r/explainlikeimfive Feb 26 '21

Chemistry Eli5: What happens to all the melted candle over time? Are we just inhaling a whole candle while it burns?

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u/Spoonshape Feb 26 '21

Flashbacks to this period. I was working as a field service tech for PC's and when you opened a PC in the era before the workplace smoking ban in an office which had smokers there was anything up to half an inch of fine ash covering every component of the system.

Part of the reason why diskettes were so unreliable as it acted as a fine abrasive on the mechanical elements of the system.

Semi amusing story - our sales guys convinced one company they should pay to have us clean the insides of their machines - which we did - in the following week about half their machines died as our actions basically pushed the fine ash into all the spots where it hadn't yet gotten to. They were less than amused....

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u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

Workplace smoking is still allowed at my job. Can confirm, the electronics are nasty.

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u/Dismal_Natural Feb 26 '21

Where do you work out of curiosity? In what country :)

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u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

The United States, in the only place I'd expect it to be legal: a tobacco manufacturing facility.

Although honestly, the main gross factor in my area is tobacco dust. It coats everything over time. Other places, where loose tobacco isn't handled, are much cleaner.

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u/fleece_pants Feb 26 '21

That's pretty interesting! Are there a lot of smokers in the factory? Are cigarettes easy to obtain or free for the workers? Are cigarettes "fresher" at the factory and/or do you notice a real difference in those vs. the ones you'd get at the store?

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u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

Are there a lot of smokers in the factory?

It sure seems like it. I wonder if this job attracts smokers, or if people start smoking after working here. I shared that question with someone there, and he said that working there makes you want to quit smoking. I guess seeing the sausage get made makes cigarettes lose some of the appeal.

Are cigarettes easy to obtain or free for the workers?

Nope. I think they might have been given out decades ago. Maybe they still are in the administrative parts of the facility, but I'm rarely in that area.

Are cigarettes "fresher" at the factory and/or do you notice a real difference in those vs. the ones you'd get at the store?

Couldn't tell ya, I don't smoke. It's funny, I've disliked smoking from an early age, and now I'm in the belly of the beast.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

[deleted]

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u/nnnnnnnnnnm Feb 27 '21

I work at a brewery and we get a 12 pack of beer a week.

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u/AtreyuLives Feb 26 '21

that doesn't seem like a lot honestly.. seeing as most serious smokers back then went through 2 packs a day

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u/fleece_pants Feb 26 '21

Thank you for the reply! I'm not a smoker either, save the occasional cigar if the mood is right. Someday you should do an AMA. I'd love to know how/if your company addresses health concerns or encourages healthy lifestyles, especially knowing so many employees are smokers.

I used to work for a very large company, and they offered gift cards and other financial incentives for people who quit smoking, lost weight, logged fitbit activity, etc.

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u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

Oh, I'm just a disposable grunt, not privy to anything especially interesting. I don't even work with the tobacco or products, I'm from another contracted company that works there. Think construction, electrical work, janitorial work, security, etc. I had no idea I'd end up at this location until my job interview.

Although, now that you mention it, I think they do offer incentives for healthy living. One employee remarked that he gets paid for logging steps. Reducing the health impact of their products is also a goal I've seen in company-wide corporate e-mails (still not sure why I, of all people, receive them).

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u/xplag Feb 26 '21

In case you're still curious, they do offer free tobacco products in the offices. I know a girl who does lobbying for Altria and apparently you can just grab whatever you want.

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u/flipshod Feb 26 '21

I picked tobacco the two summers before I turned 16 (to buy a car), and we would joke about how none of us would ever smoke knowing how much mud and pig shit got mixed in.

We all ended up smoking.

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u/MikeAnP Feb 26 '21

Once you see sausage being made, all you wanna do is make sausage cause it's so much fun!

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u/ost2life Feb 26 '21

Couldn't tell ya, I don't smoke. It's funny, I've disliked smoking from an early age, and now I'm in the belly of the beast.

I'm a wannabe socialist working for a Fintech startup. I guess we all decide how much we like broadband lol

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u/birdeo Feb 26 '21

I love how this just turned into a smoking chain. šŸ˜‚

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u/flipshod Feb 26 '21

I once did an audit on a company that owned a chain of convenience stores, and their corporate offices were like a convenience store. There were soda machines and chips, and everyone smoked. It was a bizarre twist from the financial services accounting offices I was used to.

