I just read and posted in a this thread by Nexus member State Of The Mind. It gave me the idea to start a thread that gave fellow nexians the chance to add their 2cents about safty when handling toxic materials ie-

how they plan on mitigating a spill or an exposure. Do you keep the equipment and meterials close by on stand by?

Members could even post a story here of a close call they had or a spill they had to deal with.

I would like to offer a suggestion or two. 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.

How much do you know about the chem your working with. Do you review MSDS?

How do you clean up of the spilled material.

Disposal of the clean up materials.

After action review of the event. Do you keep a journal?

Impliment steps to prevent this from happening in the future.

First and foremost PPE or proper protective equipment is a must at all times.

I, personally, sincerely feel that no amount of research I could do would be sufficient or worth the risk... and am a sworn proponent of the food-grade-only path.

This is a great thread idea, though.

hazmat? wtf is that?






j/k.

have a base for every acid, and an acid for every base. use cat litter to absorb spills after you neutralize them.

and food-grade-only is another hippy fad. do not fear the tech-grade chems.

www.msds.com

You should always be knowledgeable of the chemicals you are working with. At the very least know what safety precautions you should have in place. As Ice mentioned PPE is probably the most important thing; gloves, goggles, an apron, and respirator are all really important to have. If you work with sodium hydroxide (lye) you should always have an open bottle of vinegar nearby.

Of course using food safe extraction methods as ms_manic suggested is absolutely the safest route especially for those not comfortable working with the toxic nasties used in other teks.

Easy to say with all that chemical engineering experience behind you...

I did a lot of reading on the Nexus regarding the possible ways of extraction, and just when I got to the point where I became reasonably comfortable with the standard A/B process (using lye and petroleum ether) I stumbled upon a post by rivea where he warns about this "buildup of pressure" thing... which no tek ever wrote about.

I feel now that there are still a lot of hidden variables... the teks take for granted a lot of things which are absolutely not evident to a noob like me... I would choose the food-grade route just for this reason alone. Now that jimjamshop sells fumaric acid, BLAB seems like a viable option (still not perfect - lye may also hold its painful secrets - but at least that's not flammable).

These are exactly the kind of posts I'm looking for. I'm sure there are allot of close call experiences out there also,
it would be nice to hear some of those, as well as, it would be nice to hear about some acyual spills or accidents that members have had and how they mitigated the accident and what they could have done to prevent that accident. What do you do differently now since that accident.

Just wondering... would an accident reporting system or sticky be of use, that included a sort of after action report. Oviously we are not involved im major HAZMAT situations. The idea is just to bring safety to the fore front and provide a resource for all to review info on incidents, why they happened, ways to prevent them and steps taken for future extracts so it doesnt happen again. We could list tek steps and procedures, products, materials, and tools that are known to not work or cause probloems.

Thanks for the input.

the "chem engineer" label is just a label on this site. I'm actually a bioanalytical chemist with a strong chem background.

the pressure build-up thing should be common sense. this is an obvious attribute of volatile chemicals.
i understand, some things can slip peoples' minds. i once damaged the housing on my pen meter by trying to take the pH
of xylene. it happens.

the 'food-grade' hype is dubious. afaik, there's no such thing as 'food-grade' acetone. acetone is acetone. it's present as a normal human metabolite (in small concentrations) as one of the ketone bodies. reading the MSDS is an excellent idea for those who are unfamiliar with handling chemicals, but don't be alarmed. those sheets tend to scare people as if they were written by a paranoic. use common safety practices, and you won't have to worry about ingesting harmful chemicals

due to nexus rules, the chems that can be handled wont be too severe. just make sure that fellow nexians are not in a rush. that is the biggest way to make a mistake be it not waiting for a solvent to fully distill/evaporate or dropping a beaker on the ground. solvents can also remain trapped in what seems to be a solid mass.

another biggie, lye etches even borosilicate and thermal shock can make a big mess. also be sure of how clean your solvents are aka naptha manufacturers.

chemical spills sure do suck...keep a big fan around to dissipate smells

from what i've experienced at work, it takes a loooong time before the structural integrity is compromised. storing 6 N NaOH (pH = 15) in borosilicate bottles is routine.
thermal shock is a bitch. a cracked rbf will just get worse, recycle it.

HDPE bottles are suitable too, it you want to be extra safe; good decision.

yup it was thermal shock but it was treated poorly to begin with. cool to know that borosilicate is that resiliant. it was tossed anyways since the cracks leaked... another lesson to work carefully.

This is a nice thread to see Ice House Shaman. However, I do think a lot of emergencies can be avoided by avoiding silly mistakes. For example if you think for one moment that your container is not safe to be left with 5 litres of MHRB/NaOH, do not leave it ontop of your bookshelf overnight.

