HCN detection and safety

[snoman701]

To be very honest using cyanide is all about common sense. Work in a vented area, make sure your pH levels are correct, don't eat, drink , or smoke, and use the proper protocols for handling the liquids. Have a spill procedure in place too.

It's not the demon that people have suggested that it is provided you have common sense and a good set of safety procedures. That given, if you're already unsafe using other chemicals because of your slipshod methods then don't go near this stuff. The key difference is simple: Get it badly wrong with this and you don't get a second chance. Get it right and don't get over confident and it's a dream to work with.

Read up on the definitions of ppm, and free cyanide and how free cyanide is made up both CN- ions in solution and HCN in solution and how the percentages vary with pH. The short version is that at pH 11+ your free cyanide is 90 plus percent in the ionic form rather than the dissolved HCN gas. Hence why the "manuals" recommend this as a minimum pH.

In summary if you're a newbie or you consistently fail to grasp lab safety protocols then steer away from this like the plague. If you don't even understand the chemistry behind it then wait until you do before trying it.

Jon

Thanks Jon...most of my readings have determined exactly what you just said. There's still something comforting about the meter though. Maybe I should just get a canary. Right now, I'm looking at having a small shed/building that is dedicated strictly to cyanide. That way the hood can be set up for the free cyanide titrations, and kept set up. I can also set up a small electrowinning cell in the hood, and just leave it set up.

Do you have your system up and running yet?

 

[anachronism]

I've got multiple variations in development at the moment but since it's now going commercial there's an awful lot of process documentation, paperwork, and environmental permitting happening as we speak.

 

[flyfisherman]

I guess the difficulty of hitting the vein depends on a few factors- if person has thick "rope" veins when it is not very hard thing to do, even if person has to do it him/herself, but if the veins are thin and hard to see when it is alot more difficult. Some amount of experience and practice is nessesary to perform iv shot properly. I use to work in the hospital and done my share of iv starting, shots , ect. Some people have tons of huge veins in their arms which i could hit even with a big gage needle and my eyes closed. When there are others (especially females and the elderly) who have such a tiny hair thin blood vessels that you need all of your skills , a very small gage needle and sometimes many tries to do the job. Another important thing is to make sure that syringe needle is really in the vein before injecting the medication. Which is why it is very good idea to pull the plunger back after sticking needle in the vein, if it is in the vein the dark venous blood will rush in the syringe, if vein is missed there will be no blood. It is also very , very important to have the fair knowledge of veins location on the limbs (usually the arm is preferable site for the hypodermic injections, but leg veins can be injected too if nessesary) to do the injection safely. Only in the movies person would stick huge needle in the someones arm at the 90 degrees angle and avoid causing injures. In real life, you have to first work your fist to swell the veins, when do a palpation with a finger to locate the spot and only after proceed with an injection. I heard the few horror stories of unexperienced personal accidently hitting the nerves with the needle causing very bad trauma. In real bad cases poor patients been loosing almost all use of their limb :shock: