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TIFU by making a solar panel into my desk, and possibly exposing myself to carcinogenic materials.

SO, the other day I was gifted a non-functional solar panel, so I decided to do the really cool thing and make it into a desk! (picture)

To make it, I attached aluminum piping to each corner of the steel frame of the solar panel, then put it into my room so I could set up my computer and monitors, and really make the desk my own.

I then submitted a picture of it to the subreddit pcmasterrace, and while the post still had only a couple of upvotes, I decided to go to sleep. When I awoke, I was surprised with hundreds of comments warning me about the dangers of using solar panels as desks, as they are made up of materials such as:

  • Cadmium, a material well known to cause cancer, organ failure and even death if you have long term exposure.

  • Silicon Tetrachloride, which when exposed to water reacts with a noxious gas that causes burning of the lungs.

  • Copper Indium Selenide, which lab test showed rats having abnormal growths in their lungs caused by the material.

Just to name a few.

So after coming to terms with the fact that I had to get rid of this panel, I decided the best course of action would be to remove the solar panel from my house and give it back to the source I had acquired it from, then find a new desk.

Once I was rid of the panel, I stumbled upon a janitor from a high school I live near by throwing old desks away so that they could replace them with new ones, and I asked him if I could have one, and explained the situation to him. He allowed me to take a desk.

Once I got home, I set everything up exactly how I had it before, now cancer-free, and made a new post about it on pcmasterrace. People seem to like the new desk. (picture)

TL;DR: SOLAR PANELS DO NOT MAKE GOOD DESKS, YOU CAN EXPOSE YOURSELF TO POSSIBLY CANCEROUS MATERIALS IF THEY ARE BROKEN OR CRACKED IN ANY WAY, AND ARE NOT MEANT TO SUPPORT THE WEIGHT OF THINGS LIKE MONITORS AND COMPUTER CASES. DO NOT BE LIKE ME, JUST USE A WOODEN DESK.

That being said, Solar is a perfectly safe, and SUSTAINABLE way to harvest energy, just because you don't want one as your desk doesn't mean you don't want one on your roof. Please don't interpret this as the panels being unsafe in any way if they are functioning as they are intended to be used. Please just don't use one as your desk.

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