5 ms·

S04E20 of ER had a patient die due to contact exposure to hydrofluroic acid, I had to look it up after reading this comment to make sure I got it right - don’t

S04E20 of ER had a patient die due to contact exposure to hydrofluroic acid, I had to look it up after reading this comment to make sure I got it right - don’t know why but it’s one of the most memorable to me. Seriously, don’t mess around with this shit - even IF you notice exposure (hard, because you may not even notice until it’s too late) there’s a good chance it’s already a done deal.

wnkrshm 7y ago
I'm glad that I don't have to work with the stuff after reading up on emergency medical procedures. I once found a very long list of what to do by an expert MD and it's really not pretty. I'm not an expert in either chemistry or medicine but what I gathered was: The medical team needs to try and offset what the fluor is doing to the balance of ions in your body, to keep your cells alive. HF will diffuse within pretty much all of your tissues (including diffusing into bone like it was a sponge iirc) and a medical team will check your blood ion levels every five minutes or so while sticking you with CaCl (iirc) injections along the path the HF may diffuse through your body (if you're lucky enough to have hit an extremety like a hand). While the HF is diffusing, you will not feel anything. They cannot just pump you full of the proper ions to counteract the effects of the fluor and maybe bind it because that would kill you as well, they have to hit the right elevated concentration locally to offset what the fluor is doing. Edit: I've read up on it again and some of the things I wrote aren't right and I misremembered, like HF exposure being painless. At first it may be so but once the calcium levels drop, exposure is connected to extreme, "deep" pain. Treatment guides stress to not admister aneasthetics because the pain is the best indicator for successful treatment. Also, Calcium Gluconate is recommended, not Calcium Chloride. This [0] is a detailed source I found (PDF). [0] (PDF) https://ehs.unc.edu/files/2015/09/hfaexposure.pdf https://ehs.unc.edu/files/2015/09/hfaexposure.pdf
glandium 7y ago
Hydrofluoric acid is also what they use to dispose of bodies in Breaking Bad, although they did exagerate the effectiveness.
- Accujack 7y ago
  Yeah. A digester tank would probably be more effective... essentially a "hot tank" like used to be used to clean engine blocks for rebuilding, except for dissolving organics. They're used at a local University for disposing of cattle remains from the veterinary school... takes several hours, but then the waste liquid is diluted and sent down the drain.
  - lostlogin 7y ago
    Why not bury or cremate?

wnkrshm 7y ago

I'm glad that I don't have to work with the stuff after reading up on emergency medical procedures. I once found a very long list of what to do by an expert MD and it's really not pretty. I'm not an expert in either chemistry or medicine but what I gathered was: The medical team needs to try and offset what the fluor is doing to the balance of ions in your body, to keep your cells alive. HF will diffuse within pretty much all of your tissues (including diffusing into bone like it was a sponge iirc) and a medical team will check your blood ion levels every five minutes or so while sticking you with CaCl (iirc) injections along the path the HF may diffuse through your body (if you're lucky enough to have hit an extremety like a hand). While the HF is diffusing, you will not feel anything. They cannot just pump you full of the proper ions to counteract the effects of the fluor and maybe bind it because that would kill you as well, they have to hit the right elevated concentration locally to offset what the fluor is doing. Edit: I've read up on it again and some of the things I wrote aren't right and I misremembered, like HF exposure being painless. At first it may be so but once the calcium levels drop, exposure is connected to extreme, "deep" pain. Treatment guides stress to not admister aneasthetics because the pain is the best indicator for successful treatment. Also, Calcium Gluconate is recommended, not Calcium Chloride. This [0] is a detailed source I found (PDF). [0] (PDF) https://ehs.unc.edu/files/2015/09/hfaexposure.pdf https://ehs.unc.edu/files/2015/09/hfaexposure.pdf

glandium 7y ago

Hydrofluoric acid is also what they use to dispose of bodies in Breaking Bad, although they did exagerate the effectiveness.

Accujack 7y ago
Yeah. A digester tank would probably be more effective... essentially a "hot tank" like used to be used to clean engine blocks for rebuilding, except for dissolving organics. They're used at a local University for disposing of cattle remains from the veterinary school... takes several hours, but then the waste liquid is diluted and sent down the drain.
- lostlogin 7y ago
  Why not bury or cremate?