Wite-Out


A trade mark for correction fluid which has become a generic term for any opaque, white—or, less commonly, other type page colours—fluid, applied to typed pages to cover typed errors. Correction fluids have contained volatile chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents, at first toluene, which was banned as it is carcinogenic, then trichloroethane, which was banned because it depletes the ozone layer, then tricholoethylene and bromopropane. These organic solvents have psychoactive effects when deliberately inhaled—‘huffed’ or ‘sniffed’