burn the place down.
wow the more I read about the possible health hazards the more you guys are looking like walking dead. Check this:
“Some of our laboratories use hydrofluoric acid (hydrogen fluoride, fluoric acid, HF). An extremely corrosive and irritating acid and a possible mutagen, HF is highly toxic if swallowed, absorbed though the skin, or contacted by the eyes or mucous membranes. Concentrated HF burns covering 2% of the body can be fatal.”
I would never go near that place when those fans are running. Even the titanium dust is toxic.
EDIT: Its a mutagen too, maybe you’ll get cool powers. Like the ability to not walk up a flight of stairs without weezing at the age of 30. That would be so sweet.
Sucks Joe, good luck to your old man.
HF is not what they are pumping out. If it were they’d all be dead. My wife is a chemist, is trained to handle HF, and she’s still scared of it.
Props to you and your dad for actually doing something. Sounds like some toxic shit, I think you could definately get someone to do a air quality evaluation besides someone who works for the DEC. I think that is the key to winning any litigation or argument.
We dealt with it a bit in one of my Chem classes, only the TA was allowed to handle it. Mind you he was wearing goggles, thick rubber gloves, an apron and boots. That didnt stop him from showing us how it could eat through various things in the lab, which I dont think he was supposed to be doing.
no, not entirely. it is dilluted just like mixing bleach with water when you clean a bathroom. you dont use just bleach, you have to dillute it. there is HF in the mixture for sure, it is the concentration that determines how dangerous it is. i think it is less than 5%, thats what most pickling lines use according to some sources my dad checked with
Damn dude good luck with all that. Hopefully something serious comes of it and nothing bad happens with you guys and your shop for blowing the lid off this.
good luck with all of that. post some pics of your dads car!
OH GOD! Your car was horrible. I couldn’t get it all off. Keep in mind that clay is less aggressive than Claymagic blue bar, but I think I went over each panel 4 times and I was making little progress. 
Josh is this by your jobbie job? My orthodontist is John Tibbets (right at the end of that street), I wonder if he’s had any problems with his car’s finish?
I just watched this on the link…what a bunch of bullshit. It seems as though it was one big run around with little to nothing done about the actual problem just red tape and bullshit. I hope this has no ill effects for your fathers business. I hope they do something about this for you guys. Common sense says its bad…
It’s kinda like in the 50s when the govt said DDT was good for you and sprayed a swimming pool full of kids with it as a bug spray
If nothing happens in 6 months, as im sure theyd say these things take time blah blah blah i bet this gets swepped under the carpet with only you and the neighborhood to suffer. Stay on them.
no it is from our shop (we work out of my dads place for the time being), his jobbie job is up where something like this would NEVER fly…being all the money people have in willyville
HF is actually a fairly weak acid. Fluorine is very reactive, yes, but this causes the H-F bond to be very strong, so the dissociation into hydronium and fluoride ions is low. In fact, the Ka for the HF is 7.2x10-4 (in comparison citric acid is 7.5x10-4), which is fairly low.
HF is perceived as being dangerous because its ability to etch glass. This is consequence of what little fluoride and hydrogen that are able to dissociate in aqueous solution is able to break the bond between silicone and oxygen.
HF + water <<–> H+ and F-
SiO2 + 6F- -->H2SiF6 + water
Keep in mind that the it takes 6 fluorine molecules to 1 silicone. Over time this reaction will completely etch class, but only because the equilibrium between hydrofluoric acid and its ions will be shifted (supplying the silicone with a slow but constant supply of fluroide). I’m under the impression that automotive paint is an oxide or contains oxides (possibly somebody here knows this?). This process slow, obviously, and that’s why the cars aren’t just falling apart.
It is toxic because the HF is a very small molecule and capable of entering the body through the skin. It’s very dangerous, but all acids are not created equally and I wanted to dispel that myth.
What a bunch of shit, sounds lik th DEC is getting their pockets lined. Needs to go to the Federal level.
If you could get the tests performed showing xx ppm I could get you the information of who to go to federally with the findings, but that is a load of crap and I doubt localalities will actually care much about it.
im amazed none of the lawyers around here will touch it
Such a shitty situation. Best of luck to your Dad.
That makes me think it is no big deal.
Lawyers are like vultures, if there was anything to this they would be on it.
Edit: Maybe now that it was on the news you will be getting calls from lawyers.
Lawyers are after money man, they get paid if they win the case. They aint gonna win this shit because these ppl have pockets lined everywhere. They will not win, and they will lose the money coming into their pockets presently and in the future.
Theyre not, not jumping on this cause it isnt dangerous. Theyre doing in the best interest of the cash in their pockets.
Lawyers are shady and theyre ALL getting paid
i kind of agree but disagree too.
lawyers get paid regardless. so you make them out to be these ruthless money hungry people, when in essence they are OFFICERS OF THE COURT that are also ethical and law abiding citizens. A good lawyer, in any good law firm is NOT money hungry and will always do what is best for the client. The client may interpret that as “over billing” or as you say “all lawyers are shady” but in reality, if a lawyer was that shady, they would have NO clients and they would lose their license
but then again, its all politics. who you know, conflict of interest so on and so fourth…