[labnetwork] First aid for Sulphuric acid-IIT Bombay, India

[Satyavalli Paluri]

Hi John,
I am so sorry to hear about your experience. You have been kind enough in
sharing your experience.
Actually, we have received 3 responses from this group giving us
suggestions. All of you have said that we need to douse the area exposed
to sulphuric acid with plenty of water.
We are building up our emergency reponse system.
As of now, we have spill kits for clearing acid, base & solvent spills.
We have calcium gluconate cream available = for first aid for HF.
If you have any more suggestions, please let us know.
This group is a valuable resource to build any nanoelectronics centre.
Thanks so much.

Best regards
Valli


> Valli -
>
> The best practice is to remove as much of the acid as possible, then douse
> the person with very large amounts of water. This is true only for very
> viscous acids with a high heat of dilution, and can cause confusion among
> the people being trained. For this reason, we keep it simple and say to
> douse the person in very large amounts of water - standing in a
> high-flowing safety shower for 15 minutes.
>
> With this acid, it is important to ensure that all areas covered with the
> acid are very well rinsed. I carried scars on the underside of my arms for
> about 30 years because this area was forgotten during my safety-shower
> rinse - I concentrated on the visible areas (of course, I was also going
> into shock at the time and wasn't thinking clearly).
>
> To recap, we train our people to move the person to a safety shower
> immediately and douse with copious amounts of water for a minimum of 15
> minutes. If, however, you are at the scene it is best to do a QUICK
> wipe-down with available wipers and then douse the person in a safety
> shower for a minimum of 15 minutes.
>
> Sulfuric acid is a special case because of the high viscosity and the very
> large heat of dilution. This causes a great deal of heat to be trapped at
> the acid-skin interface, thus boosting the activity of the acid and
> causing more severe burns. Gently rubbing the skin helps break the
> viscosity, but rubbing hard can cause the skin to peel off.
>
> Sorry about the large amount of detail, but I had a personal "close
> encounter" with a large quantity of sulfuric acid as an undergrad. I had
> some pretty serious burns and had long-term scarring. Fortunately, the
> scarring is barely visible at this point - 41 years later.
>
> John
>
> John R. Weaver
> Facility Manager
> Birck Nanotechnology Center
> Purdue University
> (765) 494-5494
> jrweaver at purdue.edu
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu
> [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Satyavalli Paluri
> Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 1:29 AM
> To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
> Cc: vanaparthy at ee.iitb.ac.in; diksha at ee.iitb.ac.in
> Subject: [labnetwork] First aid for Sulphuric acid-IIT Bombay, India
>
>
> Hi everybody,
>
> Writing on behalf of Centre for Excellence in Nanoelectronics, IIT Bombay.
>
> We would like to know what kind of first aid you are providing at your
> labs for Sulphuric acid.
>
> Thanks & regards
> valli
>
>
>
> --
> Assistant Lab Manager,
> CEN, Electrical Engg Dept, Annexe,
> IIT Bombay, Mumbai, Powai- 400076
> Tel No. 02225764435/09820856337(M)
>
>
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>


-- 
Assistant Lab Manager,
CEN, Electrical Engg Dept, Annexe,
IIT Bombay, Mumbai, Powai- 400076
Tel No. 02225764435/09820856337(M)