yesman@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The dangers associated with Meth production have been exaggerated by ignorant media and lying cops.
A person with a serious meth addiction is dangerous and likely to cause accidental harm even if they aren’t playing around with volatile chemicals. But these chemicals all have legitimate uses and are safe to use by sober adults. Stuff like Coleman fuel, ether, and acetone. You can create runaway exothermic reactions while venting flammable gas with some weaponized incompetence, but it’s still a “low” explosive, and unlikely to harm anyone not in the same room, much less the neighbor.
90% of meth lab “explosions” are small events that only harm people in the immediate vicinity and most of the structural damage will come from the resulting fire. Compare that to a simple natural gas leak that can turn a 3 story McMansion into confetti in under a second.
Would you be nervous if your neighbor installed a gas fireplace?
zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Well now I would be…
assembly@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This is a reason I never understood modern homes in the US being built with natural gas furnaces and appliances. My house had a gas furnace even though most other homes around have electric. You have a flammable gas under pressure going through miles of pipe to get to each home. A leak anywhere could be really dangerous along those many miles. Yet, exceedingly rare to see fires from this (maybe I’m wrong in that I just don’t hear of many). Meanwhile, electric appliances use the electricity that has to come into a house anyways.
blarghly@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Electricity arcing over something flammable can also cause a fire that burns down your house and kills you.
It isn’t just your imagination. Houses burning down / exploding really is a rare occurance. This is not by accident. There are layers of dumbass-proofing in every part of the system, from the way wire and pipe are manufactured, to the availability of easy-to-use tools and materials that make doing the job the right way also the easy way, to detection systems like fire alarms, to building codes that set standards for how things should be constructed.
assembly@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I think my curiosity is more around the “why” of the gas lines. I put in another comment above but it’s a good amount of effort to run and maintain these lines when we already have and need electric. We’re adding an additional source of risk to these environments for what additional benefit? I’m not talking trash about gas I’m just wondering what the selling point is. Like I said, I have a gas furnace and it’s fine…no complaints. Is it much more efficient than electric? Hotter? There has to be some compelling reason to put in the effort.
CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Seems like you answered your own question.
We had a week long power outage after a winter ice storm a few years ago and would have been screwed without our gas water heater and fireplace, so I’m a big fan of having both gas and electric.
FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 day ago
You just answered your own question. The techniques for running gas lines into houses and hooking them up to furnaces are very refined at this point, it can be done safely.
assembly@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I guess my question was more about the “why” for gas lines. I mean it’s a lot of extra effort to put them in place and maintain them when we already have electric coming into the houses.