Cyclopentane?
We were at our usual boba tea place last weekend, and I saw that the little fridge full of ice cream snacks strangely said "CYCLOPENTANE" on the side.
Now, I'm fully aware of the chemical structures and IUPAC naming conventions for these things. What I couldn't figure out was why any law would require these coolers to mention cyclopentane in these big blocky letters. It's not a refrigerant. There is a long and wild history of refrigerants and propellants, running through the CFCs wrecking the ozone layer in the 90's, and further history of how these chemicals are constantly being replaced with safer chemicals with less environmental impact. But cyclopentane is not one of those, unless maybe they stopped with the substituted halogen hydrocarbons altogether.
I forgot about it until we saw this outside a resort in the mountains of Ramona CA this weekend:
I tried explaining to Anne that C5H10 is cyclopentane, and it's so weird that it's labeled again, same font but abbreviated. What the heck?
It sounds like the cyclopentane is not the refrigerant, but the agent used in blowing the polyurethane foam insulation of these machines. Sure, but why ... why?? ... why does this trifle of technology have to be so boldly labeled in these inch-and-a-half high letters?
I highlighted the labels in both of the photos, because they are not at all obvious. Only a signs-and-symbols obsessed guy with an extensive background in science and chemistry would ever notice them, right?
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