Using chemicals safely

yes . But bear in mind that the school has some thing in the order of 50 showers ( boarding school) and they are obliged to have there water systems checked and certificated yearly ( think its every 6 months) the concern is legionella for them . all out lets are tested , water temps taken ect ect records kept

Afaik Surrey university require private land lords who rent out to students to have there hot and cold systems checked as well

props they pay the rent on ??

I'll replace that metal hose and head next time it blocks. But think 6 months seems excessive, aren't they just covering their arse sobthey don't get sued. Who would do that on their own shower every six months!
 
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Strong alkalis are just as corrosive as acids.
The pH is an indicator of the corrosive strength. 7.0 being neutral, below 7.0 is acid and above 7.0 is alkali. (0 to 14 are the limits). The further away from the neutral point the more corrosive they will be.
The pH scale is not a linear scale, it is a logarithmic scale. That means that the difference of 1 is like a difference of 10.
If you expressed it as a linear scale, it would be 7.0 for neutral, 8.0 for slightly alkaline, 90 for more alkaline, 1000, 11,000, 120,000, 1,300,000, up to the limit of 14,000,000.
Or 7, 6, 0.5, 0.04, 0.003, 0.0002, 0.00001.
Swimming pool water is usually in the 7.2 to 7.8 range. The natural pH of the eye is about 7.0 to7.3

Eye injury occurs with acids/alkalis outside of the range ≤ 4.0 or ≥ 10.0. That is injury, not just pain!

When diluting acid (or strong alkali) chemists advise "add the acid (alkali) to water, never the other way round!"
You are adding a small amount (at a time) of acid/alkali, to a large amount of water, not adding a small amount of water to a large amount of acid/alkali.
Obviously emergency action/treatment does not allow that rule to be followed.

Getting this stuff in eyes - limescale remover, sodium hypochloride etc. Wouldn't filling a sink with water and putting whole face in be best action.

I guess limescale remover is hydrochloric acid. I heard hydro FLUORIC acid is even more dangerous. It enters bones or something and is really dangerous. Think it's used on bricks.
 
I guess limescale remover is hydrochloric acid.

There are numerous acids available. Citric acid crystals are often used in the kitchen, and my coffee machine uses a lactic acid descaler.

Some acids will remove chrome plating from copper and brass, and are used for that purpose in the refinishing trade. You sometimes see in public WCs where this has happened inadvertently.
 
Getting this stuff in eyes - limescale remover, sodium hypochloride etc. Wouldn't filling a sink with water and putting whole face in be best action.
The medical advise is flush the eyes with 20 litres of water at 7.0pH. Then check the pH of the eyes. If it is not in a normal range, repeat flushing.

That is why emergency eye washing facilities have running water.
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After spilling on garage floor put plastic container in metal bucket with tool to weigh it under.

Back to gloves tend to throw mine on dash board to dry before off but reckon if I've been using chemicals (weed killer) etc then best not to as could breath some in
 
You say replace the metal hose on this cos' of legionnaires. Surely put it in boiling water for 5mins. That would kill anything
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How come you use so much weedkiller? Just wondering.

Look after a block of flats and there's always weeds on the patio, block paving and this pebble thing they have. The weeds in beds I usually just turnover with a hoe and as they're uprooted hopefully they're just die. Weeds everywhere. It's only one day a week. But don't want this stuff affecting my health. Use resolva. At very least dust mask and gloves, don't u think?
 
Look after a block of flats and there's always weeds on the patio, block paving and this pebble thing they have. The weeds in beds I usually just turnover with a hoe and as they're uprooted hopefully they're just die. Weeds everywhere. It's only one day a week. But don't want this stuff affecting my health. Use resolva. At very least dust mask and gloves, don't u think?
Cheers, now makes sense as to why you use it so much. Yes, I'd use a mask and gloves. Spraying gets everywhere.
 
