As part of the #ChemMovieCarnival Dr. Kat Day of The Chronicle Flask put up a write-up on hydrofluoric acid…six days before mine. The post is a good read and has a couple of neat anecdotes, including this gem:
[I]n 1995 a chemist working in Australia was sitting working at a fume cupboard and knocked over a small quantity (100-230 millilitres, about the equivalent of a drinking glass full of water) of hydrofluoric acid onto his lap, splashing both thighs. He immediately washed his legs with water, jumped into a chlorinated swimming pool at the rear of the workplace, and stayed there for about 40 minutes before an ambulance arrived.Interviewing Protip: Try to negotiate for an in-lab swimming pool.
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Perhaps you should have not omitted the part where the man in question died 15 days later?
Death and HF exposure are too often linked. My intent was not to make light of this particular situation, simply to highlight the strangeness of a lab with it’s own swimming pool.
If you or someone you know is exposed to HF, treat the exposed area with calcium gluconate or quaternary ammonium salts, as detailed in the CDC guide. HF exposure is not a death sentence; in one case a near complete recovery was made after 30% of the body was splashed with 70% HF. (cite, with disturbing pictures)
Thanks for the mention! Yes it’s a strange tale isn’t it? I first heard it from The Naked Scientists (not as dodgy as they sound).
This is a standard tale you hear as a first year undergrad chemistry student in Australia. It’s nasty stuff.
It will burn through steel. As well an melt aluminum.
Like cats it can not b put out with water ..that has no affect on it when it is burning..
It will melt the aluminum cars… burn through steel..
When on skin. It will burn through. Bone .skin an all… if it is burning .. water will not put it out… only sand will put it out
.. it is dangerous.. an nothing to fool with.
I did not go to college to know what o know about this. Acid… But I know what it will do…an it is nasty an dangerous.