And now for a gruesome and tragic tale: in 1995 a chemist working in Australia was sitting working at a fume cupboard and knocked over a small quantity (100-230 millilitres, about the equivalent of a drinking glass full of water) of hydrofluoric acid onto his lap, splashing both thighs.  He immediately washed his legs with water, jumped into a chlorinated swimming pool at the rear of the workplace, and stayed there for about 40 minutes before an ambulance arrived.  (Should you ever need to know, the proper treatment for hydrofluoric acid exposure is calcium gluconate gel: calcium gluconate reacts very quickly with hydrofluoric acid to form non-toxic calcium fluoride, rendering it harmless.)  Sadly, his condition deteriorated in hospital and, despite having his right leg amputated 7 days after the accident, he died from multi-organ failure 15 days after hydrofluoric acid spill.  Remember, that was a spill the size of a glass of water.

Because hydrofluoric acid interferes with nerve function, burns from it often aren’t painful to begin with. Small accidental exposures can go unnoticed, which means that people don’t seek treatment straight away, making the whole thing worse.  Do a Google image search on ‘hydrogen fluoride burns’ and you’ll see some images that will really turn your stomach.

Hydrofluoric acid is so dangerous, how to choose resistant materials? Vinyl ester resins and unsaturated polyester resin has excellent resistance to a hydrofluoric acid, acid  may has resistance of 40% hydrofluoric. FRP is an important corrosion resistant material. Traditional fiberglass reinforced materials using glass fiber, not resistant to hydrofluoric acid, thus reinforcing material must be selected resistance to hydrofluoric acid polyester fibers, polyester fibers because the fiberglass rarely used, so the corrosion resistance of the various versions of the standard specification, rarely discussed. Hydrofluoric acid is mainly used as plastic tanks, pipes and valves, it is an important material for hydrofluoric acid, nitric acid pickling tank the circulatory system.