On January 3, a heart-wrenching tragedy occurred in Chang'an District, Shijiazhuang, a 10-year-old girl who applied fire alkali to her body and went to play with water, resulting in severe burns on 40% of the body, especially the girl or a disabled child, who was alone at home at the time of the incident and could not call for help.
Fire alkali is the common name of sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda, caustic soda, etc., just listen to these names, you know that it is not a "good class", quite unfriendly to humans.
The chemical formula of fire ash is NaOH, which is a strong base with high corrosive properties. Usually white flakes or granules, soluble in water to form an alkaline solution, can also be dissolved in methanol and ethanol (alcohol).
Even when exposed to air, sodium hydroxide absorbs water vapor in the air, as well as acidic gases such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide.
Sodium hydroxide, dissolved in water or reacting with acid, releases a lot of heat and can even ignite organic solvents.
And the main component of the human body is water, you can imagine how unfriendly fire alkali is to humans, whether it is its solid or solution, once it comes into contact with the skin, it will cause burns, and even deep burns leave permanent scars.
If sodium hydroxide gets into the eye, it is more likely to cause blindness.
The 10-year-old girl in Shijiazhuang is a child with cerebral palsy who still can't speak or walk normally, let alone go to school.
Even more unfortunately, she lives in a single-parent household, and her mother is a waiter in a restaurant with a meager income.
Usually at work, she can only be left alone at home, so monitoring has been specially installed at home.
The woman bought fire alkali in order to dredge the sewers, after going to work at 8 o'clock on the same day, the girl applied fire alkali to the body to play with water, the incident occurred in the monitoring blind area, and the mother returned after work at 11 o'clock to find out.
After the doctor's examination, he found that the girl was severely burned all over her body, covering an area of 40%, and it was really painful not to know how she came to be at that time.
At present, the girl is still in the intensive care unit, has spent the savings of 80,000 yuan of single mothers, the future does not know what to do, the woman said that she regrets leaving caustic soda at home.
Sodium hydroxide is a commonly used chemical used in various industrial processes, such as papermaking, textiles, soaps, detergents, etc., to dissolve grease, oils, fats and protein deposits; sodium hydroxide can also hydrolyze proteins in hair, so it is used to produce home water pipe unclogging agents.
By the end of 2020, the global production capacity of sodium hydroxide has reached 100 million tons, and our exposure to it is also increasing.
Due to the extremely reactive nature of caustic soda, usual contact must be highly valued:
Caustic soda has strong corrosiveness, and rubber gloves should be worn when using to avoid direct contact;
Caustic soda dissolved in water heat may produce water vapor, but also corrosive, so you should wear protective clothing and goggles when working;
If the skin is accidentally splashed with sodium hydroxide, rinse with plenty of water for at least ten to fifteen minutes;
When caustic soda is used as a dredger, it produces a strong irritating gas, so care should be taken to ventilate.
The most important thing is to be sure to put the caustic soda in a place where children can't get it, it is best to buy it as you go, deal with it in time after use, and do not store it!