Accidental inhalation NOx, concerned

[Anslow]

Hey y’all, long time reader first time poster.
TL;DL- NOx fumes are ZERO joke. Do not f*** around with them. At all.

So, I got so caught up reading about the primary reactions for refining karat gold with nitric/AR that I really didn’t read much on recovering the inquarted silver. As a result, right after I added copper to cement the silver brown NOx fumes started forming. I didn’t realize this at first and I was right by the container. I got one breath plus like one to two more smaller gasps before I was able to contain it and remove myself. My god it’s the most noxious thing I’ve ever smelt, just heinous. I wasn’t expecting it, boo on me for not researching that part of the process more=( Excess nitric for sure.
My question is: has anyone inhaled NOx gas? The web results for this are fucking scary. My doctor and the poison control line say I’ll be perfectly fine, but my chest is sore. Again, out of precaution I saw my doc and she ran some tests and said it’s fine. But like, gas anyone else experienced this? How are you doing now? Assuage my concerns please, lol.
Steep learning curve on this hobby, y’all.
Thanks for all the people that regularly post here, excellent source of info.

 

[Alondro]

If it's been several days, you should be ok. Generally, if you're a few feet from the container, and get away from it quickly, it's too low a concentration to do any serious damage. Longer and more concentrated exposure will form acid and serious cell membrane oxidation in the lungs, which IS very bad.

It's important to get into open air and breathe deeply and quickly to eliminate any gas from the lungs, reducing the amount that is available to become nitric acid again.

Just make sure not to do it again! Might not be as lucky!

SO2 is just as bad. I always work with strong acids outside on days with a light, steady wind in one direction so I can be sure to be upwind of the reaction.

 

[Anslow]

If it's been several days, you should be ok. Generally, if you're a few feet from the container, and get away from it quickly, it's too low a concentration to do any serious damage. Longer and more concentrated exposure will form acid and serious cell membrane oxidation in the lungs, which IS very bad.

It's important to get into open air and breathe deeply and quickly to eliminate any gas from the lungs, reducing the amount that is available to become nitric acid again.

Just make sure not to do it again! Might not be as lucky!

SO2 is just as bad. I always work with strong acids outside on days with a light, steady wind in one direction so I can be sure to be upwind of the reaction.

Yes I stood back immediately. I’ve stopped at the silver digestion stage and won’t resume until I find a fume hood. I won’t repeat this, it’s very unpleasant. ThNks for your reassurance, it helps.

 

[orvi]

Do not take any chances with nitrogen oxides, nitrosyl chloride and other AR fumes at all. They are not only toxic, but also carcinogenic. Just a subtle long term exposures could mess you up for whole life.
One "harsh" exposure probably won´t cause life long damage - if it wasn´t severe. On the other hand, with chlorine and NOCl, one good whiff and you could end up disabled for life with respiratory failure.

From what you write you chemically burned your lung tissue, but not severly. After some severe exposures, there is high risk of developing pulmonary edema, which is inches close to death as your lungs will fill with liquid. Not funny. It could take from hours to whole day to fully develop the symptoms.

Bad thing is that respirators aren´t much helpful with these gasses. Best is to be defensive and not give the gases any chance to approach you.

I hope it will not affect your health and you recover soon
Stay safe

 

[Martijn]

Anslow, how are you doing?

 

[Anslow]

Anslow, how are you doing?

I’m doing better. I got a slight case of bronchitis from it but don’t think any lung damage, according to my doctor. Definitely had some mild pain in the upper and middle portion of my trachea though, lasted about three days and has gone away now.

Wild how toxic that gas is, I’m very lucky to not have lingering effects.

 

[Anslow]

ill add I’m still getting over the bronchitis. Also have a pulmonologist appointment next week just to be safe.
Lots of anxiety for a lapse in judgment.

 

[Martijn]

Good to hear. I hope you get well soon and breathe freely.

 

[Anslow]

Good to hear. I hope you get well soon and breathe freely.

Thanks for checking back in on me. Cheers.

 

[jakospence]

Wanted to check back in - hope that your bronchitis has cleared up and you got the all-clear from the pulmonologist!

 

[orvi]

Body is very tough about short termed, acute exposures. Healthy adult could go over very serious intoxications and near-death poisonings. Not something to test very often, of course

In my short 8-9 years career as chemist, I have gone through several "close calls". Never intentional, or as the results of complete ignorance.

Chlorine inhalation, HCl inhalation, benzoquinone rash and tears for few days... Once I distilled compound called pyridine, and dismantling the apparatus, vapor hit me right to the face. I was in the fume hood, but my colleague opened the door, mess the air flow and voilá vomited few times, drank like 2 liters of water, dizzy for one whole day.

