Are burnt electronics toxic?

I'm not the most technically savvy person. In fact I'm just a security guard at a tech company.
Today I got tasked with guarding a server room that got gutted by a fire. The smell was awful and I had to stay there for 12 hours. I asked for a paper mask or a respirator, but was reassured that the particles I was breathing were so fine that either one would be useless. I wasn't told if they were toxic or not and the EH&S person who told me not to wear a respirator didn't seem to want to give me a straight answer. My security company doesn't give half a fuck about my health or safety, because of course they don't.

So I tried to look up if burnt plastic is in fact dangerous and the answer depends on the type. It could be nasty smelling but pretty much harmless, or if it contains dioxins basically pure poison. There's a lot in between. I don't know what kinds of plastics computers are typically made of, or what other potentially unhealthy chemicals and metals get airborne when a room full of them burns up. These were as far as I know fairly new devices, no more than 2 years old at most although I don't know exactly what make or model.

Does anyone have more insight on this? I'm pretty certain they will try to stick me there tomorrow. If it's just a bad smell I can deal with it. If it's toxic, I'm calling a sick day. Maybe a lawyer too.

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Follow your nose; if it smells bad it's probably not great for you. Do you have a health and safety department?

I'm a contractor.
The man I was talking to was the client's Health and Safety department. He didn't seem to be terribly reassuring.
My company's idea of Health and Safety is a supervisor who never graduated high school assuring me that I don't need kevlar because my nickel badge can stop bullets, which he knows because he saw it on Mythbusters once (this is back when I was guarding banks unarmed after they had been robbed).

OSHA 1910.134: employer shall provide respirators

The appropriate equipment for your situation is at least a chemical cartridge gas mask suitable for hydrocyanic acid gas, based on the likely presence of ABS plastics.

Yes, they are very toxic.

Which is why you're not supposed to throw them in the garbage.
You have to "recycle" them which means they get shopped off to India...and burned there.

Just get a N95 mask, is it that hard?

Get at least a N95 and carry it with you.

Also get a lawyer and sue!

You know those old people you sometimes come into contact with that can't talk well or have weird movements or are just general undiagnosable freaks? They are people that were made to work in toxic places and you'll end up one too if you continue. Do not spend another minute doing that fucking job. I would say I have asthma and ask to be put somewhere else

Computer and electronics may contain lithium, lead, mercury, etc...

anything that burn is toxic u mong even candles

i knew my g/f was trying to poison me on our anniversary
good thing she dumped me

capacitors will release dangerous chemicals. Don't go back get and if they fire you get a lawyer.

That's kind of what I figured, but the trained EH&S professional didn't seem terribly concerned. He wasn't wearing a mask and he was going into the room. I was only posted in the proximity.
I asked my company if they would provide something like that and they promptly told me to go fuck myself. Would have gone to home depot to buy one if my lunch break was long enough. Hopefully I'm not perma-fucked in the future over 12 hours of exposure.
What are the breakdowns of chemicals I probably inhaled today? What symptoms would I have? (I suppose I feel pretty much normal right now) Who should I call and what would I tell them to report what happened?

osha.gov/shpguidelines/communication.html
>they promptly told me to go fuck myself
ask to get fucked in paper
>Would have gone to home depot to buy one if my lunch break was long enough.
take safety into your own hands, but make them pay

Alright, I'll get some N95s tomorrow morning and report what they do. I might not even get posted there, so hopefully this is a stupid one-off occurrence that doesn't come back to bite me later.

candles basically only emit CO2 and H2O and a tiny bit of CO while burning which aren't toxic unless you have too much of them because they will just straight up get in the way of oxigen but for that you basically need to burn down an entire house

Blown caps smell kind of nice desu

Monsanto produces the chemicals inside capacitors. The area around their production plant is totally contaminated to the point it lead to a class action suit by the locals cause of the large number of people that started dying of cancer.

If its been aired out you're fine. The smell is just the stink from a fucking fire.

Don't burn you electronics.
Just stop.

OP didnt burn them you fucking moron did you even read his post?

Why are you pretending to be someone else?

why would you ask on G it's full of Ghildren

What the fuck is "G"?

Buy some potassium iodide and drink plenty of water if you want to flush your system.