<html> <body> John, I'm glad your eyes are better than mine. I guess it's an "old age" kind of thing!:-) At 04:15 PM 8/17/05, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""> As to the first point, Susan, NO!! (Thankfully!)  To quote a Ph.D. in the field (I’m more food/flavor chemistry):   Cyanoacrylate glues contain the group H2C=CH-CN: Where the = represents a double bond between two carbons and there is a triple bond between the carbon and nitrogen of the CN. CN is the 'cyano' group, and a three-carbon chain with a double bond next to another type of multiple bond (or some other form of electron rich group such as a radical or anion) is an 'acrylic' group -- the combination gives a relatively high reactivity to the compounds and allows them to polymerize like a plastic. Many non-toxic compounds contain both types of groups, and many medicines have cyano groups. Along with this group, there are other chemicals and can be other chains attached to that cyanoacrylate group in place of one or more of the hydrogens. There is NO, NONE, NADA cyanide released on curing these glues and hardening. There are some obnoxious fumes released -- some of them just parts that boil out from the heat of the curing reaction. BUT, whenever an organic chemical that contains nitrogen is burned, some cyanogen/hydrogen cyanide is released. This happens with tobacco, meat, veggies, fireplace wood, etc. This release is worst when there is not enough oxygen present in the burning zone to ensure complete combustion -- so if there is a lot of smoke formation, there is more likelyhood of cyanide formation. Sorry if that’s more chemistry than you wanted, but I think it makes the point.  Watch out for smoking rags, etc! To the “kicker” issue, I assume that’s an accelerant?  Anything with water (a VERY WEAK lye solution would be better) is going to work.  Elmer’s may just be getting in the way of the polymerization.  How is the smell irritating (acrid, ammonia, etc)?  That may give some indication of what’s going on. John Delmore</blockquote></body> </html>