Dear LubesnGreases,

The article Nitrites + Amines = Bad News in your June issue and in the April 28 edition of Lube Report noted that representatives of the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association (ILMA) recently urged metalworking fluid manufacturers and marketers to check with their steel drum suppliers, to be sure they are not using sodium nitrite as a final rinse to prevent rust. The ostensive purpose of this guidance was to allay a concern that nitrites/nitrates used in rust-inhibiting solutions can react with secondary amines in metalworking fluids, forming carcinogenic nitrosamines.

Members of the Reusable Industrial Packaging Association are both surprised and concerned that ILMA would make such a recommendation to its members based – to our knowledge – on nothing more than general assumptions about complex chemical reactions. We appreciate that ILMA has a responsibility to offer guidance to its members on key issues, but such guidance should be based on facts; in this case actual knowledge that the low levels of nitrites/nitrates that may exist in clean steel drums treated with nitrite-bearing rust solution lead to the creation of carcinogenic nitrosamines. Without a basis for such a claim, directives of this sort are irresponsible, and potentially damaging to longstanding relationships between steel drum suppliers and their many excellent customers in the metalworking fluids industry.

For months, RIPA staff and key members have been cooperating with ILMA legal counsel, responding to inquiries and even hiring an independent laboratory to perform tests on drums to evaluate the potential residual levels of nitrite/nitrate that could result from the use of nitrite-based rust inhibitors in steel drums. The results of this testing was shared with ILMA counsel.

The tests showed that levels of nitrite and nitrate in drums previously treated with standard rust-inhibiting solution were below federal drinking water standards. Put another way, the tests demonstrated that nitrite/nitrate levels in drums are no higher than that which could occur from contact with drinking water.

Rest assured that RIPA will continue to work with ILMA on this issue. But in the meantime, we certainly hope that ILMA does not continue to assert as fact that there is a causal relationship between nitrites/nitrates used in rust-inhibiting solution for steel drums and the possible appearance of cancer-causing nitrosamines in metalworking fluids.

Paul W. Rankin

Reusable Industrial Packaging Association

Rockville, Maryland

Always Worthwhile

I have just read Jack Goodhues latest column, Executive Function, in the May issue. It is my habit to turn to his articles before looking at the rest of the magazine because I find something worthwhile nearly every time. I hope he keeps up his efforts. My favorites so far this year are Caveat Emptors New Meaning (February) and The Limited Hangout (April).

Charles E. Glomski

Prairie Engineering

Naperville, Ill.

Fog Surrounds Filters

Steve Swedbergs Automotive column in June (Filters: A Trickle of Refinements) failed to mention that all the filter manufacturers know the beta rating of their oil filters at select particle sizes, and those figures are a good measure of the filters efficiency. It is significant the beta rating is provided for industrial filters and oil filters for commercial engines, but withheld by the manufacturers about their passenger auto oil filters. I have even obtained the beta ratings for some oil filters by asking the engineers, so the decision to withhold that information is a marketing decision not a technical one.

LubesnGreaseswould have better served the public by pointing out what can only fairly be described as a conspiracy of silence by the filter manufacturers to prevent the public from making their oil filter purchasing decisions based on the filtering efficiency of the product.

Dennis Waller

Foreign Auto Service

Bellingham, Wash.