I recently purchased a stack of 50 CD-Rs made by a major manufacturer. They have quite a strong chemical smell, much stronger than I usually associate with products of this sort; it’s something like New Car Smell gone rotten. The disks themselves work fine. It’s not bad enough to toss them, but when I open the case it’s certainly noticable.
What chemical(s) cause(s) that smell, and why might this stack be especially pungent? Is it particularly dangerous to inhale?
I’d like to add another question to the OP’s: someone told me that cyanide (or something that breaks down into cyanide) was used in manufacturing these and if left in a hot car/next to a radiator, they would start to melt and release their poisonous gas. Of course, if one were trying to committ suicide by CDR they’d have to have thousands of these things in a very small space, but all the same…
Re: OP: plastic stuff offgasses. It’s perfectly normal and while you don’t want to work in a factory breathing this stuff, I think you’ll be fine, especially if you leave the things by a slightly opened window overnight (so long as the weather won’t warp or otherwise affect the discs).
I believe it’s the protective lacquer used - not the dye itself. Some UV-curable lacquers (used to manufacture all CDs, CD-Rs and DVDs) smell pretty nasty. The odor is very evident when the discs are freshly manufactured and immediately packaged in shrink-wrap, beehive cases, etc.
BTW, CD lacquer is not too bad if you mix with ice and orange juice…
Were they by chance Khypermedia CDRs? I have noticed that those smell particularly foul.
Some CD-R are made with cyanine dye or phthalocyanine dye, but the “cyan” part of the words comes from the color cyan, not from cyanide. I suspect this “someone” saw the word cyanine and made a conclusion jump to cyanide.
No… didn’t want to cast aspersions on the company, but they’re Maxell.
Considering the source, I figured they were full of it, but I just wanted to check. Thanks.