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On Jun 10, 2:42 pm, "Ed Huntress" wrote:


There is no law against selling it in CA, which makes sense, because they
sell gasoline. g I checked the law, too.


I am surprised that Coleman Fuel is okay. I doubt if the same stuff
is legal if sold as paint thinner. You can not buy regular paint in
California. It has to be low volatile paint.

I didn't look too deeply, but what I found is that the basic law cuts
VOC-containing liquid container size down to a maximum of one quart, to
avoid commercial use.

I guess it sounded like a good idea to them at the time.


But in the L.A. area it is against the law to sell gasoline powered
lawn mowers.

How are the sales of goats doing? g

Apparently it's a matter of what customers are buying, and, thus, what
retailers are stocking. Coleman tells me that it's hard to find in many
parts of the country because customers have switched to propane.

BTW, in NJ, I just bought a box of TSP a few days ago.


Did you take a good look at the contents?

Yes. This one is 75% - 80% trisodium phosphate

http://www.savogran.com/Information/TSP_MS.pdf

It works for brush-type rust-removal, which I use a lot:

http://www.metalworking.com/Dropbox/...es/E-CLEAN.TXT

I've run into this for years. Few retailers carry it; I don't know exactly
how the law reads. My first choice usually is the local Sherwin-Williams
store. The last time I bought there it was 100% TSP. But I was in Home
Despot the other day and thought to pick some up.

I started to buy a box
clearly labeled TSP, but in the fine print it said that it was
actually Sodium Carbonate. I do not think you can buy detergents in
N.Y. with phosphates.

You can't buy detergents with them here in NJ, either. Or in Illinois. I
tipped my mother-in-law to buy some and to add two tablespoons to her
laundry, after she complained that the new detergents weren't getting things
as clean as they used to. That's the main reason I run out of it every once
in a while.

We have a real algae problem in NJ, from runoff, and I'm told that
phosphates actually are the bigger problem, over nitrates. Since they've
taken it out of most consumer products, the algae problem in the Delaware
River supposedly is much lower.

As long as TSP is sold in dull-looking boxes in big paint departments, it's
unlikely we'll see much problem with its overuse.

--
Ed Huntress

"When shopping for household chemicals, look for the skull and
crossbones." -- Ed Huntress