5 ms·
No mention of handling issues around liters of irritating acid...getting stung by ants is bad enough
by nimish 9y ago
No mention of handling issues around liters of irritating acid...getting stung by ants is bad enough
- alkonaut 9y agoHow strong an acid is this? If it's not extreme then handling shouldn't be much worse than petroleum fuels which are mildly irritating, toxic, and flammable. We have built infrastructure to let people handle those products (rather) safely.
- nimish 9y agoHave you been stung by an ant or stinging nettle? It's not fun.
- alkonaut 9y agoSure, but I can imagine ants that injected gasoline or vinegar (for example) would be unpleasant too - while having those substances on your skin is fine. Formic acid is a relatively weak acid (if I can read wikipedia correctly), much more like acetic acid than sulphuric acid.
- nikdaheratik 9y agoYep, from what I can tell it's about 10x stronger than vinegar at the same concentration, but about 1/7 the strength of citric acid (lemon juice). It's often use in wart treatments so it's not too bad in small concentrations. However, it's flammable and can cause acid burns in the concentrations they're talking about in the article.
- petre 9y agoIt's a weak acid similar to acetic acid (vinegar contains 9% acetic acid) but weaker. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formic_acid#Safety https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formic_acid#Safety
- twic 9y agoOn the other hand, it's 100%, not 9%. I'd say it's about as nasty as anything you're likely to come across at home (bleach, white spirit, etc), but small potatoes as an industrial chemical: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ipcsneng/neng0485.html https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ipcsneng/neng0485.html
- petre 9y agoHmm. I got it all wrong comparing the acidity figures. The Wikipedia article states "Formic acid is about 10x stronger than acetic acid.".