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Re: Anti-Freeze

To: shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Anti-Freeze
From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 16:55:00 -0500

-> Propylene glycol (the original brand was Sierra, though I see that
-> Prestone is selling a similar product now) is the chief component of
-> the low toxicity anti-freezes (i.e., it won't kill your cat or dog if
-> it licks the puddle under your car)

 Ethylene glycol, with additives and packaged as coolant, is incredibly
sour and tastes *terrible*.  No animal is going to take more than a
couple of licks.  I drank some of the stuff once to prove it's not as
big a deal as some people claim.  EG *is* toxic; it'll wreck your
innards if you drink enough of it, but you'd be hard up to actually
swallow that much.

 Propylene glycol, marketed as "safe" coolant, is still toxic; roughly
50% as much as ethylene glycol.  If you can manage to choke enough of it
down it will still kill you.  The whole safety thing is a marketing
sham.

 *Poly*propylene glycol is the stuff that's safe; it's used in ice cream
and as a sweetener in some foods.  Lots of people confuse it with PG,
but it's not used in automotive coolants as far as I know.


 Lots of people claim PG tastes sweet and animals and children will
drink it; I taste tested several brands, and that's absolutely not so.
GAG!  BLETCH!
                              

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