Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Chemical Education and Careers => Topic started by: vRossss on November 01, 2017, 12:53:10 PM
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Today at work there was a spillage of Dichloromethane, which we use to clean our silvewear products. The smell was very strong and overwhelming and could be smelt from outside of the room it was split in. I walked through the room to open fire doors at the other side and again later to assess how the cleanup was going. I inhaled some of this chemical and could feel a burning sensation in my throat, but I didn’t stay in the room for long and stayed away for rest of the day.
It has been about 8 hours since this incident and I didn’t have any problems all day apart from coughing after leaving the room. Now I’m at home and my chest hurts, like a stabbing pain and I feel a bit disorientated but I’m not sure if I am just feeling these effects due to me stressing. Should I be worried? I have read up on methanol poisoning and read somewhere I should drink some alcohol to combat the methanol so I’ve just had a beer haha. Please can someone put my mind to rest
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Dichloromethane and methanol are two completely different compounds, and as far as I am aware methanol is not between dichloromethane metabolites, so ethanol is not going to be helpful (other than as a stress reliever).
If you have any doubts, please seek medical attention.
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and I feel a bit disorientated but I’m not sure if I am just feeling these effects due to me stressing. Should I be worried? I have read up on methanol poisoning and read somewhere I should drink some alcohol to combat the methanol so I’ve just had a beer haha. Please can someone put my mind to rest
Hopefully the beer would have calmed you. :-) Again - as Borek said - always better safe than sorry, so do get checked if you feel you need to. Personally I think you are probably right about just stressing out.
- Once I pricked my finger with a syringe which contained acetone. There was hardly any blood at all and I am certain no acetone was injected into me. However, even though I knew I had not injected acetone, I started to get light headed and went into some kind of shock. I had to sit down and really try to tell my self that there was no way that I could have injected any of the acetone into me with such a small prick of the needle. I worked out that I was just having some kind of panic attack bought on from allowing my mind to explore what the effects of injecting acetone could have been. Even if some had gone into my blood then it would have been hardly any. I think the pain of the stab mixed with what I imagined the effects of being injected with acetone would be put me into some state of shock. It passed fairly soon and I was fine.... but even reasoning to myself that I must be experiencing shock I still could not shake the light headedness and fear I felt at the time.
How are you now? :)
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Sounds like you are having a panic attack. The youtuber Cody'sLab accidentally took a wiff of pure, undiluted chlorine, and he is still fine. The MSDS of DCM says that an amount like that should have only caused respiratory tract irritation. However, DCM is a known carcinogen, so it's best to not breathe in the vapors. May I ask if that room had any ventilation such as an industrial fan? Again, I'm just a random person on the internet, if you are really worried you should ask a doctor.
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DCM is a known carcinogen.
No it is NOT; it is classified as "suspected of causing cancer" which is different. There is not enough good data to say one way or the other so they take the cautious approach and say it might do.
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the other day someone spilled 5L of chloroform on the basement stairs, It could be smelt on the 2nd floor.