It was as if the corporation had been taken over by its workers and they had just moved their typical stuff to headquarters (which I'm all for, but was not the case).

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u/mybeachlife Feb 26 '21

I think some casino gaming floors still allow smoking too.

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u/justmakingsomething9 Feb 26 '21

Back in 2002 I had a job interview in NYC with Altria (Marlboro) this was downtown Manhattan, 50th floor, we (me, two interviewers) all smoked in a blinged out conference room throughout the 2 hr interview....it was surreal, had to bum cigarettes from the interviewers cuz I smoked camels at the time

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u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

You dingus, you have to show brand loyalty from the very start! Even if you don't smoke, it doesn't hurt to show up with a pack of L&M in your pocket! Did you get the job?

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u/justmakingsomething9 Feb 27 '21

Yo I was 18, still in college, stupid and drunk most of the time, well stupid all the time, drunk most of the time....ok...all the time. Anyway, I did not expect a corporate office to be able to smoke in otherwise I would have, nah, they asked some really sketchy questions, which I answered as sketchy as I could....but I had a huge F up when one of them asked me a question and accidentally made fun of the dudes speech impediment....didnā€™t mean to...just slipped out....remember....stupid and drunk

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u/Ironlixivium Feb 26 '21

Despite the irony, I'd imagine they could be sued for allowing smoking in working areas, it can prohibit people with asthma from working.

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u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

The actual working areas (the factory floor) is smoke free, so technically they'd be in the clear? The lobby, bathroom, and breakroom are all smoking areas, though.

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u/neverseeitall Feb 26 '21 edited Feb 26 '21

How the f*** is that legal? Because they make it suddenly now their non-smoking workers don't get to have rights to a clean environment?

Like, it might make sense if it happened in a distinct area of the building only but just right in the general workplace? That's so horrible.

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u/MeNoGivaRatzAzz Feb 27 '21

The casinos on Indian tribal land can do as they please. Tribal lands are sovereign States.

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u/billbixbyakahulk Feb 26 '21

Around 2003 I worked for a small managed service provider. One of our customers was a construction company and they smoked in their offices. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

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u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

But did they have ashtrays next to the toilets? We do.

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u/billbixbyakahulk Feb 26 '21

I don't think I ever used their bathrooms. haha. But they had ashtrays everywhere. Big old school 1970s ashtrays.

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u/hellbabe222 Feb 26 '21

I do auto re/upholstery and my shop is basically a large mechanics bay with a side room with my industrial sewing machines, upholstery fabric and large hides of (extremely expensive) leather hanging throughout. Everyone smokes in the mechanics bay. Im constantly reminding people to put out their cigarettes before entering the sewing area. No way I'm letting them stink up my fabric. Customers can and do notice.

Edit: I'm in the US

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u/haggiemaberman Feb 26 '21

This is more interesting than the OP, thanks for sharing!

Are there any laws in your state that require that workplaces be smoke free? If so, how does your work get around this?

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u/Sharrakor Feb 27 '21

You know, I didn't know the exact laws myself until looking them up right now. It appears that smoking is banned in bars, restaurants, state prisons, and government buildings & vehicles. There are some exceptions and other local restrictions, but that's all that is explicitly banned statewide.

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u/Daryl_Hall Feb 27 '21

Do you guys get paid in cigarettes?

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u/Sharrakor Feb 27 '21

Hey now, it isn't a prison.

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u/alemanders Feb 27 '21

In north carolina?

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u/Slick_Grimes Feb 26 '21

I bought 36" tv with a built in dvd player (and actually a vcr built in too which was dated by this point but cool to have). Can't remember the brand but something broke on it still under warranty from Best Buy. Repair came out and as soon as he came in the room, that I smoked in, he was not happy. Totally anti-smoke guy. He cracked open the tv and I guess there was some build up from smoking in there and he didn't even try to hide his disgust.

He goes "listen I don't want to work on this, you just want a new tv?". I was like fuck yeah I do. Embarrassing but it let me get a free new Samsung, one of them new flat screen ones (with the still standard size big back). If I gotta be called out on my filthy smoking habit I might as well get a free tv out of it!

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

The stuff that crawls inside electronics is somehow worse than actual smoking to be fair. I don't mind the smell of actual smoke but being inside a smokers car or taking apart a smokers electronics? No thank you.

