CuCl Spill Help Please

[LeftyTheBandit]

I have spilled 500ml of CuCl on my floor. What is the best process to nutralize or minimize the toxicity and clean up the spill?

I am worried about my family and pets health if I just dilute and wipe up.

Regards
Richard

 

[SilverFox]

you could always mash up some charcoal and sprinkle it into the spill, that will neutralize just about anything.

 

[goldsilverpro]

Carpet? Wood? Tile? Concrete?

You can neutralize the acid with baking soda. You can pick it up with some sort of absorbent, such as cheap clay cat litter.

 

[LeftyTheBandit]

It was spilled by my cat onto a tile floor. I have soaked up as much as I can with coffee filters. I washed again after sprinkling baking soda to the spill area.

Locked the door to the room and bathed my cat.

My concern is the copper chloride. I know its very poisonous and I want to neutralize the copper chloride residue.

I have children in the house and need a plan for the copper chloride.

 

[butcher]

how about after neutralized with baking soda and most of it wiped up, using dilute bleach on dampened cloth to wipe up copper residue, I would open window and stick a fan in it, also I do this stuff outside,you will have this stuff happen.

 

[Lou]

It's not that terribly poisonous and if you cleaned it up with a sponge and then rinsed down the area with water and then baking soda, you would probably be fine. Since this is on a tile floor, it isn't that bad--if it were carpet it would be a different matter. You have done well but it is also important not to overreact and potentially make mistakes or scare your family.


I'd chide you about leaving the room exposed to pets though, animals have no place in there.

As for your children's safety, I would not worry overmuch. Make sure they understand not to be in that room. If you clean up properly, I doubt they could come to harm.

 

[LeftyTheBandit]

Thank you all for this emergency request for assistance. Your response time was commendable, again, thank you.

Lou:
I will have yet another chat with my cat, to advise her to not go in that room. I think she now understands the importance of listening to me. I doubt she would like to repeat the bath, then the baking soda bath she endured. Cat's are famous for following instructions. It is true the solution should have been outdoors, I was selfish staying indoors during the Canadian winter of sub zero temperatures. I should have just delayed the process until the area warmed up. The 30 days of my solution freezing and shorting out the fish tank heater that I tried to use to heat the AP was rushing me to get it done. The virtue of patience would have paid dividends.

Again, thank you all !

 

[lazersteve]

Lefty,

I also have a curious cat. I control the territory of mine with a simple water squirt bottle. The cat won't get within range of the bottle once she has been squirted with it. In fact she will go into hiding for at least an hour after being squirted.

So far I have had no cat related emergencies. I keep all access routes to my work areas, inside or out, closed up behind at least two doors.

Steve

 

[Lou]

I'm not saying that this can't be done safely indoors, just to be sure to take adequate precautions.


Curiosity killed the cat. We've heard that one before...


Lou

 

[Harold_V]

I'm not saying that this can't be done safely indoors, just to be sure to take adequate precautions.

That's right, it can be done safely indoors, including running nitric or cyanide. I did so for over ten years without incident aside from one nitric spill, which was not a big problem. My floor (concrete) was coated with epoxy, and all edges were sealed against leakage. Even my floor heating registers were impervious as long as a spill wasn't directly on the register. They were mounted on 1¼" asbestos risers that were epoxied to the concrete floor.

The only real problem IO had with working indoors is the issue of fumes, which are hard to eliminate, even with a fume hood that runs continually. The level was always very low, but it was evident that chemicals were in use.

Harold