I think that double checking everything and having good knowledge of the tek/chemicals you are using will ensure that most catastophies are prevented.

PPE sure is important.

SWIM blew up his sep funnel during his very first A/B by capping it during the A/B reaction. Very lucky he took a few steps away from it before it exploded. Sent broken glass, naptha, and black mimosa soup all over the dining room table and kitchen. Entire house smelled like gasoline and he had to replace all his bath towels because he had ZERO backup plan.

So yeah, definitely think everything through before starting on a tek. No muti-tasking or stoned chemistry allowed.... SWIM learned the hard way.

BTW, HAZMAT = Hazardous Materials

Thanks allot for the replies, I'm diggin it, this is exactly what I was looking for.

I am a firm believer in the 7P system

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Production

Murphy strikes at the most inopportune moment, when we least expect it.

IMO murphy usually strikes when he is invited, ie when we creat prime conditions for an accident.

My first experience and only experience with chemistry has been related to spice extractions. I started off pretty clumsy and made allot of stupid mistakes. I did allot of things that could have been disasterous and I just got lucky.

Now that I have a couple of extractions under my belt I am beginning to learn the reasons for being exact, investing in proper tools, working with proper weights and measures.

I'm still learning and I'm still making mistakes, But , I'm learning.

I wish I had a thread like this to read when I first started reading these boards.

Thanks for the contributions.

^^Maybe I should change my name to, "I AM HAZMAT"?

I only know enough to know that I would be the first Nexus casualty if "real chemicals" and I were to ever get involved. To illustrate:

For purposes of my first extraction ever, the first day my limonene came in the mail, I tore apart the box with rampant enthusiasm. I grabbed the plastic jug, twisted off the cap--and--OOOOOPS! Limonene ALL over the counter, the same counter that was used to prepare an elementary school child's packed lunches, and all over my arms. My first thought?

"THANK GOD IT WASN'T LYE."

My second thought?

"Mmm... oranges! <3 <3 <3"

^^Precisely while food-grade-proofing is quite important for someone like me. Setting and living situation is something to consider, too. I have such an incredible relationship with brewing Ayahuasca, because it's comprehensible to me (so I can relate to the art of the extraction process; I only fail to relate to the technical process). But for those who feel extremely drawn to the act of smoking DMT, and do not share that same outstanding technical brilliance that many here seem to share--this is my experience--honestly, the best prevention is NEVER venturing into catastrophic territory the first place. Avoid disaster by using things that are disasterless. Why use something with a risk when there is an alternative with no risk that does the exact same thing? (Unless you prefer growing crystals to working with psychoactive orange goo...) Are you living with children? Pets?

OOOOPS, I blew up the house.
OOOOPS, I have no skin.
OOOOPS, there's glass in my eye.

Just. Not. Worth. It! I was also a terrible cook, for what it's worth. Oh, chemistry.

Much gratitude to the brilliant science minds that made my orange flower pansy operation possible.

One day, I hope to smoke enough DMT to blow open the mathematical doors in my mind that slammed shut in early childhood... and devise some crazy world-saving DMT extraction from dark matter using free energy technique that would impress even the likes of Benzyme.

Let my voice be a guiding light to every good-spirited math dunce lurking these forums, too ashamed to speak by his algebraic disability.

...Um. Okay. It might just be me. Well, then.

It is SO important to be well-educated and cause no harm to oneself, others, or environment! But what are the advantages of placing oneself in harm's path to begin with... unless, perhaps, a person has sufficient education, materials, purpose, and intention to answer that question sufficiently?

limolene's expensive and lye isn't, and I've had orgo 1 and 2.

Whatever works for you though. Though I have to recommend you crack open chemistry and calculus textbooks, that stuff is as mind blowing as dmt hypserspace imho.

Calling chemicals 'food-grade' I think detracts from the fact that one still needs to exercise planning and care in their use in extraction procedures. Just because d-limeoline smells nice like oranges does not mask the fact that it is still a non-chlorinated organic solvent with a flash point > 140 deg C.

i.e.: I would not drink it any more readily than I would drink naptha or acetone. Its MSDS states "Harmful if ingested, gastrointestinal irritation. Abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, dizziness" so even it requires that caution be taken.

Working with chemicals even if 'food safe' is like working with anything else that can possibly injure you. If you are not careful with kitchen knives, you can do a hell of a job lacerating yourself.

I say protect yourself regardless of the chemicals used.

You can still do dry-teks and use naptha if you're worried about the expense - false dilemma right there.