[MirandaMLT]

Hello and thank you for having this forum.

I can not seem to find any definitive information about clean up procedures for these two chemicals.  Assuming they were spilled outside of a fume hood, would a respirator be needed?  I know that in labeling a containter of diluted acid, you have to use the NFPA diamond information for the concentrated substance.  Does this also apply to clean up?  If we dropped a large glass jar (1 liter) of reagent grade (38%) HCL and it broke, we would be evacuating our laboratory.  If it were only say, 250 mL of 6N (19%) HcL how volatile would that really be?

[Nicolas88]

Since it was spilled out side the fume hood then you will need (in all concentrations listed above) to cover your nose cause its harmful to smell ,then clean it using lots of water ( to dilute it )..

[Fluorine]

Nicolas why not just neutralize it with NaOH instead of diluting it with water?

[rjb]

Miranda,

Most sources are deliberately vague around the need for respirators in spillage situations. In theory, respirators really need only be worn if the airborne exposure limit of your chemical is exceeded, which is something virtually impossible to ascertain immediately after a breakage. For this reason, in theory at least, you would need to wear a respirator during clean-up.

Common sense and pragmatism would tend to indicate an alternative course of action which is (in the cases of 6N HCL and EtCOOH)... forget the respirator, get everyone away from the spillage, open the windows and get the stuff neutralised with Soda Ash/Lime, absorb with vermiculite, commercial spillage kit or similar... Job done...

Kind Regards

R
 

 

[Nicolas88]

Nicolas why not just neutralize it with NaOH instead of diluting it with water?

I don't think its necessary , once i spilled 10M HCl and i just cleaned it using water and everything went fine

[crosemeyer]

DO NOT use a strong base to neutralize an acid spill (or vice-versa).  Use baking soda.