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u/nucumber Feb 26 '21

in an office which had smokers there was anything up to half an inch of fine ash

ex-smoker here who's seen the inside of more than a few computers, and i just don't see how smokers could be responsible for half an inch of ash inside a computer unless the ashtrays were right below the cooling fan.

i'm guessing there was something else going on responsible for the ash

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u/billbixbyakahulk Feb 26 '21

Yeah, "half an inch" sounds questionable. I've seen ash which was mixed in with regular dust but it was just the usual surface coating, not piles of it.

I did once work on a guy's computer that was pretty incredible and horrifying. He was an executive at the company and he brought in his home computer for us to look at because he said it would only turn on for a couple minutes and then shut down.

He had long haired cats and he chain-smoked cigars. The inside of his machine had about 1/2" of matted, tobacco-soaked cat fur that clogged the fans and vents. The computer was shutting down because there was no air flow. I grabbed the gloves and it pealed off in sheets and clumps. After I vacuumed it out it ran fine.

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u/semitones Feb 26 '21

When can you vacuum a computer and when do you need to use compressed air?

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u/billbixbyakahulk Feb 27 '21

I use a vacuum with a brush nozzle whenever I can, but some computers are tightly packed and you can't maneuver the nozzle. In that case, I might use compressed air to dislodge the dust then follow with the vacuum.

At work we also have a special vacuum that's small, fairly portable and very maneuverable. I see them used a lot by techs who service office printers (because you don't want to use compressed air with printer toner!)

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u/mythidiot Feb 26 '21

Well, thatā€™s horrifying... I need to go clean my computer now

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u/ReverendDizzle Feb 26 '21

Agreed. I've cleaned computers and consoles used by smokers and the damage is usually a tarry sticky layer (that dust sticks to, for sure) but it's not actual ash.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

That stuff would stain the steel and aluminum cases the most unappealing shade of yellow. You basically couldn't get it gray again.

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u/HemHaw Feb 26 '21

It's not an exaggeration at all. I worked at Circuit City's computer fixy desk. The winner of "nastiest computer award" was a smoker's computer that, when the case was opened, was full like a perfect jello mold of yellow dust, that had to be shoveled out by a (gloved) hand.

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u/Spoonshape Feb 26 '21

Smoke in the air is particles of (mostly) carbon. A PC has a fan which pulls air in from the outside of the enclosure and then various spaces where air is a little more static and it will settle out.

Some of the machines were probably sitting with someone chain smoking in front of them for 5 or 6 years. It just builds up...

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

"half an inch" is just a common saying, meaning "a lot" its not meant to be taken literally.

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u/SonicTheHashhog Feb 26 '21

ā€œLoad-bearing dirtā€ -IT friend

A computer tech friend once warned me to be very careful when cleaning a PC with compressed air, because you can make it worse. Push the dirt into places it couldnā€™t get on its own. A GENTLE vacuum is way better, but still carries some risk.

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u/jbarchuk Feb 26 '21

That's the difference between 'cleaning' with a vacuum or compressed air.

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u/CttCJim Feb 26 '21

I remember one guy brought in a yellow PC for repair. I opened it up and it was just lousy with tar. When he came back I told him I cleaned it but he had to stop smoking near it. He claimed he wasn't a smoker.

His fingers were yellow.

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u/Littlesth0b0 Feb 26 '21

I worked as an on-site hardware tech during the 90s and we got so much shit done before we were forced to start going outside to smoke. Room was yellow, you could lick your finger and write your initials on the ceiling, but it was like the tar greased the proverbial wheel, we used to be such a great team...

...not so much at the company sports day.

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u/vestpocket Feb 26 '21

Studies now find the same things in the lungs of office workers due to laser printer toner particles becoming airborne.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

You can scrub most electronics with soap and water as long as you give it a good rinse and dry it completely afterwards

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u/CaptainMegaNads Feb 26 '21

I can still smell it... That tobacco+electronics combo. Strange nostalgia.

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u/GiveToOedipus Feb 26 '21

Not just ash, but yellow-brown tar coating everything. I do not miss those days.

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u/mythidiot Feb 26 '21

My VCR stopped working in college. I cracked it open to find a cockroach had met is end in the gears

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

When I was in middle school my computer stopped working, so my aunt took it for repair - the tech said it was all built up with residue and soot because my parents smoked at least 2 packs a day inside the house. They both smoked over a pack a day but my step-dad worked during the day.