It's hard to overide the natural urge to stick yer hooter into the neck of a container to find if it's been cleaned.
I did that once with a plastic barrel at work and checked the labelling afterwards. Previously had contained some cyanide plating chemicals, these presumably been washed out...
Or I am a ghost.
Jeezz .. that is a numero uno nasty substance!..
Might just as well be handling gelignite thats "sweating" profusely!..
Or nitro;!..
Just in case you might come into contact with it anytime;!!..
Hydrofluoric acid is a highly corrosive liquid and is a contact poison. It should be handled with extreme care, beyond that accorded to other mineral acids. Owing to its low acid dissociation constant, HF as a neutral lipid-soluble molecule penetrates tissue more rapidly than typical mineral acids. Because of the ability of hydrofluoric acid to penetrate tissue, poisoning can occur readily through exposure of skin or eyes, or when inhaled or swallowed. Symptoms of exposure to hydrofluoric acid may not be immediately evident. HF interferes with nerve function, meaning that burns may not initially be painful. Accidental exposures can go unnoticed, delaying treatment and increasing the extent and seriousness of the injury. [8]
Once absorbed into blood through the skin, it reacts with blood calcium and may cause cardiac arrest. Burns with areas larger than 25 square inches (160 cm2) have the potential to cause serious systemic toxicity from interference with blood and tissue calcium levels. [9] In the body, hydrofluoric acid reacts with the ubiquitous biologically important ions Ca2+ and Mg2+. Formation of insoluble calcium fluoride is proposed as the etiology for both precipitous fall in serum calcium and the severe pain associated with tissue toxicity. [10] In some cases, exposures can lead to hypocalcemia. Thus, hydrofluoric acid exposure is often treated with calcium gluconate, a source of Ca2+ that sequesters the fluoride ions. HF chemical burns can be treated with a water wash and 2.5% calcium gluconate gel.[11][12][13] or special rinsing solutions.[14][15]
However, because it is absorbed, medical treatment is necessary; [9] rinsing off is not enough. Intra-arterial infusions of calcium chloride have also shown great effectiveness in treating burns.[16] Hydrogen fluoride is generated upon combustion of many fluorine- containing compounds such as products containing Viton and polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) parts. [17]
Provided that it wasn't acidic then cyanide liquor isn't that volatile. I remember that plating opos were cavalier about handling cyanide eggs and one trick demo for visiting VIPs was to pick up a handful with bare hands and toss them into the plating bath. This practice was banned after a visiting VIP died of a heart attack when he saw the guy put his hands into the 45 gallon drum. Major inquest for a cyanide death resulted and showed that he had quite literally died of fright!
I was taught that if you have smelt hydrogen cyanide in the air and are still alive fifteen minutes later then you have got away with it. The advice was also to get away from it immediately. I think it is roughly true although you should seek immediate help if you ever find yourself in this position as someone may need to give you antidote in a hurry.
Student tasterday we've just had one of those :-)
Truly scary!
Give me radioactive materials any day, even fissile ones (as long as it's not somewhere like the Tokai Mura fuel plant)!
When rooting around the breakers' yards, be careful of cars that were scrapped because of an under-bonnet fire - the Viton hoses can sweat HF.
...
He is no longer deceased? :-)
Colin Bignell
Yup, was shown a film as part of company training when i worked for a breakdown firm, car had ran head on into something, then caught fire starting at the engine bay, fire brigade turns up, sprays copious amounts of water over the car, then sprays the engine bay for a good 10 minutes to cool everything down.
bod called out to recover it, winched it onto the truck, then picked up a few bits of engine that had melted and fallen to the road with his bare hands and chucked them in the car on the transporter, one bit was part of the radiator with the remains of the hoses all melted and gnarly,
result was many months of skin grafts and some fingers lost due to the only way to get it off the skin being to remove all the affected skin and then some more to be safe, The results weren't pretty, but the bloke quiped 'good job i didn't nip behind the bushes for a pee after i had loaded the car' apparently it took a little while for him to realise something was wrong with his hands.
They said it was the combination of the flames and the water that caused the hoses to turn into/produce the acid,
The next film was the one where a truck driver was blown over to the hard shoulder of the M62 in high winds, and punts the breakdown van over the barrier and into the field, to show us the importance of turning the vehicle's nose into the kerb and putting full left lock on the steering before getting out to see to the broken down vehicle,
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