One second glue bad for health?

You will be OK from the super glue, but it's curtains for Moh because he inhaled cyanide from burning plastic. J/K

Hydrogen Cyanide Recognized As Toxic Threat To Firefighters

Mohrenberg said:

There is a certain type of plastic which is very nasty when it hits the soldering iron.
I remember when the fumes hit me in the face, it burnt my nose so horribly bad, and i thought i was going to pass out. I had to sit down until the dizziness went away. Not sure what's in that stuff but it wasn't good.

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I saw a magnesium tranny blow up when the firefighters hit it with water.
Made for a SWEEET video...
Got laid, she made me dinner, got laid after dinner, we watched a movie, then on the way home I got to see automotive fireworks?
On that day, my life was complete....

Uhm ..... first of all, it's ofcourse dangerous, cause it's a cyanoacrylic acid ..... second, about cotton and superglue, no, it's not the cotton that react with it ..... i use pure cotton layers as "filler" with cyanoacrylate glue (pat. pending ), and never had any reaction.

It's different if the fabric contains synthetic fibers, especially acrylic ones, cause it violently react with this part, and yes, a drop of cyanoacrylate on a piece of acrylic fabric can also set it on fire, i already tried also this ..... but NOT with pure cotton.



EDIT (just for the fun ):

aryntha said:

..... you can't make data where there isn't any .....

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Yes, you can ..... in graphic, it's called "interpolation" .....

The denim DID get smokin' hot and released fumes, there might be other materials in it though.
For the record, I have used good quality cyanoacrylate glue with good old fashioned baking powder (the non fizzing in water one) the resulting substance is solid as a rock, can be drilled and even tapped.
I use it for field repairs on the nitromethane RC trucks sometimes.
Works well for stripped threads in plastic and I have used it in aluminum the same way (low stress application in that instance though so I don't know how well it would stand up to a lot of torque).
It's a handy thing to keep in the toolbox but using it to patch cut skin back together usually gives you some monster infections.
Needle and thread have always given the best results for that and if you have a steady hand and a sharp (curved 3 edged) needle you usually don't scar too bad.
*Although sewing up the back of my dominant hand was troublesome, the cashier @ petsmart looked a little queasy* :crackup:

millirad said:

You will be OK from the super glue, but it's curtains for Moh because he inhaled cyanide from burning plastic. J/K

Hydrogen Cyanide Recognized As Toxic Threat To Firefighters

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I was wondering about this, cyanoacrylate does have a cyanide group which could in theory pop off and make HCN gas when burned. Though in the quantities of super glue used it probably wouldn't cause death, though its sure not great for you.

HIMNL9 said:

second, about cotton and superglue, no, it's not the cotton that react with it ..... i use pure cotton layers as "filler" with cyanoacrylate glue (pat. pending ), and never had any reaction.

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Err.... Are you sure? The MSDS sheets say otherwise...

http://www.accumetricinc.com/boss/MSDS/BOSS181.pdf

Page 3, "Reactivity data", second paragraph.

ETHYL CYANOACRYLATE - CAUTION! CONTACT WITH COTTON OR WOOL MAY
RESULT IN A STRONG EXOTHERMIC REACTION WITH CAN CAUSE BURNS OR FIRE.
READ THIS MSDS CAREFULLY BEFORE HANDLING PRODUCT.

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As far as actual cyanide breakoff, it seems that doesn't happen. MSDS says the only health risk is allergy-like reactions as an irritant.

The dangerous exothermic reaction is also detailed here in this DoD investigatory letter:

1993 Cyanoacrylate Safety Letter

Paragraph 5:

However, reported injuries involving cyanoacrylate fuming occur from burns due to inadvertent touching of hot metal surfaces the glue is sometimes heated on, or from burns (normally first or second degree) due to the exothermic reaction of cyanoacrylate with cotton clothing (compounded by the adhesion of the hot, glue impregnated cloth to underlying skin).

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Not trying to call you out HIML9, or anything; just don't want to give information that isn't correct here.. I'm pretty sure the exothermic reaction with cotton (including pure cotton buds/balls/swabs/puffs) is very well known.

Additionally though, because of its composition, it's not a cyanide danger (any more than H2O is a hydrogen danger.)

But the cotton thing, I'm pretty sure of.

Cyanoacrylate and cotton react because cotton is made up primarily of cellulose. As you can see from the structure below, cellulose has many hydroxyl (OH-) groups which initiate the polymerisation reaction. Only a trace amount is needed for the reaction to occur. The reaction is extremely exothermic and more often than not, you'll find that the cotton-wool will catch fire.

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I suppose it is possible that these guys are all misinformed, (I do understand that incorrect data has been widespread before in similar situations) - but there seems to be a lot of stuff out there pointing to the phenomenon.

I'm guessing an experiment is in order?

Wow, thanks for the info!
The exothermic reaction might have something to do with the fibers tightly woven, the capillary action and then the fusion of the glue molecules bridging over a large area without much room between the fibers.
Dunno, just a theory.

*edit* Put a drop of glue on a few layers of denim and hit it with a hammer.... Might essplode! :crackup:

Well, i really don't know where they got those info on MSDS, but i'm using industrial superglue Cyanoacrylic-based with cotton fabric soaked parts for make "filling" and improve the resistance of the parts, and none of them developed any heat or fumes ..... but i checked one thing, and noticed that my loctite cyanoacrylate glues are NOT stated as "one-second" or "superfast" glues (in fact, they need 1 to 5 minutes for harden, they harden instantly only if i use the activator, and this is that what permit me to use them soaking cotton fabric) ..... maybe the "one second" cyanoacrylate glues have a different formulation or different percentages of cyanoacrylic acid, so they also react with cotton ? ..... i just never had a similar reaction in years of use (for the counterpart, i set on fire a piece of acrylic fabric, once, with one of them ..... a drop on the fabric, and in 3 seconds there was a black burned spot smoking as crazy, that then took fire )

Anyway i can't confirm the differences in the glues, cause don't know where to get their chemical formulations (i doubt that, if i ask them, loctite will disclose their recipes to me ) ..... but yes, it may be due to some different substances ..... this doubt also is confirmed from another thing ..... someone said, and i read somewhere, that time by time those glues are used as "emergency points" for cuts ..... i only know that once i got a small drop in a cut, and it was burning as an incandescent needle ..... i doubt this can be common, for glues used for surgery, so wondering what exactly can be the difference, considering that i'm sure that also my glues are cyanoacrylate-based

No, you are right.
Any "crazing" glue I have tried burns like hell.
They also seal in bacteria, I NEVER get infections but if I use cyanoacrylate glues an injured area goes red in hours.
It's great if you are bleeding to death but honestly a bic and a pocket knife will do better just cauterizing in an emergency.

I got curious and tried the glue + q-tip thing. Nothing exciting happened.
The superglue they use medically is a "special" formula.
2-Octyl Cyanoacrylate Wound Adhesives: eMedicine Clinical Procedures
Cyanoacrylate surgical glue as an alternative to s... [J Surg Res. 2010] - PubMed result