Quantum - 7-3-2004 at 11:46
Edit:
I now think the gas was SO<sub>2</sub>! I was exposed to it on Sunday and today is Wednesday. I have a cough that is worse in the morning.
I guess that H2SO4 was formed in my lungs. My lungs do not hurt and I feel fine besides the coughing witch does not hurt but is annoying. Are my lungs
being destroyed even now or is this something I will recover from in a few weeks?
Anyone experiance this and if so what happened? Did you recover?
I mixed some H2SO4 with steel wool in a pan and some H2SO4 in a diffrent pan with some Al ground up in my blender. I then left it for about 1.5 hours.
When I came back the garage was filled with a whitish gas and smelled like rotten eggs. I dumped the pans out in the woods and fanned the gas out with
a large card board box as a 'wind maker'.
I feel really really fucking stupid!!! I was trying to make FeSO4 and AlSO4. I have a powerfull blower; should I wait for the gas to leave the garage
through the large car door(overhead door) and then try to blow the rest outside?
God Damn I feel stupid; this gives me a much greater respect for chemicals.
EDIT: I was able to smell it the whole time and I do not feel bad like the MSDS decribes. My main worrys are the people around us may smell it and get
mad.
[Edited on 7-3-2004 by Quantum]
[Edited on 11-3-2004 by Quantum]
thunderfvck - 7-3-2004 at 13:03
ahahah
Nice going. Yeah, I'd let that baby air out a bit and then go in wavering your cardboard box like a madman.
DDTea - 7-3-2004 at 13:49
Sounds like a fun afternoon for Samosa... However, I don't understand how the H2S was formed. Did the steel wool reduce the Sulphuric Acid??
Was any heating involved? Looks like I might have to try this one for kicks.
Quantum - 7-3-2004 at 14:52
Im not 100% sure it was H2S but it smelled like rotten eggs. Hours later I feel fine but have come away with a new respect for chemicals.
BTW My H2SO4+Al to get AlSO4 did not work
KABOOOM(pyrojustforfun) - 7-3-2004 at 22:39
<b>SO<sub>2</sub></b><br><br>when using conc SA the metal reduces the acid to SO2 (maybe via decomposition of
sulfurous acid) it fastly leaves the reaction vessel hence it can not be further reduced ...
Saerynide - 8-3-2004 at 09:28
I remember once when I stuck a stainless steel knife in H2SO4, it also gave off H2S 
Btw, what does SO2 smell like?
Quantum - 8-3-2004 at 13:39
I could be wrong it may be SO<sub>2</sub> It filled the garage with a whitish fumes so it may have been SO<sub>2</sub>. In
fact boiling that same SA made fumes like the ones in my garage so I am now convinced they were SO<sub>2</sub>! I guess I paniced and
imagined the smell of eggs.
thunderfvck - 8-3-2004 at 13:51
Imagined the smell of rotten eggs?
.....
SO2 smells pretty bad also. I can't quite put my finger on the smell of it, but it is familiar.
Mumbles - 8-3-2004 at 15:45
To me it kinda smells like burnt rubber or burnt matches. These are probably a mix of both SO2 and H2S, along with a few other things, but it
destinctly reminds me of it. It any case it's not pleasant.
BromicAcid - 8-3-2004 at 15:55
I once took about some lithium/sulfur dioxide batteries. The thing that I noticed most about the SO2 is the terrible coughs that it illicited from
me. Of couse I'm going to say it smelled like burnt sulfur (duh), but it had that metallic twang, probably just the SO2 reacting with the water
in my mouth. There was also some deeper component to the smell I just can't name, us chemists need to come up with our own terminology for
smells, that sense is by far the most neglected of all in terms of descriptive terminology.
Saerynide - 9-3-2004 at 01:51
Hmmm... Maybe for all the strange times I somehow managed to have H2S resembling gases produced (like the knife in H2SO4), I was really smelling
SO2..... But then, it didnt make me cough or feel any pain.
Is it just me, or does H2S mess with your mind? Im always drawn into a confused state and start trying to figure out if Im imagining it whenever I
smell it
EDIT: I am contemplating opening some lithium batteries to try to obtain some metallic lithium this summer. Sounds kinda suicidal since they can
blow up in your hands, but Im sure it's nothing compared to some things you guys do 
[Edited on 9-3-2004 by Saerynide]
Quantum - 10-3-2004 at 19:07
Bump! My cough is still here(see the first post I edited it)
guaguanco - 10-3-2004 at 21:44
Well, you've inhaled SO2, and you've damaged your lungs slightly. Unless you had a massive exposure (and it doesn't sound like it),
they should recover.
