I know when I was supervising second year Organic Chemistry practicalls, phenol was considered to be one of the nastiest chemicals we had to handle. Skin burns can be very difficult to treat. We often confuse familiarity with safety. Common salt, and petrol (gas) are two common chemicals I use when looking for a benchmark to compare safety information on a chemical with. On this comparison phenol comes out on the nasty side.
There is some fairly comprehensive information here: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/mhmi/mmg115.html I was particularly struck by this piece:Phenol vapor and liquid penetrate the skin with an absorption efficiency approximately equal to the absorption efficiency by inhalation. In one case, death occurred within 30 minutes after skin contact.
All the best and have fun! Laurence Cuffe On 16 Oct 2010, at 00:42, Richard Knoppow wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: <mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, October 15, 2010 3:26 PM Subject: [pure-silver] Re: Citric Acid as stop bathRichard that sounds like the voice of experience there. There would have been days I would have loved to have dealt with the taste of Lifeboy, but that wasn't mom. When she was really mad, she would send you out to get your own switch.Turns out its Lifebouy. I think the carbolic acid in it would have been worse even than the Stodard solvent in Fels Naptha. My mom would not allow Lifebouy in the house, partly because of its odor and partly because it would take your skin right off. It was popular in institutions because of its claimed antiseptic properties. I think the phenol was pretty toxic. We did have Fels Naptha, it was used strictly for difficult laundry. Fels Naptha is still made but no longer has Stodard Solvent in it but Lifebouy with carbolic is evidently still on the market in some parts of the world. The Lifebouy radio commercials featured a vocalized fog horn effect, the key line was "Why have BEEE OHHHH, with the BO vocalized with the fog horn. There was at the time a machine for producing speaking sound effects, I have forotten the name of it. It was used for Bromo-Seltzer commercials with the sound of a locomotive and was the effect used in the movie "Letter to Three Wives". I think it was also used for the Lifebouy commercial but its been so long since I've heard it I can't be sure. Not to be confused with the deoderant that advertised "Don't be half-safe" I can't remember what that was either.-- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles WB6KBL dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ====================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,) and unsubscribe from there.
