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From: "Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety" <secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Subject: [DCHAS-L] Hydrofluoric acid
Date: April 1, 2012 10:39:27 AM EDT
Reply-To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Message-ID: <8EB0100E-EF2A-4260-82C9-18BAC336BE07**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org>

From: Ernest Lippert
Subject: Hydrofluoric acid
Date: March 31, 2012 10:30:09 PM EDT

With reference to the Case report on hydrofluoric acid (HF) vapor facial exposure (Journal of Chemical Health & Safety, January/February 2012; Sie´we´, et al., p 7) the first sentence of the Introduction is incorrect. Hydrofluoric acid is not "one of the strongest inorganic acids". It is, in fact, a weak acid. See any good basic chemistry text such as Chemistry, J. McMurry and R.C. Fay, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-737776-2, p. 590-591, 1998.

The sentence would better be stated as "Hydrofluoric acid (HF), although a weak acid, is the most tissue-destructive of the inorganic acids, and …"

Regards,
Ernest L. Lippert

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