Nitric Acid Accident; Old Stuff, but good reminder

Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

skykinghunter

Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
13
Location
La Mirada, ca
5 Hurt from Exposure to Nitric Acid Cloud
May 11, 2001 in print edition B-6

Five people in Westminster were hospitalized with respiratory problems Thursday after being overcome by a cloud of nitric acid, authorities said.

The fumes were created by a merchant trying to extract silver from ore by mixing nitric acid and another chemical, said Capt. Kirk Summers of the Orange County Fire Authority. The incident occurred about 10:30 a.m. in the 7600 block of Garden Grove Boulevard.

Four men and a woman were treated for headaches and shortness of breath and released from West Anaheim Medical Center, Summers said.
 
butcher,
do you hve any idea as to what the other chemical might have been?
Thank you for your response.
Safety helps to prolong human life.

Happy and safe refining!
 
NOx gasses are very dangerous and most any metals will produce these dangerous brown fume's, especially if metals are in powder form, or if the are higher in the electromotive series, I dont know what other chemical they may have tried to use, they apparantly did not know what they were dealing with, how to use nitric and they probably did not know the chemistry of these reactions either , so they could have done most any stupid thing, to try and get a couple of dollars, they did not learn to take proper precautions, or study this thing through before jumping into the ambulance,luckily they survived the incident.probably cost them more than any silver the got out of that batch of scrap metals,
 
The other chemical could be in the ore,specialy if the ore had been treated before(ammalgamation or cyanide process) then these guys released mercury or hydrogen cyanide...they are very lucky to stay alive.

BEFORE starting a process we have to learn about its risks.

Manuel
 
Back
Top