Once it was toluene. Very familiar smell, but one thing I did not know about it, your ability to smell it go away after few minutes of subtle presence in air. I was doing chromatography in toluene as eluent. For 1 straight hour. After that, i was quite tipsy, recognized that... After half hour, nausea, sweating and awful headache... Relieved after few hours, but man... i cannot imagine sniffing it whole day as some folks are doing

Last remarkable exposure was methanol. We were doing a lab course, fractional distillation of methanol and ethanol mixture. It was like 4 years ago. After sucessfully completing the task, dismatling the apparatus. Methanol/ethanol mixture in the recieving flask was still quite warm, like 40-50°C. But we cannot assemble big 5 L flask to collect it. We were instructed to use 0,5 L graduated cylinder and use it to transfer the bulk back to the bottle. We opened the valve (malfunctioned and leaking), and with slow stream pouring warm methanol mixture to the grad cylinder 10 times in a row. It took like 10 minutes. Few dozens of mL ended up on the floor, completely evaporated in few minutes. We realized it as we were in the end of draining operation.
After we finished the lab, striking headache hit me. After few hours, I started to see slightly foggy. That was the moment I get the whole thing correctly. Run to the nearest pub with my labmate and we started drinking shots... That did not helped the headache to resolve but i´am not blind luckily Hard to explain why I wasn´t in the school the day after trying to maintain steady level of alcohol for at least 12 hours funny times...

 

[Anslow]

Body is very tough about short termed, acute exposures. Healthy adult could go over very serious intoxications and near-death poisonings. Not something to test very often, of course

In my short 8-9 years career as chemist, I have gone through several "close calls". Never intentional, or as the results of complete ignorance.

Chlorine inhalation, HCl inhalation, benzoquinone rash and tears for few days... Once I distilled compound called pyridine, and dismantling the apparatus, vapor hit me right to the face. I was in the fume hood, but my colleague opened the door, mess the air flow and voilá vomited few times, drank like 2 liters of water, dizzy for one whole day.

Once it was toluene. Very familiar smell, but one thing I did not know about it, your ability to smell it go away after few minutes of subtle presence in air. I was doing chromatography in toluene as eluent. For 1 straight hour. After that, i was quite tipsy, recognized that... After half hour, nausea, sweating and awful headache... Relieved after few hours, but man... i cannot imagine sniffing it whole day as some folks are doing

Last remarkable exposure was methanol. We were doing a lab course, fractional distillation of methanol and ethanol mixture. It was like 4 years ago. After sucessfully completing the task, dismatling the apparatus. Methanol/ethanol mixture in the recieving flask was still quite warm, like 40-50°C. But we cannot assemble big 5 L flask to collect it. We were instructed to use 0,5 L graduated cylinder and use it to transfer the bulk back to the bottle. We opened the valve (malfunctioned and leaking), and with slow stream pouring warm methanol mixture to the grad cylinder 10 times in a row. It took like 10 minutes. Few dozens of mL ended up on the floor, completely evaporated in few minutes. We realized it as we were in the end of draining operation.
After we finished the lab, striking headache hit me. After few hours, I started to see slightly foggy. That was the moment I get the whole thing correctly. Run to the nearest pub with my labmate and we started drinking shots... That did not helped the headache to resolve but i´am not blind luckily Hard to explain why I wasn´t in the school the day after trying to maintain steady level of alcohol for at least 12 hours funny times...

Lol, excellent way to put my little exposure into perspective. I will say I was surprised how much it effected me at first. Low O2, tired, painful chest. But a pulmonologist said it’s just inflammation from being irritated. After a round of steroids I feel just fine now. Been running at 5000ft just fine, went climbing yesterday with a heavy pack for the first time since the incident and I was just fine.
Thankfully. I was so worried I’d done somthing permanent. But yes, NOx gasses are 100% not to be trifled with. I was lucky.

 

[Daniel0007a]

Yes, I dealt with bromine, chlorine, SO2, a bit of NO2 when reacting it with highly reactive (Aqua Regas) into zinc powder. It was not nice but I was fine after 1 day. The worse was bromine. Flooded my lab with it trying to make Hbr.

 

[Alondro]

Yes, I dealt with bromine, chlorine, SO2, a bit of NO2 when reacting it with highly reactive (Aqua Regas) into zinc powder. It was not nice but I was fine after 1 day. The worse was bromine. Flooded my lab with it trying to make Hbr.

I used to work with chloroform, phenol, methylmethacrylate, and all sorts of awful chemicals one plays with in biological research.

Including tetrodotoxin. Where a few micrograms will kill you. Ah dun lerned lab safty reel gud. :B