Flesh-Eating Hydrofluoric Acid - Periodic Table of Videos

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Hydroflouric Acid is something not to be messed with at all by the novice and the well versed will verify that. It is "bone seeking" and I remember my college professor telling us this. Unlike other acids that can be diluted with water and washed off mostly, this nasty stuff penetrates the skin and can't be, once it is on you you are going to be in the hospital and will be damaged for life. Leave it alone!
 
That video is poorly done, they somehow made it look less harmless than other acids, for people who will skim through that it will be really badly presented information.
 
patnor1011 said:
That video is poorly done, they somehow made it look less harmless than other acids, for people who will skim through that it will be really badly presented information.

I agree :!:

From Wiki --- Health and safety

In addition to being a highly corrosive liquid, hydrofluoric acid is also a contact poison. It should therefore be handled with extreme care, using protective equipment and safety precautions beyond those used with other mineral acids.

Owing to its low acid dissociation constant, HF as a neutral lipid-soluble molecule penetrates tissue more rapidly than typical mineral acids. Because of the ability of hydrofluoric acid to penetrate tissue, poisoning can occur readily through exposure of skin or eyes, or when inhaled or swallowed.

Symptoms of exposure to hydrofluoric acid may not be immediately evident, and this can provide false reassurance to victims, causing them to delay medical treatment.

HF interferes with nerve function, meaning that burns may not initially be painful. - ****Accidental exposures can go unnoticed,***** - delaying treatment and increasing the extent and seriousness of the injury.[8]

Once absorbed into blood through the skin, it reacts with blood calcium and may cause cardiac arrest. Burns with areas larger than 160 cm2 (25 square inches) have the potential to cause serious systemic toxicity from interference with blood and tissue calcium levels.[9]

Kurt
 
The scary thought is that others will come after, watch the video, and believe it's relatively safe.

I think the point should be made that this was already a dead piece of flesh. The video did not take note, or mention at all, what happens to live flesh. Hydrofluoric acid does not eat flesh, it kills flesh, dead!

Hydrofluoric acid solution is a contact-poison that causes deep, initially painless burns which result in permanent tissue death. It also interferes with calcium metabolism, which means that exposure to it can and does cause cardiac arrest (heart attack) and death. Contact with as little as 160 square centimeters (25 square inches) of skin can kill – that’s about the area of the palm of your hand.

Source: https://thechronicleflask.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/the-acid-that-really-does-eat-through-everything/

If you would like to see what Hydrofluoric acid actually does to the skin, you can click on the google image search link below, but please be aware that the images are very graphic, as Hydrofluoric acid skin exposure is very serious.

I cannot stress enough how incredible dangerous some of the acids we deal with on a regular basis are, but even more so is Hydrofluoric. If you have no other way to process whatever it is you are processing, other than to sue this acid, I would suggest not processing whatever material it is. There is no good reason for any hobbyist or small scale refiner to be using Hydrofluoric acid for any process in my opinion, not ever, not for any reason.

Scott
 
NobleMetalWorks said:
The scary thought is that others will come after, watch the video, and believe it's relatively safe.

I cannot stress enough how incredible dangerous some of the acids we deal with on a regular basis are, but even more so is Hydrofluoric. If you have no other way to process whatever it is you are processing, other than to sue this acid, I would suggest not processing whatever material it is. There is no good reason for any hobbyist or small scale refiner to be using Hydrofluoric acid for any process in my opinion, not ever, not for any reason.

Scott


Seconded and with feeling, please be aware this acid is very very dangerous and should be left to the experts with the right equipment to use if at all..
 
If worked with HF a lot. For one experiment I needed 10mg of Sr with a very high 87Sr/86Sr ratio, which you can get in extremely old (3 billion year +) granite (because 87Rb decays to 87Sr). You need to use granite that has a very low Sr concentration, so that the radiogenic Sr will be a substantial portion of the total Sr. So I powdered 10kg of granite in a ball mill and then cooked it, 500 grams at a time, in concentrated HF. It was weeks of nerve wracking work as it is not a gentle reaction. Somehow I avoided HF burns. The one time I did get an HF burn was when I was pipetting 1 ml squirts of HF into teflon beakers, Somehow a drop got into a hole in my outer glove, worked its way down my finger tip to where it found a pinhole. I didn't notice anything. HF has the nasty property of being a topical anaesthetic, so you don't feel the initial burn. That night I woke in agony. My whole hand was throbbing, I went to the bathroom and saw a small black spot, maybe 3mm across, on the tip of my index finger. That was all it took to make it feel like my hand was plunged in molten lead.

Labs that us HF have tubes of calcium gluconate handy, which works if you apply it quickly. If you get it over a large part of your body many subcutaneous injections of calcium gluconate can sometimes save your life.
 
I used to test a 50 ml sample of HF every day when I worked in an oil refinery.

For testing we used full protective suit sealed gauntlets, rubber boots and face mask still done under a fume hood.

I sort of enjoyed the danger (weird eh..)

The guys on the plant worked with a 100 ton tank of the stuff. When the refinery was shut down it took about a year to figure out haw to get rid of the stuff and gave it to another refinery.
 
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