Worst day I have had in a very long day today.

Was carrying out a STB on 400g of MHRB. Firday I set everything up, mixed the water MHRB and NaOH together in a 5 litre plastic bottle. Then left it for a good 4-5 hours. Did 2 pulls with Naphtha, however was tired from work and decided to get to bed. I thought I would finish the pulls tomorrow, so left the 5 litres of MHRB mixture on top of my bookshelf.

Next morning I woke to find 5 litres of MHRB/NaOH soloution spilt. There was a massive black/red stain on my carpet all around my bookshelf, and MHRB/NaOH goo all over my bookshelf. As I get up and look further I see the majority of my books and CDs (some, I have had since childhood) completely ruined.

SOUND BAD?!? (Don't worry it gets worse)

AS I began to panic, I grabbed as much toilet paper and began mopping up. I spent the first hour mopping the floor with tissue as I was scared it would seep through to the floor below. The NaOH was hurting my hands terribly. However stupidly I carried on. It was only till after the first hour when I went to wash my hands that I realised the damage the NaOH had done. The few minor cuts I all ready had on my hands had became very swollen and full of puss. Also all of the weak skin next to my nails was beginning to peel. But worse of all the NaOH had gotten under my nails and corroded into my nail beds .

I have never heeded any of the warnings about strong Alkali/Acids, as they are usually harmless. However I realise the warnings about NaOH are very TRUE.

I have been clearing up for a good 13 hours (with gloves now) and I am feeling terribly down. So if anyone has any stories about extractions that have gone wrong that you think might cheer me up, Please Post.

Damn, State Of Mind! How did the spill happen? Did the bottle just fall over with the cap off? I am so sorry to hear that. Why didn't you put gloves on when cleaning it all up? Don't you use gloves when extracting anyways (like the sexy yellow ones i'm wearing in my avatar)?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I haven't had any problems like that yet, but it could easily happen to anyone. Any chance you can find the books from your childhood off the internet? Sorry to hear of your misfortune. We live and learn i guess. Peas

I will definitely take a lesson from this for the future.

The NaOH corroded the centre of the plastic water bottle and the solution managed to seep out.

I never normally wear gloves, eye protection or a mask. However after seeing the state of my hands, I will be using all of that protection gear in my next extraction. Your picture is definitely the outfit I should have been wearing.

I didn't have any gloves in the house and I was extremely scared of the MHRB/NaOH going through the floor and onto the ceiling below. After all it was 5 litres of solution. It was only when I thought the ceiling was safe did I venture out to buy gloves.

All cleared up now. Feeling much better now I can sit back and relax.

All ready thinking about my next extraction.

so many lessons to be learned there.. plastic (unless its strong HDPE) and extractions is a no-no. And when cleaning/handling NaOH, always use gloves, and you can always use some vinegar to neutralize spills (your house will stink.... )

sorry it had to happen like this, but im glad you're alright now and learned what you have to. better luck next time!

I'm sorry for all you had to go through. Your lucky though, it could have been worse.

I would like to offer a suggestion. I think it is important to have an emergency action plan.
Ask yourself, What is my procedure if I have a spill? or some other accident. What is my reaction plan, ie Containment of the initial spill. Confinement of the rest of the product. Nuetralization of HAZMAT, ie adding an acid or base to render safe. Clean up of the spilled material, disposal of the clean up materials. After action review. Impliment steps to prevent this from happening in the future. First and foremost PPE or proper protective equipment is a must at all times.


Learn from this, re-group and get after it again. IMO thats all one can do.

Learn and move on.

good luck.

I have decided to write up a personal plan for my next extraction, detailing:
- Safety equipement to be worn. For Example; safety goggles.
- Equipment that I plan to use. (That will be safe) For Example; Glass massonary jar.
- Safe storage places. For Example; Outside.
- Emergency plans. For Example; In the event of an NaOH spill.

Hopefully by writing a detailed plan, it will make me think more about the next extraction and possible dangers that can be avoided. Also it will help me to increase the efficientcy of my extraction tek.

I will make sure to post a pictorial of my next extraction. Thanks for the advice.

I wear a face mask, a shirt, long pants, socks, and shoes. I keep a large jug of 5% vinegar handy as well. I do all of my work with lye directly over/in a sink so that I have access to running water to rinse that stuff off anything that I might get it on. I often don't wear gloves, but feel safe because lots of running water that is less than 1/2 a second away.

I am paranoid of working with plastic jugs and containers especially those with molding seams, so I've invested in pyrex glassware. I have seen too many plastics melt when using various solvents especially acetone (not applicable here), but petroleum solvents are pretty good at degrading some plastics as well. This might be especially true of any jugs that have molding seems that may not have uniformly fused during the molding process. When I store lye mixtures, I put them in glass jars or bottles. Your experience confirms a valid reason for my paranoia!

I'm glad that you only had minor injuries that did not involve your eyes especially, and that you have recovered from them for the most part.

Best of luck to you with your future experiments!

Shit man, that's really unfortunate!

I had a bad day yesterday like this myself.

