I wanted to save money, so for a punch down tool I bought a sheetrock mud mixer. Basically this looks just like a giant potatoe masher. It had a golden looking 'anodizing' on the outside of it when I started. After just two punch downs, I noticed the golden color was all eaten off by the acid and the shiney metal underneath was getting corroded as well. I immediately went out and purchased a food grade stainless steel potatoe masher.
Now I'm worried about what happened to the gold anodizing.. it's of course in my wine. Does anyone know what that stuff is made out of and what it's toxicity might be? I'm not wanting to dump the wine and it's showing really well now with great color, clarity and taste. Any chemists out there know if it's safe to drink this stuff?
From your description, I'm guessing that sheetrock mud mixer is made from an aluminum alloy. That the coating was eaten away so quickly leads me to believe that it was not anodized. More likely was a gold-colored chromate conversion coating (which is much less durable than hard anodizing).
IF it was chromate conversion coated aluminum, then I'd have some personal concern about carcinogenic, hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] content. The standard chromate conversion coating process does leave traces of hexavalent chromium in the finished coating. I don't know if the acids in the wine are strong enough to convert Cr(VI) to the much less bioactive trivalent [Cr(III)] form.
I can't tell whether or not you dissolved into your wine enough hexavalent chromium in this situation to be a statistically meaningful increase in cancer risk. Long term exposure to hexavalent chromium would concern me more (such as the guy working in the metal finishing factory day after day).
We are exposed to low levels of hexavalent chromium as dust in the air and (inhaled and skin contact) and from handling chromate conversion coated objects. Here's an interesting article:
Thanks for the response... so long term carcinogin.. hmmm.. could that be attributed to my wine, I think not. OK then we are good to go..
Kidding of course, is there any test for the carcinogin that I could do prior to dumping the 60 gallons of this wine? I'm giving you the dilution ratio, what is the vote, should I dump this wine?
I'd think that any EPA certified commercial environmental testing lab can do a test for Cr(VI) content. The 'home test kits' for Cr(VI) I've seen come in packs of 100 tests; what to do with the 99 you don't use LOL.
The biggest exposure risk is inhalation leading to lung cancer; oral ingestion has only been in one study and is considered less problematic (I couldn't find the Cr(VI) concentration in the Hinkley, CA drinking water lawsuit made famous in the movie "Erin Brockovitch".)
Hmmmmm.... one mixer in 60 gallons, sounds pretty dilute. I learned that there is no current standard for Cr(VI) in drinking water; only the total chromium. Federal standard for total chromium is
100 part per billion (ppb); California state standard is 50 ppb. California is adopting over the next two years a Public Health Goal (PHG) of 2.5 ppb for Cr(VI) in drinking water. This exposure guideline is based on cumulative exposure from drinking 2 liters per day for 70 years.
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I found the referenced PHG document also good reading:
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To get to 2.5 ppb, I calculated that you'd need 0.56 milligrams of Cr(VI) in your 60 gallons of wine. Then drink at least two liters per day for 70 years to achieve your lifetime recommended maximum dosage . Oh wait, 60 gallons is only enough for 120 days at 2 liters per day. If you drink responsibly, say .25 liters per day of that wine, in that 480 days duration, that would be the equivalent of 20 ppb Cr(VI) in the wine without exceeding your recommended daily maximum oral ingestion of Cr(VI) (Unless you live in one of the locations which has naturally occurring Cr(VI) in the water).
Put a magnet on this first to make sure it's not steel. I doubt any of this went into your wine, you didn't leave it in there for hours and washed it between uses. A test lab could test fot heavy metals. I have the mud mixer you describe somewhere but didn't think mine was aluminum. The color could have come from heat treating.
After your reply, I googled mud mixers, and it is likely steel, in which case the corrosion resistant plating would probably be zinc chromate, which also has Cr(VI) content. This golden color plating is very common on steel. Since the golden color got eaten off during Rick's punchdowns, it's a question of how much was actually Cr(VI), vs the less biologically active Cr(III), and would that amount be enough to be a meaningful health risk.
Only reference I could find for the coating was at
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It says "Made of heavy-duty, rust-resistant plated wire. This Steel Mud Masher with Wood Handle is one of many top quality items in our Drywall Mud Mixers department."
No mention what kind of plating was used. Good luck on tracking it down. It appears that the manufacturer, Soundbest International, imports a lot of items from many different suppliers and then sells them under the Soundbest label.
WelL I was going to make some beet wine and I thought I would pulp the beets with a morter-mixer from the DIY home center. But then I thought I should sanitise the mixer with a solution of sulphite and citric acid.
As I can not post any pictures here, take a look at the entry for today in my weblog.
Just look what this solution did in about 2 minutes to the mixer !!!!
The green is I think copper. The shining parts were removed and the white is where the mixer is welded.
Now I thought the chroom would disappear afther a night of soaking but look at what happened: the rust occured afther just 1 night in the solution !!!!
I left the mixer in a bucket of solution. I"m thinking that is what did the corroding not the wine. That actually makes me feel better about the wine itself, since most of the corrosion and subsequent sloughing off of the coating was probably in the bucket not the wine.
A lesson to be learned here. When handling food (drink) use food grade utensels and containers. There are reasons for the food grade rating. If it was only for personal consumption, do what you want to your body. But if you share it with others, shame on you. Don't make your point by endangering others. In that case you are as bad as the guy with the dangerous TB getting on a plane with others because he needed to go somewhere. Rick is doing the right thing. Checking.
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