Quote:
Originally Posted by Stardrifter_WA
Lewis, you should seek medical advice immediately, or at the very least ring the Poisons advice section in your telephone emergency numbers, for advice.
I am surprised that, knowing the chemical reactions of these products so well, that many people fail to consider getting the right respirator mask and the correct filter. But to be fair, I suppose having worked in the safety industry, as a PPE and signage auditor, I know about such things.
This is a cautionary tale for others:
When I recently bought Hydrochloric Acid from Bunnings, I asked for the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). To my utter surprise they could not easily produce one on request, and by law, they have to have an MSDS readily available for anything that contains any type of chemical. And this goes for your local supermarkets as well. So many do not even know what an MSDS is.
I told Bunnings that if they cannot produce one I will have to report this to Worksafe, as is required under WA legislation under the General Duty of Care. They eventually did produce an MSDS which they, apparently had to be emailed to them, whilst I waited about 20 minutes.
The MSDS should ALWAYS be consulted when using hazardous chemicals, as it gives all the details needed to understand how to use these chemicals SAFELY and the hazards associated with using such chemicals. ALWAYS refer to these MSDS and following the rquirements for their use.
The MSDS and its recommendations are for YOUR personal safety, as this incident with Lewis clearly demonstrates, and should ALWAYS be consulted before use.
Hope you are OK Lewis.
Cheers Peter
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Sorry to pick Peter, they're just called SDS now. They are available for all products sold in Australian retail outlets from the manufacturer, usually their website, so a couple of minutes on the internet should be enough to find one.
But ...
The information available in one of these things is usually too much for laypeople. For your reading pleasure I've attached the one for HCl from the Diggers HCl. There's a lot of information in it, just mostly useless.
People are FAR better off just reading the bottle, there are clear instructions for the type of PPE that people should use.
As for this particular case, I'm pretty sure that Lewis has generated Chlorine, probably some left over hypochlorite from some bleach in the grout, add HCl, hey presto, Chlorine gas.
Luckily the effects of Chlorine gas exposure are mostly repairable, unless you get a really big lung full, in which a pulmonary oedema is a distinct possibility.
I'm not a fan of (M)SDSs I use some very nasty chemicals every work day, the SDS are in the lab for legal compliance, no one looks at them unless we are checking to see if they are in date.
Cheers
Stuart