[Salvaged] 19" 1980 Panasonic Colorpilot PC-2000

[Electronic M]

There are some people that are paranoid over trash pickers getting a busted set, hurting themselves (god knows how) with it, and suing, cut off the cords before throwing sets out....Those people are perhaps more ignorant than the scrappers IMHO.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

There are some people that are paranoid over trash pickers getting a busted set, hurting themselves (god knows how) with it, and suing...

They are not being paranoid. There are many ways a person can be injured or even killed while working on a TV if they don't know what they are doing, or if a young child toys with the open back of a set. The CRT is charged with tens of thousands of volts while the set is operating, that charge will remain on the tube indefinitely until or unless it is safely discharged (the dag coating acts as a large capacitor), and the CRT is heavy and easily broken, leading to an implosion. Sometimes kids will throw rocks at the CRT screen, which is just as dangerous as the screen will shatter. I saw this quite often with old CRT televisions put out for the trash during the last years of the NTSC era, and was amazed more kids weren't injured badly from the broken glass left on the treelawn afterward.

The recycling programs now in place in many cities have reduced the number of old TVs put out for the trash, and some municipal waste disposal services will not even touch an old set, due to the safety hazard posed by the CRT. I live in a very small town in northeastern Ohio (been here 15 years), and have seen very, very few CRT TVs out on the curbs; the safety issue may very well be the reason. I don't know for certain, but there may be an ordinance here against putting used appliances and/or electronics out with normal household trash on our scheduled pickup day. If there isn't, IMHO there darn well should be.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

They are not being paranoid. There are many ways a person can be injured or even killed while working on a TV if they don't know what they are doing, or if a young child toys with the open back of a set. The CRT is charged with tens of thousands of volts while the set is operating, that charge will remain on the tube indefinitely until or unless it is safely discharged (the dag coating acts as a large capacitor), and the CRT is heavy and easily broken, leading to an implosion. Sometimes kids will throw rocks at the CRT screen, which is just as dangerous as the screen will shatter. I saw this quite often with old CRT televisions put out for the trash during the last years of the NTSC era, and was amazed more kids weren't injured badly from the broken glass left on the treelawn afterward.

The recycling programs now in place in many cities have reduced the number of old TVs put out for the trash, and some municipal waste disposal services will not even touch an old set, due to the safety hazard posed by the CRT. I live in a very small town in northeastern Ohio (been here 15 years), and have seen very, very few CRT TVs out on the curbs; the safety issue may very well be the reason. I don't know for certain, but there may be an ordinance here against putting used appliances and/or electronics out with normal household trash on our scheduled pickup day. If there isn't, IMHO there darn well should be.

You're paranoid too. As a teen I got bit with full voltage stored in a CRT that had JUST been turned off, aside from reflex, and a bit of pain I was completely unharmed. When I was a toddler I used to go around sticking my fingers in outlets on purpose (my folks could not find a 'child proofing device' that was Tom proof), and it had no effect on me.
Any child that can get into the back of a TV is big enough to survive the HV charge on the CRT unharmed....Unless the kid has the weak heart of a 98 year old.

As for broken glass I used to collect it when I was a kid. My neighborhood used to be the town dump before WWII, and if you dug you'd find glass, and other artifacts...So I collected them. And I never got cut from it! I used to throw rocks at SS era CRTs till they would break and they never imploded. By the mid 60's implosion protection was good enough that it was nearly impossible for one to occur.

Besides the rule is until the garbage men take it, it belongs to the disposer, and if you steal it and hurt yourself then it is your own damn fault.