Re: Cyanide and almonds

Sil Horwitz (silh@iag.net)
Fri, 30 Jan 1998 01:26:26 -0500

At 11:08 PM 1998/01/29 -0500, FotoDave@aol.com wrote:

>I have been wondering whether phthalocyanine blue is a cyanide compound.
If >it is, it certainly is not poisonous because it doesn't have any
special warning
>label.

The root word "cyan" is used in chemical notation in two different ways:
(1) meaning the color "blue" (original application was from the
ferricyanides, which create blue pigments)
(2) from the above, any compound that has the CN radical (potassium cyanide
is KCN - potassium [K from the Latin "kalium"] combined with the CN radical)

A far, far cry from alternative processing!

Sil Horwitz, FPSA
Technical Editor, PSA Journal
silh@iag.net
Visit http://www.psa-photo.org/