill effects from such exposure. My daily vitimun regimun contains a few micrograms of selenium. I figure that it helps offset the ill effects of the pack of cigarettes I smoke every day. My advice: Don't snort a line of selenium and it won't hurt you.

Will

Thank you, Will. Good God, this subject keeps coming back again and again. Just enjoy the selenium rectifiers and replace the ones that go bad. People are making too much out of this and voltages on chassis. You know, if you pass out behind the wheel, there's no safety device to prevent the car from driving on. Too bad there isn't a replacement for cars. I guess we could drive people. Then the other person would know to stop when we passed out.

Thomas

Off topic but safety related.
I just got info about a woman who was paid 1.9 million from an insurance co of an RV dealer.
She bought a new motorhome... went on the freeway at 70mph... set the cruise control on... then went in the back to make herself a sandwich.... CRASH..!!

She said there were no warnings indicating she couldn't do that.!!

Peter,

Don’t get me started! I get furious every time I hear about one of these frivolous lawsuits. It is unfortunate that we live in a world full of people that are unaccountable for their actions and in most cases, stupid. These people are exploited by ambulance chasing lawyers that know how to work the system. This is to say nothing about the so-called judges that grant these settlements. Did this woman live in a cave for the past 20 years, without any contact with civilization? Then one day decided to go to the big city and buy a motor home with that new fangeled cruise control thingy. The classic case was the lady that spilled hot coffee on her self, I believe at a McDonalds. She was granted a substantial settlement because the cup did not contain a warning. What a joke. I heard about another case where a man decided to use his law mower to trim his hedges. The stupid idiot got hurt, sued and won. Again, the settlement was granted because there was no warning on the “LAWN mower”.

:Off topic but safety related.
:I just got info about a woman who was paid 1.9 million from an insurance co of an RV dealer.
:She bought a new motorhome... went on the freeway at 70mph... set the cruise control on... then went in the back to make herself a sandwich.... CRASH..!!
:
:She said there were no warnings indicating she couldn't do that.!!
:

If you heard about the amount that is not a settlement as the settlement would provide that the amount not be disclossed. That you know the amount suggests a verdict after trial rendered by a jury. If you want to place blame, place it on the jurors. The attorney only presents the case to them. With the nutty jurys, why not take a shot with a case that should have been thrown out in begin?

As a smoker of many years, I'm sensitive to these activist judges/juries, and their outlandish monetary awards, even with warning labels on the packages. I fear these socialistic tendencies will continue attacking any semblance of normal everyday life. Can you imagine warning labels attached to an antique radio about exploding tubes, condensers, pilot lamps, transformers, fuses, sizzling selenium rectifiers, ever present RF radiation from the local oscillator, Formaldehyde or some other caustic substance seeping from the wood finishing/preservation products, and last but not least, the "trip and fall" danger of the line cord. lol. Will we never be safe from ourselves? lol

marv

:If you heard about the amount that is not a settlement as the settlement would provide that the amount not be disclossed. That you know the amount suggests a verdict after trial rendered by a jury. If you want to place blame, place it on the jurors. The attorney only presents the case to them. With the nutty jurys, why not take a shot with a case that should have been thrown out in begin?

I believe that the mass judgement is going dangerously in both directions (both liberal and conservative). No happy medium.

T.

Come to Milwaukee. Three police officers beat the living crap out of a guy for no reason other than racism (as plenty of other cops look on without doing anything). They all get released as unguilty, and are tried by an all white jury. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVE IT! How embarrassing! Terrible! Unforgivable!

One of the cops even has a record of shooting an unarmed black guy five times (which kills him thusly). Nothing done to the cop either time.

This also ruins the image of the rest of our police force, which is mostly full of honest and kind people (I hope).

Anywayz, kinda off the radio subject, but yep, good way to make me furious, too.

T.

Too hillarious. I heard that somewhere, too.

T.

P.S. I hope that the RV company gets all of their money back. That's as rediculous as McDonalds. I'm not a huge fan of the giant McDonalds (though their recent menu is quite nice), but I totally am on their side with the hot coffee issue. What a retarded lady.

Wow.. well I guess I struck a chord in a group of nice sensible minded guys!..Nice to know you guys a upstanding and normal!!

ok.. here's the last bit of stomach turning information:
.. In that same insurance award info I read.. here's another one that will drive you nutZZ!!

A burgular broke into and robbed a house when he saw the family leave for vacation.
He tried to exit by way of the garage. But the garage door was stuck closed, no windows, and the metal house door locked behind him.

.. So he was trapped in there for 8 days living on a case of Coke and a bag of dog food.

He sued the homeowners insurance company and won a $700,000.00 award.

What is this world coming to?

Nostalgia Radio ?????? Please no refrigerators.

F.

Ouch... I feel my wrist just got slapped...

Geesh. Guess we got off subject, but some people.... Refrigerators are cool, anyway. I've heard about robbers suing because of being bitten by a dog, etc. Ok, end of subject!

T.