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Actually I worked as a synthetic organic chemist in a previous life and I was always much more afraid of the chronic systemic poisons than the things that blew
by cageface 14y ago
Actually I worked as a synthetic organic chemist in a previous life and I was always much more afraid of the chronic systemic poisons than the things that blew up. It's one thing to have something go boom in your fume hood and quite another to get a drop of something on your glove that you don't even notice and then later that week all your hair starts falling out and everything tastes like metal. Organo-selenium, tin and tellurium compounds are particularly nasty.
I'm much happier now with nothing more serious than RSI to worry about.
- andyjohnson0 14y agoa drop of something on your glove that you don't even notice and then later that week all your hair starts falling out Anyone who doubts this can happen should read about Karen Wetterhahn [1], who was killed in 1996 by a couple of drops of dimethylmercury that went through her glove. Another nasty chemical to avoid. [1]http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn
- ramidarigaz 14y agoThat's terrifying...
- Scaevolus 14y agoWhy do some dimethyl compounds penetrate the skin so easily? Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) will even carry various other compounds into the body as well.
- vondur 14y agoMy O-Chem teacher had told my about how people who would dissolve hash oil into DMSO to get it across the skin quickly. Usually on their heads.
- chm 14y agoDMSO ((CH3)2SO) is a polar aprotic molecule, which means it's neutral _and_ polar. It's easier for a small, neutral polar molecule like DMSO to pass through the phospholipid bilayer of your cells than it is for acetate (CH3COO-). The "dimethyl" is not what it's important.
- KaeseEs 14y agoOrganometallic reagents like dimethyl mercury have their own entry in the same series of blog posts as the OP, cf. http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2009/10/23/things_i_wont_work_with_straight_dimethyl_zinc.php http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2009/10/23/things_i_won...
- dsowers 14y agoI was also a synthetic organic chemist (but then dropped out of grad school and used my student loan to teach myself to program). The worst thing was you couldn't control what your lab mates were doing and releasing into the air. And you had no idea if what you were breathing in was something horrible and toxic. God I'm glad I got out of that life. Leaving chemistry for programming was the greatest decision of my life.
- smcl 14y agoI count three comments on this page (so far) from ex-chemists who are glad to have that world behind them. I never knew it was so dangerous!
- skrebbel 14y agoSelection bias. The ones still doing chemistry and not code (i.e. Most of them) aren't on HN but working at a place with a decent safety culture.
- Xcelerate 14y agoHaha.. chemical engineer here... and my work is computational. Although I have used HF to prepare wafers before.
- brazzy 14y agoOr they work with stuff that's neither explosive nor poisonous.
- lostlogin 14y agoYes. My computer has never been unsafe or exploded. Minor fires, electric shocks and toxic smoke yes, and worst of all, cuts from the case while trying to connect cables or replace fans.
- smcl 14y agoPerhaps but the main thing was that within 15 minutes of a story hitting HN three people had mentioned the same reasons for leaving.
- nate 14y agoI used to be a Chemical Engineer. Though I loved the field and science, my job in College as at a uranium processing plant really encouraged me to find work in something else. There were countless really dangerous things, like the hydrofluoric acid they used to eventually fluorinate the uranium. We'd carry gas masks with us constantly. I had to wear an acid proof suit in 105 degree heat. Geiger counter checks in and out the door. I ended up breaking my ankle playing basketball and was forced to stay in a trailer so that my cast wouldn't get contaminated with uranium. Since I couldn't do my regular engineering stuff, I had to program stuff on computers the rest of the summer. Much better :) Changed my life forever.
- jmspring 14y agoChem Eng is one of the harder degrees to actually get, and as fun as computers are, I sometimes contemplate going back and getting the Chem Eng degree (I did Comp Eng/Chemistry double) to play with big chemistry.
- nate 14y agoYeah, it was insanely tough. Countless all nighters, and impossible problems. What I'm really thankful for is how much pursuing the degree taught me about grit and perseverance to study and overcome problems.
- pasbesoin 14y agoI never made it beyond a college lab, but one of the things that worried me most (and that, more generally, continues to worry me in life) was a screw-up or deliberate maliciousness on the part of others in the workspace. I recall one time happening to see two other students applying solutions to the faucets handles of one of the lab desk sinks after a lab, because they thought it would be a funny prank upon whoever next used that sink. Other times, stuff gets spilled by people who don't know better, don't understand the resulting risk, and/or just don't care enough to "do the right thing". And so inadequate cleanup leaves traces for others to stumble through, likely with know knowledge of the problem. In my subsequent life, outside of a lab, I've repeatedly encountered significant health risks created by as well as ignored and/or abandoned by people who "don't know" or "don't care". In broader life, buildings are full of lead, asbestos, and everything else, and putative penalties aside, it's basically "buyer beware" as far as inheriting someone else's problem (inheriting to your own personal liability and financial risk, not to mention possible health risks). As much as "stuff I won't work with", I've developed an attitude of "people I won't work with".
- refurb 14y agoThe stuff you really have to worry about is the stuff you don't know is toxic. There is a chemical compound called MPTP. It's directly toxic to dopamine neurons. They only discovered it when an underground chemist accidentally made it when try to synthesize a synthetic heroin (for lack of a better term). I remember a chemist on the East Coast went back and looked at the structure and realized the stuff he had be working on had that active core. He had worked on it for 5+ years. The problem is, you don't get symptoms of Parkinson's unless you've lost close to 80% of your neurons. I'm sure that East Coast chemist is dam near guaranteed to get Parkinson's at an early age.
- cageface 14y agoIt's true. If you're doing research you're probably working with compounds nobody's ever made before so you can't be sure what their biological properties are. You can often make an educated guess by looking at the structure but you can never be sure.