Mac Pro toxic smell not benzene, says Apple
By Ronald O Carlson
Last week, Blorge reporter John Lister presented the interesting case (French newspaper kicks up a stink over Mac Pro ‘toxins’) of uncorroborated reports that Mac Pro workstations manufactured before 2008 give off toxic fumes. Specifically, the aforementioned newspaper claims it detected benzene, a highly toxic substance that was once a commonly used industrial solvent that’s known to cause cancer.
Apple responded to the allegations in a statement provided to Macworld.
“We have not found anything that supports this claim, but continue to investigate it for the customer,” said Apple spokesman Bill Evans.
That said, one HardMac (France) reader reports a positive encounter with Apple’s support personnel over the issue.
He called AppleCare to voice his concerns about the odor his Mac Pro makes and was immediately passed to a support manager.
“Despite the fact that my AppleCare expired six months ago, they set me up a free cooling system replacement without question,” said the reader. “Free repairs outside of warranty? Not the regular Apple approach, I assume. Or maybe, I’m just being paranoid.”
When the reader asked whether the foul odor emanating from his Mac Pro was benzene or not, the AppleCare manager replied that engineers had assured him that it’s “definitely not benzene.”
An interesting set of facts that we have before us: 1.) a French newspaper claims it detected benzene emanating from a Mac Pro, 2.) Apple says it’s ‘defintely not’ the toxin and 3.) AppleCare is replacing at least one Mac Pro user’s cooling system when presented with the issue.
I’ve never heard of benzene being used as a coolant, actually it’s highly flammable, and its use in electronics manufacturing was banned years ago. So, it’s highly unlikely that a Mac Pro could be the source of benzene.
Still, why would Apple volunteer to replace a Mac Pro cooling system, which can’t be cheap, if the problem weren’t serious?
Things just aren’t adding up…
What’s your take?
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