David Stinson wrote:


Chuck Harris wrote:

Cadmium oxide is indeed deadly stuff, but it is a dark brown powder,
not white.


Chuck- What about that yellow-green looking stuff we sometimes
see on chassis that we know were Cadmium plated?
That the bad stuff?
If so, I should probably be dead- I washed some of that powder
stuff off with my bare hands many years ago.
D.S.

Hi David,

Cadmium oxide is not water soluble. It is mostly an ingestion and
inhalation hazard as I understand it.

I have seen that kind of corrosion on some items, I was never sure
just what it was. Typically it appeared on small screws and standoffs
that otherwise had a rather flat whitish/gray appearance, not shiny at
all. There are so many different treatments that were used on metals,
it would be hard to keep track of them all.

I have had numerous bits of hardware that I bought new that were sold
as being cadmium plated. It was a standard item from the 60s thru
the 80s. They are shiny, and bluish grey in color. I have never
seen them display any sign of corrosion, despite storing them for
years in a damp basement.

-Chuck