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oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 11 12:01 pm Post subject:

I'm the curious type. Just googled "rhododendron smoke". Found "Report of the rhododendron feasibility study" by the School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor. Toxicity gets a mention right up the front in the executive summary:

Quote:

However, the amounts found suggest that it is highly unlikely that any grayanotoxin will be found in charcoal so it can be considered as safe as any other charcoal for food preparation.

www.wildresources.co.uk/reports/rhodo_eng.pdf

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008
Posts: 15425
Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 11 12:52 pm Post subject:
Small world. I studied there.

bulworthy project

Joined: 27 Jun 2011
Posts: 188
Location: Rackenford, Devon

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 11 2:25 pm Post subject:
From what I have read in a brief scan of the report, it does seem that the charcoal would be relatively safe to make and use. However they do say that further tests are needed and I think that we'll stick to the tried and tested hardwoods. If anyone else made and used rhodedendron charcoal, I'd be interested in what they thought of it.

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 11 5:41 pm Post subject:

bulworthy project wrote:

From what I have read in a brief scan of the report, it does seem that the charcoal would be relatively safe to make and use. However they do say that further tests are needed and I think that we'll stick to the tried and tested hardwoods. If anyone else made and used rhodedendron charcoal, I'd be interested in what they thought of it.

My immediate reaction to the comment about the toxicity of rhododendron smoke was "what's so special about a rhododendron?". Quite a few (most?) plants contain toxins, usually to discourage insects,

Quote:

In considering the differences between softwoods, hardwoods and exotics, sawdust from hardwoods, especially from the exotic species, are sensitizers and can cause allergic skin reactions, eye inflammation, hay fever, asthma, coughing and respiratory diseases. Highly toxic species include the giant sequoia, hemlock, yews, cypress, cork oak and other oaks, beech, rosewoods, some maples, redwoods and western red cedar.

according to https://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Danger_in_the_Woods.html . Wood turners should take precautions, but, at a guess, the biggest danger to charcoal users would be the smoke generated during charcoal manufacture. Pound to a penny it contains: hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and on a bad day, dioxins.

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