Assuming home use and not on business scale :cautious:
Get a gallon of 'white' (Distilled Malt) Vinegar, half fill kettle bring to near boil - when the chuffing starts - switch kettle off before it ejects hot vinegar from spout, leave for 20 mins redo the heating, pour hot vinegar into suitable container - drop shower head in and leave for half hour or so - Job done - kettle and shower head.
Filter vinegar - allow to cool, replace in container, reuse cleaning purposes only.
Sarson's widely available for around £5 for 5 litre container.
Need stronger ? Citric Acid 1kg - 100% Pure Food Grade, around same price as the vinegar. Use around 5% by weight with (hot) water, buy, for example, from Amazon.
Take further advice regarding disposal.
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Used a limescale remover to unblock shower head used gloves and goggles then squitted the head in a little takeaway dish. Then spilt some on concrete floor and it started fizzing. Quickly threw a bucket of water over it and it stopped.

What's the best way to do this? Just generally with strong chemicals what's the h and s with this stuff? If this stuff limescale remover, hypo, tfr etc Got all those I just listed. If it gets on stuff like gloves, boots etc, does it become harmless after being left on there for hrs or days. Or does it have to be rinsed
Would suggest you read the instructions."strong chemical" is not very informative.gives no idea of ph,acid alkali etc..
 
Went on a job to remove a pump from a yogurt manufacturer once. Young bloke, (early 20's or so), takes us to the pump house and says it's number 3 pump. He then goes off to find some lifting tackle and leaves us to it. Isolate electrics and feed/flow pipes remove the pump complete with motor etc and we are carrying it the steps with a steel bar through the eye bolt. Just as we got to the top the foreman steps through the door and sees us. He literally exploded!
"What the **** do you think you two are doing? Where's your PPE? Why aren't you wearing goggles and a full suit?" etc, etc

Turns out they flush the pumps with Hydrofluoric acid after each batch run and to work on the pumps you have to wear a full HazMat suit which was a rubber/neoprene thing that covered you from head to toe. Also had to have full goggles with a full face visor over them. Not one bit of skin was allowed to be showing. He then made us get kitted out in all this gear before going out the door with the pump in case his boss saw us. Talk about sweating like a pig! We only needed to walk about 10 steps to put it on the wagon! Every step made the suits expel a bit of trapped air so it sounded like we were letting rip with every movement with the consequence that when we came to take it all off it had literally vacuumed itself to every contour of our body so was like trying to peel a layer of thick skin off!

Young lad got a right rollicking in front of us and felt sorry for him but that was there rules so we had to obey them.
BTW, if the acid is not flushed out the system it will corrode stainless steel over time, hence the reason we were removing it to replace the bowl and impeller.
 
Went on a job to remove a pump from a yogurt manufacturer once. Young bloke, (early 20's or so), takes us to the pump house and says it's number 3 pump. He then goes off to find some lifting tackle and leaves us to it. Isolate electrics and feed/flow pipes remove the pump complete with motor etc and we are carrying it the steps with a steel bar through the eye bolt. Just as we got to the top the foreman steps through the door and sees us. He literally exploded!
"What the **** do you think you two are doing? Where's your PPE? Why aren't you wearing goggles and a full suit?" etc, etc

Turns out they flush the pumps with Hydrofluoric acid after each batch run and to work on the pumps you have to wear a full HazMat suit which was a rubber/neoprene thing that covered you from head to toe. Also had to have full goggles with a full face visor over them. Not one bit of skin was allowed to be showing. He then made us get kitted out in all this gear before going out the door with the pump in case his boss saw us. Talk about sweating like a pig! We only needed to walk about 10 steps to put it on the wagon! Every step made the suits expel a bit of trapped air so it sounded like we were letting rip with every movement with the consequence that when we came to take it all off it had literally vacuumed itself to every contour of our body so was like trying to peel a layer of thick skin off!

Young lad got a right rollicking in front of us and felt sorry for him but that was there rules so we had to obey them.
BTW, if the acid is not flushed out the system it will corrode stainless steel over time, hence the reason we were removing it to replace the bowl and impeller.
Reminds me of a job I did many years ago.
Asbestos strippers had removed some insulation from a length of pipe.
The site was in the middle of nowhere, and it was pitch black. Military.
I eventually found it, and was allowed in.

As was / is the usual, the assy strippers had only done half a job, some we ended up grubbing around in the soil floor of this building with our bare hands, getting the rest of the insulation out.


When we'd eventually finished and were going back through the gatehouse, the guy manning it commented that we'd been a long time, and he'd hoped that we hadn't been messing with the soil......
Because they used to manufacture mustard gas in that building, and the whole place was contaminated.
I spent the next week expecting my finger nails to fall out!
 
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