Fruit and grape juices in bulk containers Pt8
What is on the inside surfaces of those drums?
When I was collecting pictures of various labels on steel drums, which used to contain fruit and grape juices, I was thinking about providing a visible illustration to people, who this far did not think much about a potential source of fluoride intake, if they regularly consume fruit juices, which have been reconstituted (diluted) with fluoridated water.
Or if they consume various bottled and canned beverages, which have been prepared with fluoridated water.
And even though the rest of this pictorial essay may look as somewhat off the subject, I still believe some visitors might be interested to find out what is on the inside surfaces of those drums?
To answer this question, I pointed my camera inside a few of those drums, as well.
I would imagine this drum is made from zink-plated steel. And even though I am not a chemist or a materials scientist, I have an impression that this type of a container would be the best choice for bulk storage and bulk shipping of liquid food products, among them fruit and grape juices.
Most steel drums are painted inside. The drum on the picture below has been used to transport metal chips.
Obviously, no grape producer would possibly use a container in this condition to ship his product!
That's how a new drum looks. The paint is very hard, it is simply impossible to scratch it with a fingernail. You can only scratch it with a sharp metal object.
The paint has a "matte look", it is not shiny or glossy, as on vehicles.
I do not know what kind of a paint it is, but it appears to have been formulated especially to protect steel drums from rusting when they are used as containers for liquids.
One acquiantance, who worked on a Russian fishery vessel before he escaped in a Canadian port, told me that a comissar on their ship had ordered the water containers to be painted from inside. Ordinary oil paint was then used for that purpose.
Several weeks into that trip, most crew members had developed kidney pain.
I was rather amazed to hear that the captain had allowed this idiocy on his ship, but that is a different story.
However, the paint inside these barrels is definitely not your ordinary "household" oil paint, which you buy in a hardware store.
This kind of a paint apparently requires a certain heat treatment process after application. It is very hard.
This drum was also used to transport metal chips. Paint is also very hard.
I would imagine, it is not economically feasible to make arrangements for a return shipment of your containers, which could go to dozens or even hundreds of different destinations around the country, not to mention abroad.
It is probably cheaper to recycle them at the point of their last delivery.
Since steel drums are shipped all around the country, a good part of them probably gets reconditioned at the points of last delivery by the local companies, who then sell them locally.
Here is a label from a company, which reconditions containers. It was on one of the drums which used to contain juice.
Back in the early 90-s there was a program on 60 Minutes about a legal vacuum in using container trucks to ship food products.
A truck could deliver a load of liquid chemical to one place, then get a very rudimentary washing and get filled up with a liquid food product.
As far as I remember, that exposure resulted in an introduction of an appropriate legislation.
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Pictures of industrial accident (propane explosion)