Personal Protective stuff

[oldbilbo]

Speaking with suppliers of antifoul stripper products this past week, I was surprised to hear from each of customers - us - getting burns from the corrosive chemicals in their products. It seems that quite a number of 'us' don't bother with rudimentary self-protection, and get painful, slow-healing wounds - on wrists, necks, noses and even ankles - as a result.

The most common occurence is when one scratches an itch, or wipes away tickly sweat, with a gloved hand that has the chemical on the outside.

One unfortunate got some of the worst stuff right in his eye - then rubbed it! No, he didn't have glasses, goggles or full-face mask on.

So here's a URL to one helpful supplier of PPE whose Bristol-based tech sales guy has been very helpful.

 

[prv]

Must admit I'm often a bit slapdash compared to the official requirements, but of course most of this stuff is intended to protect people who work with substances all day every day as part of their job. I reckon in most cases a few hours' exposure over a lifetime (or a little more for things I use repeatedly like annual antifoul) isn't the end of the world.

I would be careful with something like paint-stripper though

Pete

 

[Seajet]

Oxalic Acid products

As this thread has raised the subject, and it's that time of year, I'll mention my little tale; please excuse me if you've seen this before.

In about 1991ish I decided to paint my grp boat's dark blue topsides, as they'd 'chalked' in the sun.

Preparation was to brush an oxalic acid yacht cleaner on; I saw the instruction 'to de-activate wash off with water,' and being a little cynical and very stupid, took that to mean the stuff was feeble.

The boat was up high on trestles, so the residue ran down my arms when I washed the stuff off...

Within a couple on minutes alarm bells were ringing; my arms hurt !

Very rapidly, it was a lot more than 'hurt' ...

The tender insides of my arms were agony; I rushed to the club loos and ran the cold tap over my forearms, but the pain continued growing; by now I reckoned I was in trouble, and seriously had ideas the stuff was going to burn down to the bone !

I was saved by Pat, a member who'd been a hospital Matron and knew what to do; she had me fill a sink with cold water, and stand with my forearms submerged in it; that's the only way to de-activate this stuff.

I had to stay like that for 40 minutes, but dodged a hospital trip which Pat mentioned aferwards was rather close to happening, even she was bothered by the angry red burns my stupidity had collected.

What's really worrying is I wasn't using eye protection; I'm quite sure i'd have been blinded if this stuff had got into my eye/s.

I've heard modern Oxalic acid products are probably not so strong , and certainly warning labels are a lot better now, but please take care and use skin, and especially eye protection, with this stuff.

That goes for watching out for people walking past and other boats nearby too.

 

[Wansworth]

Reading that I am just going to clean my boat with soap and water,thanks for info.