Re: [Paddlewise] Lightweight backpacking stoves (was: Introduction)

On Mon, 2003-01-06 at 18:31, WhiteRabbit wrote:
> I have always been concerned about the byproducts of combustion of unleaded
> fuel in stoves.  While they no longer contain lead, they do contain a long
> list of additives to improve combustion, clean deposits, increase octane,
> improve fuel stability, etc, etc. Some of the clean burn chemicals are so
> persistent they are showing up in ground water.  This is a product designed
> to bun under different conditions than found in a stove, and also designed
> for a system with a catalytic converter to clean up the byproducts of
> combustion before they are emitted.
> 
> If anyone has a reference as to the safety of unleaded fuels in stoves I
> would appreciate the source.

It's a fair question, though one to be kept in context I suppose.  There
are a fair number of toxins to be had even just from standing next to a
camp fire (even nasties like Dioxins).  And if it's tap water in your
water bottle, the EPA has some grave warnings for 90% of the worlds tap
water (both microbial and toxicological).  When it gets down to it,
there are already a good number of warnings about inhaling the
byproducts of *any* hydro carbon, no matter at what point it's distilled
at, which accounts for all of our various stove fuels.  And wood and
coal aren't any better.  But yes, you're making the point about the
additional additives.

The CDC has this nice read on various exposure effects from various
fuels.  The one mention of cooking with it is with kerosene though. 
Diesel (which some stoves will burn) is closer to kerosene than the
white gas/naptha or unleaded fuel pertinent to this thread though. 
Except that diesel/kerosene is also close to jet fuel (JP4, JP5) which
unlike your point of the usual burning environment of unleaded, is
burned much the same as in our stoves.  Anyway it's a bit of a read (but
as in most reports doesn't answer the real world questions we're
asking).

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp75.pdf

The coles notes version is here:
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts75.html



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