Proteios - 10-3-2004 at 23:11
.....the whitish gas will be a SO2/water mist (very sharp twangy acidic smell)..... and yeah its pretty harmless....
Bear in mind though that H2S (rotten eggs) is VERY toxic... about as toxic, gram for gram, as cyanide. H2S is toxic at levels where it cant be
smelt.....plus you become habitualised to it quite easily (after a while you cant smell it!) and i would give it a wide berth. As for feeling
sick....ive never heard of any long term effect from either of the above.... the effects are accute, but after theyve gone, in a day or 2... youll b
fine!
tom haggen - 11-3-2004 at 17:27
ha ha you goof ball. You should go buy a respirator. I don't understand how you could withstand the imediate respiratory discomfort in a room
full of SOx. Just inhaling a couple of puffs of that stuff drives me nuts. let alone standing in a room full of it trying to air it out with a piece
of card board 
I have found that if you open a couple doors SOx disipates
quite fast. I guess I compare this to my pot smoking days when that skunk smell would linger for hours. Anyway opening a couple of doors should be
plenty to air out your garage. Thats what I do when I fill my garage with SOx. Last time I filled my garage with SOx I went out there with my gas mask
and my flash light turned the lights off in my garage and was playing navy seal.
I totally understand
Al Koholic - 12-3-2004 at 10:51
Hey all...been a while! I also had a nice run in with SO2 on wednesday night. I was outside for the entire hydroxylamine hydrochloride synthesis
which went PERFECTLY on the first try!! That was mildly awesome.
Anyway, my gas generator consisted of sodium bisulfite solution and a dropping funnel of HCl. During clean up I ended up pouring the residue mix into
a metal bucket of ash (my burning barrel) so it would neutralize the mix and reder it harmless to the environment. There was of course some remaining
acid solution in the flask.
I stupidly thought...oh hell, its such a small amount that I can bring this inside and rinse it. I was surprised when right after I had placed it in
the water, I was hit with more SO2 than expected.
I don't know...maybe Im blowing this out of proportion but I literally could not breath more than a couple hundered mls of air at one time. My
trachea basically went into asthma attack mode. This coupled with intense coughing (with production) got me very afraid about asphyxiating right
there on my floor.
I had some albuterol on hand....it didn't do much initially but I eventually made a full recovery in about an hour or two and went to bed. By
far, this was one of the worst chem accidents I've had. There wasn't actually that much SO2 it was just that I had placed my head about 2
feet from the evolving cloud so it must have been fairly concentrated. The house aired out in no time with the doors open.
Take care yall! And watch out for SO2!!! Hahahaha.
axehandle - 12-3-2004 at 11:52
I won't tell how, because it's too embarassing, but I once filled my entire flat with SO2. Apart from some coughing for a couple of hours, I
felt fine afterwards. If it had been SO<b>3</b> on the other hand....
Neither my at the time sleeping girlfriend (who I awoke in panic since she's an asthmatic) nor my pet felt any ill effects afterwards. But then I
was the one running around opening windows, trying to hold my breath, panicking.....
unionised - 13-3-2004 at 07:25
If you got exposed to the gas on Sunday and didn't feel bad on Mon or Tue then any cough on Wednesday is probably just a coincidence.
axehandle - 13-3-2004 at 17:46
Agreed. SO2 isn't really poisonous, only an irritant. (Although I'll probably be lectured by my dear friend Marvin now.)
unionised - 14-3-2004 at 15:22
Irritant in the sense that 1000 ppm will kill people in 10 min and 3000 ppm will do the same but only take 5 min to do it.
Not poisonous in the sense that Sax's dangerous properties of industrial materials gives, as the first sentence of its safety profile of SO2
"A poison gas".
axehandle - 15-3-2004 at 06:10
Interesting. Wonder how I survived.
rikkitikkitavi - 15-3-2004 at 10:22
axehandle, you probably didnt experience more than 10 ppm, 1000 ppm is a LOT!
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/chem_profiles/sulfu...
or a more thourough compilation:
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp116.html
please read up on the toxic chemicals you use...
/rickard
[Edited on 15-3-2004 by rikkitikkitavi]
axehandle - 15-3-2004 at 13:48
Yeah, there was probably not more than 100ppm in the flat, given the amount of FeSO4 I heated. Besides, I seem to have superhuman lungs. But I've
become very careful, I'm even considering buying a military gas mask.