Dee Lusby wrote:
> Bill:
> Look I appreciate your POV

http://extoxnet.orst.edu/pips/fluvalin.htm

All I did was google fluvalvinate and half life and got lots of hits all
dealing with the breakdown of fluvalvinate. The link above is typical.

As an organic gardener, I taught gardeners and beekeepers about
pesticides and the best way to use them, if they were going to use them,
so they would be the least toxic to the environment, including bees.
(Yes, organic gardeners use toxic pesticides but since they come from
"nature" they are fine.)

It looks like what you are describing is the removal of fluvalvinate
from wax at a place like Dadant, where you have an entirely different
problem.

They are looking at ways to process already "processed" wax and
eliminate contaminants.  They are also looking to do it as quickly and
cheaply as possible, hence the use of sunlight and water to get the half
life down to hours, not days. It is not the only way to reduce
contamination, just the fastest.

I agree with Peter's comment about water being present in a solar melter
so there would be additional pressures for faster decomposition (an
assumption based on facts). So just leave it in the melter for a few
days when you have heat, water and sunlight, all aiding in the
decomposition.

Finally, the commercial wax processors have a problem with pesticides,
not that the wax is unusable, but that it has any contaminant. With
tests able to measure in parts per billion, the adverse publicity and
potential for lawsuits makes it imperative for them to get the amounts
down below the thresholds of detection.

The reason I say, thresholds of detection, is that half life is just
that, half is still there after decomposition, so there might be some
still there after all the treatments, it is just not detectable so
effectively gone.

It appears to me that the whole argument here is on how fast you want to
get the job done. Personally, if I was going to do it quickly I would
boil the wax in water under intense sunlight or artificial sunlight
source for about three days. Then you have heat, sunlight, water and the
maximum amount of wax in contact with all three. You will have gone
through about 6 or more half life cycles and reduces the contaminants
(which are already low) to a bit more than 1% of what you started with.

In practice, I boil it and stare into the pot. Intimidation also works.
Or it could be my bright personality.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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