Lately in the
annual reports of the Union of Chemical Industry for 1908 several cases
of poisoning are described which were caused by sulphuric acid. A worker
took a sample out of a vessel of sulphuric acid containing sulphuretted
hydrogen gas. Instead of using the prescribed cock, he opened the
man-hole and put his head inside, inhaling concentrated sulphuretted
hydrogen gas. He became immediately unconscious and died. Through
ignorance no use was made of the oxygen apparatus.
Another fatality occurred through a foreman directing some workers,
contrary to the regulations against accidents from nitrous gases, to
clean a vessel containing nitric and sulphuric acids. They wore no air
helmets: one died shortly after from inhalation of nitrous fumes. Under
certain circumstances even the breaking of carboys filled with sulphuric
acid may give rise to severe poisoning through inhalation of acid gases.
Thus a fatality[1] occurred to the occupier of a workroom next some
premises in which sulphuric acid carboys had been accidentally broken.
Severe symptoms developed the same night, and he succumbed the next
morning in spite of treatment with oxygen. A worker in the factory became
seriously ill but recovered.
A similar case is described[2] in a factory where concentrated sulphuric
acid had been spilt. The workers covered the spot with shavings,
which resulted in strong development of sulphur dioxide, leading to
unconsciousness in one worker.
The frequent observation of the injurious effect of acid gases on the
teeth of workers requires mention; inflammation of the eyes of workers
also is attributed to the effects of sulphuric acid.
Leymann’s statistics show _corrosions and burns_ among sulphuric acid
workers to be more than five times that among other classes. Such burns
happen most frequently from carelessness. Thus, in the reports of the
Union of Chemical Industry for 1901, three severe accidents are mentioned
which occurred from use of compressed air. In two cases the acid had been
introduced before the compressed air had been turned off; in the third
the worker let the compressed air into the vessel and forgot to turn off
the inlet valve. Although the valves were provided with lead guards,
some of the acid squirted into the worker’s face. In one case complete
blindness followed, in a second blindness in one eye, and in the third
blindness in one eye and impaired vision of the other.
Besides these dangers from the raw material, bye-products, and products
of the manufacture, _lead poisoning_ has been reported in the erection
and repair of lead chambers. The lead burners generally use a hydrogen
flame; the necessary hydrogen is usually made from zinc and sulphuric
acid and is led to the iron by a tube. If the zinc and sulphuric acid
contain arsenic, the very dangerous arseniuretted hydrogen is formed,
which escapes through leakages in the piping, or is burnt in the flame to
arsenious acid.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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