Was extracting at my friend's house - had got to the siphoning of the solvent layer, and was being totally stupid and leant the bottle at a 45 degree angle - it slipped and the solution went all over the chair, and the floor - a puddle as big as a drainhole cover accumulated...ohhh and then I spilt the receptacle for the naptha - a jar which was next to it, and this made the whole room STINK!!! Got a mad headache clearing it all up, and had to explain to my friend why his chair was ruined.

This was through stupidity, yours was just pretty unfortunate

Hope you didn't waste too much.

Ya Wear SHOES! ... you are so much more likely to spill basic liquid on your feet then to get it anywhere else.

LucidJ wears a Hazmat suit ..... filled with vinegar.

State- that is an absolutely heart-breaking story.... my heart goes out to you brother. that being said, here's my two cents on rules that MUST be followed to ensure that something of this nature never happen again...

1. ALWAYS do your extracting, soaking, mixing, pulls, etc. OVER A SINK. spills and accidents are always just waiting to happen. why not be waiting for them as well?

2. GLOVES, MASK AND GOGGLES. GMG. always. man, just the other day i was pouring my spent mimosa tea down the toilet and a blob hit the water and sent a splatter of lye-toilet water straight up into my eye!! if i hadn't had my goggles on i'd probably be lookin' like an old pirate right now and lamenting the good ol' days when i used to have depth perception. the fact that you started cleaning up something so incredibly caustic with your bare hands...well....i ain't gonna scold ya. you've figured that one out on your own..

3. if i'm gonna leave the job half-done and return to it the next day, the materials ALL go in the sink or the bathtub. i only work with glass and even then i bow down to the incredible dissolving power of lye. i've had large glass gallon jugs crack in a ring around the bottom after too much time containng a super basic solution. the stuff is corrosive beyond belief people. believe it. to put a plastic jug (even HDPE) ON TOP OF A BOOKCASE OVERNIGHT....um....yeah...not so much...

alright, enough of the tough love. i'm sure you are feeling just aweful enough as is. the gold to be found here lies in the greatest of all teachers: experience. i can pretty much bet my entire life's savings that you are going to be an incredibly by-the-book extractor henceforth. it sucks that you had to go through this ordeal, but something tells me that you're gonna be looking a lot like our dear brother DoingKermit from this day forward.

and that's a very good thing.

so- i'll tell you about MY biggest blunder extracting so you know you ain't alone...

when i first discovered d-Limonene, i put a little in a bowl, took it out back, and tried with a torch lighter to set it on fire. i wanted to see how volatile it was in comparison to other solvents. whereas naphtha, xylene and heptane will ignite immediately and burn with abandon, d-Limonene sat there with the flame lickin' it's surface with nothing to say in return.

"WOW!", thought i. "This stuff is as safe as apple juice!"



so i'm in the kitchen preparing an extraction using this 'safest-of-all-solvents'. Uncle Knucles standin' around being the worry-wart that he is.....

now usually, i put the solvent in a lab-quality pyrex flask and then put that i a glass pan of boiling water to heat the solvent. but hey! this stuff is totally non-flammable, right???? so i just put it straight into the glass pan without water as if i was heating up some chocolate milk or something.

it starts to get hot cause i can see the vapors curling off the surface...

Art is giving me all kinds of shit about this being stupid. i'm rolling my eyes at him.

i turn to grab the pan to take it off the flame and the second my hand touches the handle, the entire pan explodes into a giant ball of fire!

fortunately, my sink is directly behind me, opposite the stove. with my bare hand i grab the handle of this fireball and spin around, drop it in the sink and flip up the faucet, sending cold water down over the pan and effectively dousing the fire out.

in that 3 seconds of inferno-fun, i managed to:

a) burn the entire palm of my hand. blistery goodness for about a week.

and

b) my entire kitchen was covered in a fine layer of black soot....from just that brief combustive moment!! i spent AN ENTIRE DAY with a bucket of soapy water and a rag cleaning every wall, cabinet, bookcase, table, light, etc....all of which had this horrible, smeary black powder-goo. curtains were covered too! i can only imagine what i inhaled in those couple minutes i stayed in the kitchen making sure the crisis was fully averted...

in short, i did something incredibly stupid and i most certainly learned from the experience. in truth, the fact that it was SUCH a pain in the rump to clean up my mess made it only that much more powerful and ingrained of a lesson.

the bigger the consequences, the deeper the lesson.

hope that made you feel better my brother. we are all prone to moments of non-mindfulness. i'm glad you're okay (more or less) and i'm sending much love and compassion your way.

...and i'm PRAYING that Art doesn't read this post cuz i know he's gonna have a field day throwing his two cents in on that damn limonene adventure...

with the deepest love and gratitude!!

Wow some of the stories I heard are quite unfortunete, like antrocles said I always do my extractions over a sink to be safe, but other day I was giving my soloution a hot water bath, took it out and without realising the cap was only screwed on 1/2 on i started shaking...... the floor was mostly affected! but not a huge stain

(going to try mixing 1:1 ratio of water and vinegar and try removing)

It almost went all over my decks aswell but luckily had my english flag covering them on top, phhhewwwwww

i work on a big desk. always glass. real glass if i can. that said.

never sit down in the middle of the night to mix a quick jug without putting your pants on... those little spheres or lye are unruly. even just one.