5/5/97


Dear MSA Newsgroup:

I felt that this would be a good place to ask this question and

hopefully I will get lots of good advice:

I want to know if anyone knows where and/or how I can puchase

2.5% calcium gluconate gel.

I have purchased hydroflouric acid from Aldrich Chemical Co. and

in their MSDS sheet they recomend this gel as a neutralizing agent if you

should happen to get any HF on your skin. I am quite aware of how

extremely dangerous HF is and I do not want to use it for any of my

etching experiments until I have all my safety precautions taken care

of.

I called Aldrich and they do not sell the calcium gluconate and

they were of absolutely no help in letting me know where I could find it

and they did not give me any readily available alternatives.

Does anybody have any clues or suggestions as to where I can get

this calcium gluconate gel or for that matter, do you have any

helpful suggestions about dealing with this extremely nasty chemical. If

I had my choice I would not use it at all, but I must.

Margaret E. Bisher

NEC Research Institute

4 Independence Way

Princeton, NJ 08540.

Tel.: (609) 951-2629

Fax: (609) 951-2496

e-mail: peggy@research.nj.nec.com


The three readily available chemical catalogs--Alfa Aesar,

Aldrich and Sigma--all have gluconates, and Aldrich and Sigma have

Ca-salts (you could, of course, add CaOH to the acid if need be). I guess that

adding the right amount of H2O will give the 2.5% gel.

Use it in a hood, wear a lab coat and polyethylene gloves,

and use goggles or a face shield. H2F2 is an inhalation hazard, so

make sure your hood has adequate air flow. H2F2 is nasty, but not as nasty

as some of the chemicals in use in organic chem labs. Good luck.

Yours,

Bill Tivol

tivol@localhost


Hope this helps...

Our tube of calcium gluconate came from: Pharmascience

Laboratories, Inc. 175 Rano Street, Buffalo, NY 14207

(800) 207-4477

We also keep zephiran chloride solution on hand to assist in

treatment.

Woody.N.White@mcdermott.com


Hi Peggy,

I do not not if this might help you. I am using HF on a regular

basis. Here in Australia I can get the Calcium Gluconate Gel

from ORION - Laboratories P/L - Briggs Street - Welshpool -

Western Australia.

Hans Brinkies

Senior Lecturer

SWINBURNE, University of Technology

School of Engineering and Science

HAWTHORN - Vic. - 3122 - Australia

hbrinkies@swin.edu.au


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