I feel it is my duty to bring this to everyone's attention. I feel like a complete moron, as I should, so I am weary of posting this onto a public forum. However I think it is my responsibility to post this.

SWIM attempted his first extraction (AB). He must have done it wrong (he used too much liquid, and i don't think his ph meter was working correctly.) He proceeded to the freeze precipitation step (he had previously verified his naptha was free of impurities by evaporating it as suggested). The next morning he saw white clumps inside his jar (not crystals).

He hadn't seen any pictures of real crystals precipitating at this point. So he was very excited. He dumped out the naptha and put the white clumps on a pyrex plate to dry. When they reached room temp, however, they melted and turned clear. SWIM thought something was wrong but let them continue to dry. When they finished drying there was almost nothing on the plate. What was on the plate was some white spots that looked like spots on wine glasses that came out of the dishwasher. Barely visible. SWIM knew he did the extraction wrong (he just eyeballed everything and used a very small amount, just to test the theory of the procedure), but figured some spice must have come through and that's what he thought the spots were.

At this point he basically ran a razor over the surface to pick up all the almost invisible white stuff. He got roughly the amount of 1/4 of the size of a BB. Which was such a small amount of stuff that he couldn't even make out what color it was. All he knew was that there were some hairs/dust caked on it from drying. Not much. He put this in a pipe and smoked it. He definitely felt something, and got a slight rush, but no other effects. Within 5 minutes he smoked some tobacco out of a pipe (he inhales).

At this point his lungs felt like they were burning. This continued for several hours and got worse and he felt like he couldn't breathe and went to the hospital. They did some tests and gave him some oxygen and albuterol and told him to come back in two to four days days, which he didn't. His lungs continued to burn for three days. He went back to work. Several days later he was at work and he felt better and didn't have any problem breathing. He decided to smoke a cigarette (he is a fucking idiot). From that point on he felt like he couldn't breathe and the pain in his lungs had come back. Today at work he felt like he was going to pass out and possibly die, and used all the albuterol, which seemed to make it worse after it wore off. Now he feels like his lungs are filling up with water.

Please note that there was no liquid on the bottom of the plate and what was on the razor and subsequently smoked in the pipe was SO SMALL he couldn't even really see it because it was covered in the dust that had landed on the plate. The point of me posting this is that I want everyone to know how TOXIC this VM&P Naptha shit is. The brand was Crown and was bought from Lowe's (if that even matters). My concern is that if SWIM inhaled one puff of this concentrated toxin, others are slowly killing themselves by distributing it over their crystals.

SWIM subsequently put NEW naptha straight from the can into a jar in the freezer and pretty much the same thing happened. What he thought was white spice was impurities collecting and freezing out of the naptha. He tried this with xylol (same brand) and something _crystallized_ and is currently floating in the xylol.

This is why an evap test is always recommended prior to working with any new solvent.

Live and learn. Read the wiki.

Plus MSDS read.

Read the post again. Evap test WAS performed with no residue. MSDS states 100% naptha.

My error. But I've got nothing for you then, I'm sorry. Perhaps it wasn't 100% dry when you smoked it?

These chemicals... a blessing AND a curse...

It would be very interesting to know how much naphta you test evaporated: if it was a (very) small quantity, maybe it wasn't enough to reveal impurities? If so, maybe you could test evap again with more naphta?

This could be very important info if it happens that impurities sometimes don't show up with evaporation but do with freezing...

I wish you a fast recovery.

water+lye contamination in the naphtha after extraction? normally it's easy to spot because the mimosa is so dark, but well, who knows. Did you perform a sodium carbonate wash?
Your condition sounds pretty bad. I would definitely give my lungs an extended recovery time. I know a person who fucked their lungs over from a chemistry experiment gone wrong (in the university) and this person will never be able to work in a lab again, let alone inhale cleaning agents or any other solvents that we take for granted. So take care you don't make the situation worse and do permanent damage. It's not fun.

I find it hard to believe that your naphtha is clean if stuff freezes out straight out of the jar. Are you using a closed jar so that no moisture can get in? it's never happened to me or anyone I know of. Plus what you describe doesn't sound like the effects I would imagine one would get from inhaling fuel or fuel residue.

The question is - can this be reproduced by an independent party? Someone else using the same solvent ever have these problems or can test a clean batch in the freezer? I know for certain my naphtha doesn't do what you described. I'd be interested to know what really happened. it just doesn't seem like it could be -> it leaves nothing when evapped but when frozen something falls out? which then turns to liquid and evaps but leaves a residue? sounds like something got into the naphtha during its stay in the freezer or somewhere inbetween.

anyway, I might be wrong. Do take care, and I hope your lungs heal well.

much love
Enoon

Might be unrelated, but someone else has been having trouble breathing after smoking a couple days ago!
https://www.dmt-nexus.me...aspx?g=posts&t=19390

Question 1 is What Naptha do you use? I am interested in doing an extraction and have a small background in Biochem...

Question 2 is maybe we can post a link to a description of the effect of fuel inhalation so that it is clear to all?

I hope your friend has a full recovery.

SWIM appreciates everyone's good wishes. He now told me that he thinks what happened was an allergic immune-system type response which caused swelling and pain. He said he smoked herb yesterday which made it easier to breathe but also lowered his immune system and made him feel like he was coming down with something, although he continues to fight that notion. That was the basis for that particular hypothesis. He is not a doctor.

Although this guy test evapped a very small amount, he doesn't think that ANY impurities would be visible to the naked eye, without first freeze precipitating them out of the solvent thereby somehow concentrating them (is anyone a petrochemist???).
Basically, my concern is that there are very dangerous impurities in the[se] solvents, and the evap test, as prescribed in the faq, wiki, etc, are insufficient to determine these traces. I mean, is it coincidence that the time of the very peak of the enforcement of meth production is when these big-box hardware stores' "Naptha" changed into "VM&P Naptha"? What's the difference supposed to be? This was probably right around the same time most places stopped selling bottles of "pure lye", while common brand name drain cleaners became a mix of several different agents, or simply ceased to be sold.

This was a fresh can that was just opened and poured into a washed jar. His freezer was quite cold. Can anyone reproduce this?