And talking of fume events and ill health - what sort of oil were they putting in those smoke generators, when we did smoke training?
It's a vegetable based oil. Basically margarine.
Apparently for smoke training they use the same type of smoke generators as those used in entertainment venues and stage effects.
These use a mixture of water and glycol or glycerine, colloquially referred to as
smoke juice. The smoke they produce has a characteristic sweet smell.
Glycol is somewhat toxic and slightly irritating, but you'd have to inhale a relatively large quantity of the stuff to suffer any serious ill effects.
Incidentally, glycol also occurs in some cabin fume events. De-icing fluid contains a significant amount of glycol, and it is not uncommon for some de-icing fluid to be ingested by the engines and consequently the glycol vapours finding their way via bleed air and air conditioning packs into the cabin.
Smoke machines using mineral oil based fluids are said to exist, but I never encountered one in my thirty year stage career, and I'd stay well clear if I did. Bleah.