Chemical Forums

General Forums => Generic Discussion => Topic started by: jm100 on January 21, 2019, 01:03:14 PM

Title: Lead in battery acid
Post by: jm100 on January 21, 2019, 01:03:14 PM
Hi. I am a retired electrical engineer who suffers from OCD. As you may know OCD is when one lets emotional thinking overcome rational thinking. A few days ago. I checked my car battery fluid and decided it was low, so I added some distilled water.  A few hours later my OCD thinking thought maybe I added too much. I then removed about 2 to 4 oz. Because it was raining hard outside, I dumped the small amount on the outside ground thinking it would be safely diluted. I then made the mistake of looking up spilled battery acid on the internet. From that I learned that the main danger in battery acid is the lead content. My rational thinking tells me the amount of lead in the 3 oz is too small to cause a problem. My OCD emotional thinking tells me that I contaminated the whole neighborhood including my vegetable garden. I now realize I should have just bottled the acid and dropped it off at a proper hazard center. Since this is a chemical forum, any thoughts or comments on this would be appreciated.
Title: Re: Lead in battery acid
Post by: chenbeier on January 22, 2019, 06:10:30 AM
The amount is too less. Of course you contaminated somehow your ground, but it will be so low that nobody get harmed.
Title: Re: Lead in battery acid
Post by: Borek on January 22, 2019, 06:39:11 AM
Solubility of the lead in sulfuric acid is very low, there were only traces present in the liquid. No reasons to worry.
Title: Re: Lead in battery acid
Post by: jm100 on January 22, 2019, 05:50:02 PM
Thanks for the comments. This agrees with my rational thinking.