Danny, Thanks for the disertation on sound waves. It was a great
tonic to spark the imagination and to help visualize what sound
really is and how it works.
A couple of points.
As the pressure drops, so does the boiling point, so that it's
about 35 deg. on top of Mount Everest.
In fact, water on the top of Mount Everest will boil at 78C or 172F,
note the atmospheric pressure @ 29,000 feet,
http://wwwsam.brooks.af.mil/af/files/fsguide/HTML/Chapter_02.html A
calculator for the boiling point of water is @
http://www.biggreenegg.com/boilingPoint.htm
Because sound consists of compressions followed by rarefactions
of pressure, high energy sound can yield high vacuums, followed
very quickly by high pressure. Consequently, if living tissue is
exposed to high energy sound (of any frequency) water in the cells
can boil, leading to areas of very low pressure, which are then
re-compressed, giving rise to gas bubbles.
I wonder why I can add a beaker of liquid, especially water and find
that it never boils in the ultrasonic cleaner. Why would water in
tissues do this? hmm… After thinking a bit, I remember. These are
mostly microscopic bubbles that collapse as quickly as they are
created. In fact, in a contained medium such as living tissue, they
may not even be created at all. I would like some substantiation
before I would assume that the bubbles are a reality. That is really
my point to the my original post.
Gas bubbles in living tissues can cause many different
problems: in blood vessels, it's called an embolism, and can block
veins and arteries, killing dependant cells; in nerves, it can
trigger random firing and twitches as the nerves are cut off from
the brain; in joints, it's called the bends - yes, it's the same
thing careless divers get - and can, if untreated (in bad cases,
even if treated), stiffen the joints.
The formation and collapse of bubbles in living tissue is quite
different than the bends. The bends is caused by disolved gases
particularly nitrogen, forming bubbles after being compressed into
the tissues. Unless properly recompressed, these bubbles do not
collapse at all. It is watched for particularly closely in dives of
sixty feet of more for sixty minutes or more. At this depth,
pressures of nearly two additional atmospheres, with time, will allow
an additional two liters of nitrogen to disolve into the body. This
gas begins to escape from the tissues as bubbles when the diver
arrives at the surface. Just like fizz from a soda.
For sure, it can and will cause embolism and a whole lot of other
symptoms including the possibility of catastrophic failure.See
http://www.rescuediver.org/med/bends.htm
It may also contribute to arthritis.
Can I get a cite on this?
Since it leads to cell death, long-term exposure is cumulative.
Cumulative? Usually, this adjective is reserved for types of
polution, such as heavy metal accumulation, asbestosis or silicosis,
some type of damage that the body cannot undo. These materials can
not, to the best of my knowledge, be removed from living tissues and
therefor the damage is called cumulative, as the continued behavior
that started the problem, will increase the concentrates of these
poisons. Normally, dead cells will be replaced with new cells, except
with the age old problem of old age. If death of cells ever occurs
from the misuse of jewelers ultrasonic cleaners, I would expect them
to grow back. I can’t prove this today, but I am in search of proof
of the damage that I keep hearing of in his forum.
High energy ultrasonic devices are being used in medical
experiments to perform non-invasive surgery (see, for instance,
http://www.icr.ac.uk/education/studentships/terHaar1.html)
Fascinating stuff happening here. From the link. " If the energy
carried by the ultrasound beam is sufficiently high, the cells within
the focal volume are killed (ablated), but cells overlying and
surrounding this region are undamaged."
Note that the beam is a focused high energy beam. The surrounding
tissues are undamaged. I doubt a one hundred twenty watt jewelers
ultrasonic cleaner can claim a high energy output or a focused beam.
My ultrasonic cleaner is further weakened by the fact that the heater
is included in the120 watts.
So, Tina, in answer to your question, holding the cast tree in
the ultrasonic cleaner can lead, in the long-term, to tissue
damage.
Maybe to old age, if you hold it long enough. This begs the question,
how much of the energy in the ultrasonic cleaner do you assume travels
up the tree into Tina’s hand? Why would it stop at the wire? For that
matter why would it stop at her hand. Maybe it travels through her
head on into the ether. Perhaps we should be sure to turn the unit off
whenever imersing a piece. I can see how the folks that service
cleaners will be making a couple of extra bucks now. I think that I’ll
be picking up stock in the electronics parts companies. There will
soon be a rush on switches!
My purpose in my original post was really to get a real authority to
tell us what dangers there really are. Note that I will be the first
to admit the I spent the first half of my adult life acting like and
idiot and in my later years I often find myself believing that I have
grown into a moron. (For the uneducated, that was once an upgrade of
about 25 IQ points.) I have done everything wrong.
Today, I want to know not only when and where to change but possibly
more importantly why. I just can’t accept without some proof that
cleaners used in jewelry shops are harmful.
Bruce Holmgrain
JACMBJ
http://www.goldwerx.com
