[TheForge] acid

[Dann]

Dan,

I don't think any of this stuff is "scary".  Just keep it safe from 
your kids: caution like you would use for drain cleaners and rust 
removers.  Stuff that scares me about keeping around is the bug 
sprays.  I hate "Raid" type bug sprays.

Most all the concentrated acids and bases still need time to work and 
do damage.  Soft skin tissues like eyes and tissues around mucus 
membranes get damaged quicker.    What is scary if you get hot stuff 
splashed in your eyes.. or on your skin where you can't wash it away 
quickly.  That is why chem labs have an Emergency  eye washes, 
and  often an emergency  shower with a pull chain in the lab room.

In a college chemistry lab, I was having trouble getting some 
glassware out of a jar,  using the supplied tools.  In 
frustration,  I dipped my hand in the  jar of concentrated nitric 
acid, and pulled out the glassware  out.  My skin didn't pucker up 
and burn away.. but the outer layer of skin did  yellow  a 
little.   I washed it off right away. I didn't suffer any blister or 
burning of the skin. The hand was just yellowed by the acid for a 
week or so.  The PhD instructor didn't give me heck about it .. he 
just grinned and said that I probably killed any bacteria on that hand.

What is scary if you get hot acid or base  splashed in your eyes.. or 
on your skin where you can't wash it away quickly.  That is why chem 
labs have an Emergency shower with a pull chain in every room.

Acetic acid is vinegar.  The same stuff that we put on salads or in 
pickle juice.  Leave  your wine or beer out in open air and it gets 
"contaminated" with spores that turn into bacteria that will convert 
the alcohol to acetic acid.  Concentrated acetic acid is vinegar that 
has been distilled in the same manner of the distillation of alcohol, 
to get it purified. Even "concentrated" acetic acid is considered a 
weak acid. Most store-bought  vinegar is a 5% concentration of acetic acid.

Muriatic acid is just another name for  diluted hydrochloric acid  ( 
HCL )  We all have that in our stomachs.  Many bathroom products like 
"Lime-away" use HCL as their active ingredient.

Too much salicylic acid can give you a belly ache: it is the active 
ingredient in aspirin. The word comes from Salix..  the generic name 
for willow tree.  Compound W for wart removal is  salicylic  acid in 
an ether solution.  When you paint it on the wart, the ether 
evaporates leaving a layer of aspirin  sticking to the top of the wart.

Dann