Things we do for love or:
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Hydrofluoric Acid
Do you know what happens if you spill hydrofluoric acid on your skin? Initially, you feel nothing. You might not even notice. But gradually, the fluoride ions pass through your skin, and attack the calcium in your muscles and bones, destroying them. Sudden death can even result from concentrated acid burns. And so, if you suspect HF exposure, you must IMMEDIATELY rinse the contacted skin and continuously rub a gel made out of calcium gluconate into your skin while racing to the emergency room.
So why the hell would anyone choose to work in a job that requires you to handle hydrofluoric acid? Well, turns out that its corrosive properties are also quite useful in a number of scientific contexts, and if you wear the proper protective equipment (chemically-protective apron, face shield, safety glasses, chemically-resistant gloves) and work in a ventilated hood, the risks are minimal. And so, in the same way that we catch a glimpse of car wrecks on the side of the highway (ambulance lights whirling, an unwanted glimpse of a stretcher) and think "how terrible… they were probably driving too fast," Death-by-HF must be something that happens to other people. On with it– there is science to be learned.
One of the staff members in my lab (who appears to love her job) likes to say, "We have toxic gases in here that are SO BAD that if you smell them, you are dead already." I suppose she has put her faith in the toxic gas alarm going off long before that point.
What other risks to you learn to see as normal?
Update: See properdoc’s post for a close call…
Pharmaceutical compounds - chemotherapy drugs. Think of the side effects, then wonder why no one in my research group wears gloves, uses a hood when dealing with the (fine) powders…
I use osmium tetroxide daily as well - will blacken corneas and is very toxic. Don’t even think about the risk now.
Comment by propter doc — July 19, 2006 @ 8:46 pm
Not on the same risk scale as HF, but as an undergrad I once managed to inject myself with Freund’s Complete adjuvant
Comment by sciencewoman — July 20, 2006 @ 2:45 am
HF–heck, that’s nothing! When I was a graduate student, I had to etch amorphous silicon in a mix of HF *and* nitric acid! The blended acids had a disarmingly pretty swimming pool blue-green color, but a spare drop on the counter of the hood still left quite a stain even after I got on it immediately with a copious amount of water.
And I thought I’d gotten into physics in order to avoid chemical nastiness like that. It turned out to be yet another sign that my career had taken a wrong turn.
Comment by Kristin — July 20, 2006 @ 4:18 am
1. Request for DIYers. While Dr. Shelley’s advice is basically correct, please don’t assume this blog is the only knowledge you need to safely use thre stuff at home, in the garage, or in lab over christmas holidays when nobody is around. Instead, talk to your lab safety supervisor about your particular lab’s HF burn procedures before actually going near the stuff.
2. HF/Nitric should be colorless, whether or not silica is dissolved in it. I think HCl/Nitric is green, but I don’t work with the stuff. But in some ways the HCl/Nitric combo is nastier than the HF/Nitric combo. Pure nitric is a fairly average, run-of-the-mill acid, as is pure HCl. But mixing them creates a compound that is not only way more toxic, but also disolves many containers that would not be attacked by either acid alone.
This is why it is a good idea for labs that use both acids to have seperate waste acid streams for each.
3. Instead of trying to scare us with the prospect of sudden death, our lab manager makes us read reports of workers who have died from lingering, painful HF poisoning, after weeks of agony and multiple amputations.
Comment by Lab Lemming — July 20, 2006 @ 9:59 am
HCl/nitric (in a 1:3 ratio, aka aqua regia) is a rather blazing orange color, and if you don’t dilute it with at least one part water, emits some rather evil smelling gas. Fabulous for cleaning glassware to a brilliant shine, but not terribly fun to clean up, and anyone who puts it in a sealed bottle is going to be in for a very ugly surprise.
And then there’s chromic/sulfuric acid … now that’s another ballgame
Comment by Erik — July 21, 2006 @ 4:15 pm
For beautiful, detailed writing on this topic you cannot beat Oliver Sacks’ “Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood”. You won’t believe the things that guy did with chemicals and lived. But on this whole topic of the risks we expose ourselves to daily and just become used to…it seems to be a part of what being a scientist is…there is actually a whole book that deals with this idea. It’s called “Suffering for Science: Reason and Sacrifice in Modern America” by Rebecca Herzig. I’ve just started reading it so I can’t tell you yet if it’s really good or not. But Sacks’ book is fantastic.
When I was very first in the lab as a grad student, I was instructed to rinse certain pieces of washed glassware with acetone to remove the water and speed drying. I wasn’t wearing gloves and the acetone would splash over on my hands. I was always amazed at how quickly it would evaporate off my skin. Nobody told me it was being absorbed through my skin as well and carrying whatever crap was on it along with it right on to my liver, until one day the visiting senior scientist saw me and took pity on me.
Comment by Zuska — July 24, 2006 @ 5:44 pm