Hi all,
This is another warning about saftey, and wearing the proper gear when
using the various chemicals that we use around our cars.
My wife told me about an article in Discover Magazine about a
fellow who tried to take a stain of some sort out of a suit coat using one
of the rust eaters (Phosphoric acid). Unfortunatly, it also contained
Hydrofloric Acid. His hands started to tingle then hurt like hell. He
managed to get to the hospital where they tried a couple of ways of
treating him which didn't work, finally they injected a Calcium ion
solution into his artery above his hands, within a half hour he was OK.
I'll see if I can find the article and put the pertinent info here so yall
that wish can go look it up.
The point of this story, and the reason I'm relating it is that I
didn't realize until last week that the manufacturers were putting HF in
some of the rust buster stuff. HF is nasty stuff, it isn't considered a
'strong' acid like sulfuric, but it is insidious. It attacks calcium. It
will soak into the skin and you won't know it. It then begins to attack
the nerves, on it's way to the bone. The 'cure' is to inject a special
Calcium ion solution directly into the site where the acid is causing pain,
this reacts with the HF and nutralizes it. It helps if you know that you
were working with HF acid, it reduces the amount of time necessary for the
doctors to figgure out what is wrong.
My wife works in a pollen lab and they use HF for part of the
processing. They keep an empty package (there is a shelf life, the
hospital keeps the solution) of the nutralizer so that if a problem occures
they can go to the hospital and tell the Doctor that it is an HF burn and
this is the stuff to use.
I've only heard of one accident, the woman who shares the lab got a pin
hole in her gloves (they use double gloves) and several hours later was in
the hospital in agony. They injected her hand and she was fine.
The moral of the story? Wear proper protective gear for using rust buster.
good rubber/neoprene gloves, Eye glasses, and coveralls.
I'll step off my soapbox now.
Geoff Hargreaves
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