Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Chemical Education and Careers => Topic started by: Appliex on April 21, 2016, 08:10:09 PM
-
Might of got it into my eyes in the titration lab
-
Not sure, but you are advised to IMMEDIATELY wash your eyes using distilled water(not any acid) and a eye washing bottle for several minutes.
Edit: From NaOH MSDS(Material Safety Data Sheet)
Potential Acute Health Effects:
Very hazardous in case of skin contact (corrosive, irritant, permeator), of eye contact (irritant, corrosive), of ingestion,
of inhalation. The amount of tissue damage depends on length of contact. Eye contact can result in corneal damage or
blindness.[...]. Inflammation of the eye is characterized by redness, watering, and itching.
First Aid Measures:
Eye Contact:
Check for and remove any contact lenses. In case of contact, immediately flush eyes with plenty of water for at least 15
minutes. Cold water may be used. Get medical attention immediately.
Of course, this MSDS is talking about pure NaOH, not .1M NaOH, but you may still take a look at the potential hazards of it and follow the first aid instructions.
By the way, didn't you wear safety goggles during the lab? If not, remember to wear it in such labs.
-
Might of got it into my eyes in the titration lab
Lab safety is an important thing for every chemistry student to understand, so I'm glad you've brought this up Appilex:, and thank you to Burner: for taking the lead in explanations. However, there's at least a little bit of Huh? What? in this posting, and I'd feel remiss if I didn't point some things out.
The volume of 10 mL seems weird for starters. That is approx. two US teaspoons of liquid. That quantity doesn't "fly" very far in the air without a serious "catapult". Or if your unprotected face is really close to its dispensing. So that's something that shouldn't happen.
Also, although quite dilute, 0.1 NaOH is still a high pH, and moist tissues (as distinct from say, unbroken skin) don't really hold up well to massive pH change like that. So, the response shouldn't be, "Oh dear, NaOH to the eyeball. How troubling. I must ask online regarding this ..." The response should be more like, "Yeouch, right in the eye. Yeow. That burns." and you go wash it.
So maybe you got a drop, to the corner of the eye and washed it, or something. Still, safety consciousness is still important.
-
The results of damage will appear very soon after exposure to NaOH, so chances are you are OK. You were lucky this time, and it highlights the reason why you must always wear specs in the lab.
We had demonstrators in undergrad labs that would send people home with a grade of 0 before they even got to the bench if they walked through the door without safety specs already on. In the research labs, the head of department would do spot checks, then deactivate access cards and hand out 2 week suspensions to anyone seen not wearing specs. I feel strange and vaguely uncomfortable if I enter a lab without specs on. Walking into a biology lab where people are eating, drinking and doing experiments with no PPE almost gives me vertigo!
-
We had demonstrators in undergrad labs that would send people home with a grade of 0 before they even got to the bench if they walked through the door without safety specs already on. In the research labs, the head of department would do spot checks, then deactivate access cards and hand out 2 week suspensions to anyone seen not wearing specs. I feel strange and vaguely uncomfortable if I enter a lab without specs on. Walking into a biology lab where people are eating, drinking and doing experiments with no PPE almost gives me vertigo!
Wow. Sometimes in our high school the teacher told us that we did not need to wear specs (The lab we are doing at that time involves VO2+ and some other solutions for redox experiments). But I insisted wearing specs in every labs ;D .