[labnetwork] First aid for Sulphuric acid-IIT Bombay, India

[Weaver, John R]

Valli -

The best practice is to remove as much of the acid as possible, then douse the person with very large amounts of water. This is true only for very viscous acids with a high heat of dilution, and can cause confusion among the people being trained. For this reason, we keep it simple and say to douse the person in very large amounts of water - standing in a high-flowing safety shower for 15 minutes.

With this acid, it is important to ensure that all areas covered with the acid are very well rinsed. I carried scars on the underside of my arms for about 30 years because this area was forgotten during my safety-shower rinse - I concentrated on the visible areas (of course, I was also going into shock at the time and wasn't thinking clearly).

To recap, we train our people to move the person to a safety shower immediately and douse with copious amounts of water for a minimum of 15 minutes. If, however, you are at the scene it is best to do a QUICK wipe-down with available wipers and then douse the person in a safety shower for a minimum of 15 minutes.

Sulfuric acid is a special case because of the high viscosity and the very large heat of dilution. This causes a great deal of heat to be trapped at the acid-skin interface, thus boosting the activity of the acid and causing more severe burns. Gently rubbing the skin helps break the viscosity, but rubbing hard can cause the skin to peel off.

Sorry about the large amount of detail, but I had a personal "close encounter" with a large quantity of sulfuric acid as an undergrad. I had some pretty serious burns and had long-term scarring. Fortunately, the scarring is barely visible at this point - 41 years later.

John

John R. Weaver
Facility Manager
Birck Nanotechnology Center
Purdue University
(765) 494-5494
jrweaver at purdue.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Satyavalli Paluri
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 1:29 AM
To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
Cc: vanaparthy at ee.iitb.ac.in; diksha at ee.iitb.ac.in
Subject: [labnetwork] First aid for Sulphuric acid-IIT Bombay, India


Hi everybody,

Writing on behalf of Centre for Excellence in Nanoelectronics, IIT Bombay.

We would like to know what kind of first aid you are providing at your labs for Sulphuric acid.

Thanks & regards
valli



--
Assistant Lab Manager,
CEN, Electrical Engg Dept, Annexe,
IIT Bombay, Mumbai, Powai- 400076
Tel No. 02225764435/09820856337(M)


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