pulled a good stunt today, decided to clear the drain in my shower, put a couple of tablespoons of drain cleaner in it with a cup of water and let sit for 10 mins before running water down it. In the interim I noticed some mould inside the drain, so decided to get a bottle brush and remove it. Unfortunately a tint bit of the draino must have been embedded in the mould and next thing I knew I felt like a knife had gone into my eye. Instantly flushed copious quantities of water into the eye. Spent the remainder of the afternoon at my eye specialist irrigating the eye after a full on optical inspection. Should all be ok, but at present it is hurting like hell, tearing up and feels like a beach is under my eyelids. Apparently this stuff is worse than acid to get into your eye, the nurse that worked on me said she has had a lot of people with similar issues, in particular tradies that had let their guard down, when cleaning drains etc, not a pleasant experience. Next time I will have safety glasses on. My normal glasses did not protect enough in this case.
Drano is dry 100% sodium hydroxide powder. If you get any chemical in your eye, irrigate continuously with aerated or gentle cool water eg stick your eye under a kitchen tap for a full 20-30 minutes. Giving it a quick wash then going to the doctor, even an eye specialist can do more damage than giving your eye a full 20 min flush. While you are making the appointment and travelling to the specialist, the chemical continues burning and penetrating the eye.
Sodium hydroxide reacts exothermically on contact with water so the burn is not just chemical but heat burn as well. That's the knife like sensation you felt.
As the most experienced designated first aider in my workplace, I've been called to irrigate about a half dozen chemical exposures to the eyes of workers who've had accidents over about the past 20 years. All but one have not been from the work area I supervise.
In every case I had to very strongly encourage them to stay the course and do the full 20 minute flush even though most wanted to give up after 1-2 mins. It's quite an ordeal to irrigate your eyes for 20 minutes. In every case, the doctors they went to see afterwards cleared them of damage and said that immediate irrigation was the best treatment and there was no further treatment or flush required.
There are many household and building chemicals that are extremely dangerous to the eyes. Brick cleaner is hydrochloric acid, bleach is sodium hypochlorite, rust converter is phosphoric acid. Plumbers use concentrated sulphuric acid as drain cleaner and you can buy it commercially. Drano is concentrated sodium hydroxide. I could go on and on. Treatment is the same for all chemicals as well as cold or heat burns for exposure to skin or eyes. 20 mins in room temperature running water.
Safety glasses, the hard plastic wrap arounds, don't protect you from chemical splash. The one accident we had in my area about 10 years ago was a worker using safety glasses. Something she was washing splashed back at her, hit her forehead and ran down into her eyes. Fortunately the wash liquid was very dilute. In my labs now I supply splash goggles and face shields to workers for anything involving chemical liquids.
In the attached picture, the top are splash goggles bottom are safety glasses. Note that splash goggles have a solid rubbery plastic and don't have a plastic mesh of ventilation holes
Woke up this morning to a claggy mess around my eyelids, the eyeball still quite sore and a little gritty, still tears as well, but I think it is slowly repairing. Not a very pleasant experience, I am so glad I drowned my eye in water within 5 secs, hate to think what damage would have been done if I waited any longer.
Buy some baking soda and a couple of litres of white vinegar. That's how I did mine. Put a plate on the drain. It will foam internally and fill up all the empty spaces and come out the other end somewhere. Let it sit for 30min then brush the losened gunk and rinse. Repeat if needed.
Or sodium percarbonate and boiling water. Wife gets 11kg tubs of it, and I steal it as needed.
I won't use drain cleaner for the reason that you were at the doctor, Peter. If something is going to get in my eye, it will be the worst thing I can reach at the time.
That stuff is caustic soda - otherwise known as sodium hydroxide NaOH. Nasty stuff. I have worked in an Alumina plant for many years, and those places are swimming in it. It is needed to dissolve the aluminium oxide out of bauxite. One of my colleagues stepped in a puddle of caustic and it got inside his work boots. All alumina plants have safety showers all over the place and we were told that with ANY spill, rip off all your clothes and hit those showers which also have special eye sprays.
My colleague was off work for 3 months, in great pain because of the exposed nerves the caustic had left, and will be scarred for life. You were lucky with your eyes! Hope you make a full recovery
Woke up this morning to a claggy mess around my eyelids, the eyeball still quite sore and a little gritty, still tears as well, but I think it is slowly repairing. Not a very pleasant experience, I am so glad I drowned my eye in water within 5 secs, hate to think what damage would have been done if I waited any longer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb
Buy some baking soda and a couple of litres of white vinegar. That's how I did mine. ... It will foam internally and fill up all the empty spaces and come out the other end somewhere. Let it sit for 30min then brush the losened gunk and rinse. Repeat if needed.
Hate to disagree with you, Marc, but this is a terrible way for Peter to get the gunk out of his eye and will probably just make things worse.
The pedant I am insists on correcting this, as bleach is typically sodium hypochlorite
Totally agree!
My first job out of high school was working at a cheese factory. Used Sodium Hydroxide as a cleaning agent for washing out the vats. Sodium Hypochlorite as both a final (after cleaning) and pre-rinse sterilising agent.
I say that he absolute best thing you can do if you get any general purpose (around the home) cleaning chemical in your eyes is use milk. As has been mentioned, water dilutes the chemical which is why you should rinse your eyes for a good half an hour. It doesn't wash it away in any reasonable amount of time. Milk on the other hand is completely harmless to get in your eyes but it has fats and proteins. These are highly reactive so what you'll be doing is giving the chemical something OTHER than your eyes to feed on. Instead of just diluting the chemical, it removes it as it will break down the fats and proteins.
Though the following is no help for chemical injuries, it's a highly effective remedy for general "eye gunk".
Due to Thalidomide damage, my left eye doesn't close when I sleep as a consequence I have had countless scratched corneas over the years and a veritable sea of nastiness has collected in my eyes (left). The best way to remove "eye gunk" is to wash your eye gently under warm water, keep your eye closed whilst you are washing the gunk away. It's almost impossible to keep your eyes fully closed, the reflexing of your eyelid will ensure all gunk is washed away.
Yeah, just came back from my eye specialist, it all turned to crap overnight, ended up with a massive dose of conjunctivitis, apparently this can happen when one gets a chemical burn, so now taking ant-inflammatory drops. Apparently the spots that were showing have already healed. This morning there was not a single part of the eye even close to white and under the lids had to be seen/felt to be believed. Within an hour of the first drops, relief and now 4 hrs later, white is appearing and the irritation has gone from a 10/10 to a 4/10.
It is great to have a specialist that goes that extra mile, he opened his clinic so I could see him first thing today.
Hi all
Im a solid plasterer and use lime daily and over the years have had a few lime flashes so I know what you mean by a knife going into your eye.
30 years ago we were all a bit complacent and my boss told me to squint when mixing lime putty and the old trick if you get any in your eyes get ya mate to lick it out and pour olive oil in your eye !!!
I never did this but washed it out with tap water and got back to work.
The next day your eye would be stuck together with gunk.
Only once I went to hospital for the full 20 minute irrigation.
Its a bit like water torture but a relief at the same time having saline IV dripping in your eye for 20 minutes!!
Once I got metal in my eye while grinding with safety glasses on.
When the doctor put dye in my eye and used an eye magnifying machine he was amazed how the my cornea looked all pited like the surface of the moon.
That was years ago and now I ware safety glasses all day and when mixing putty goggles and I still even squint!!!
Ive had lime free eyes for years now but im still so careful because it can still get around glasses.
Good to here that you're healing
Andy
