A (J.V.): Not to my knowledge. If one "borrows" an argument from plasma chemistry, one could argue that the ratio of etching & deposition doesn't follow necessarily an exact slope. If the etching rate tends to be higher at large currents, one may make the "test results" under large current conditions more optimistic. This is to neglect other effects due to large system... Clearly, the tests should use a current intensity as low as possible.

A (J.V.): Yes, the electrolytic test was done using "fresh" liquid Italian linseed oil. However, a piece of "used" RPC chamber taken from BaBar also showed a correlation between the resistivity vs. moisture. The BaBar RPC chamber may have had improperly cured linseed oil.

A (J.V.): This subject is the least understood problem of aging. Short lived radicals will react right away inside the chamber, the longer lived species may react with the existing filters and produce "unwanted" molecules which may come back into the system. Just scaling from the LEP experience "may not do"... (editor's note: see also talk by K. Dehmelt and poster by M. Hohlmann at this workshop on this subject)

A (J.V.): The thickness of "spots" in the CRID TPC chambers is not known. At that point the system had TMAE already for a year or two. However, based on the OPAL sandwich prototype study, the MALTER-contaminated spots were cleaned with acetone and Q-tip and one could see a perfect "shiny" surface, and, yet, the Malter returned again in a week. I think one is dealing with layers which are a few monolayers thick.

A (J.V.): My answer is yes, it is possible to form HF in the plasma environment even from other hydrocarbons.