Peteski and Jimmo: True, it would be safe with precautions, but I'll probably avoid it, because I have no need for it. It's more a matter of what one is familiar, and comfortable with, than absolute safety. I've never dealt much with chemicals, so tend to distrust the more volatile ones. My father didn't trust electricity, but burning trash in dry weather didn't bother him a bit. He couldn't understand burn bans, or how I could change a light switch without killing myself. Of course, he also never learned to turn the water off before working on a faucet...
I was asking partly for anyone living in an apartment or other location where potentially hazardous materials may be restricted.
And, while I do have some paint thinners, they tend to stay in our old house, now a storage shed. I use very few non-water based paints, and most of those are spray cans, which are used outdoors. It's not so much safety, although that's a factor, as that Mom and I don't like the smells. Also, most of my work is in plastics, and many of the paints and their solvents don't mix well with plastic.
Incidentally, gasoline was sold for years as a cleaning solvent, in hardware stores, until people figured out that it would work in horseless carriages. Henry Ford's early cars were designed to run on ethanol, with the idea that it could be made locally.
