3 hours ago
https://www.acsh.org/news/2026/08/19/hyd...ires-50279
EXCERPTS: A friend of mine has been a volunteer firefighter for 48 years. He doesn't scare easy. He estimates that he's helped put out 500 fires, running into burning buildings some of the time. That doesn't faze him either.
But last week, after a course on lithium-ion batteries, he was a bit shaken up, as evidenced by the statement: "Those things scare the shit out of me. They give off a deadly gas (the real word he used to describe the gas began with an "F").
He's mostly correct. There are few things in life that one wants to inhale less than hydrogen fluoride, which is a potential hazard from most conventional lithium-ion batteries, large and small. (Hydrogen fluoride also contains an "F," but it has a very different meaning here.)
But, as with all poisons, the dose makes the poison. Perhaps more germane here: "The battery size makes the poison." It's not the rechargeable battery for your electric toothbrush that's gonna cause real problems; it's the larger ones from e-bikes and e-cars that can once they get going...
[...] Lithium hexafluorophosphate may help the battery perform well, but it's also a source of toxic HF. Explaining this requires a bit of chemistry. Apologies... (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: A friend of mine has been a volunteer firefighter for 48 years. He doesn't scare easy. He estimates that he's helped put out 500 fires, running into burning buildings some of the time. That doesn't faze him either.
But last week, after a course on lithium-ion batteries, he was a bit shaken up, as evidenced by the statement: "Those things scare the shit out of me. They give off a deadly gas (the real word he used to describe the gas began with an "F").
He's mostly correct. There are few things in life that one wants to inhale less than hydrogen fluoride, which is a potential hazard from most conventional lithium-ion batteries, large and small. (Hydrogen fluoride also contains an "F," but it has a very different meaning here.)
But, as with all poisons, the dose makes the poison. Perhaps more germane here: "The battery size makes the poison." It's not the rechargeable battery for your electric toothbrush that's gonna cause real problems; it's the larger ones from e-bikes and e-cars that can once they get going...
[...] Lithium hexafluorophosphate may help the battery perform well, but it's also a source of toxic HF. Explaining this requires a bit of chemistry. Apologies... (MORE - details)