Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Ammonia leakage in my lab

BlackDragon2712 - 22-2-2017 at 23:05

Hi guys! I just wanted to report my last experience in my lab that was sadly an accident.

To put you guys a little bit in context, I used to make lots of experiments back in high school and I stored tons of chemicals in my little backyard lab... but things changed when I got into college... I couldn't keep doing experiments because I had no time and also because I had to move to another city due to college as well, so in any case I just had to make chemistry aside for a while. I thought I got rid of the dangerous chemicals (at least most of them it seems).

2 years passed and today during night time I sensed a strong pungent smell that I could identify immediately as ammonia gas, I ran to my lab and when I checked there was a PET bottle of 25% ammonium hydroxide that was leaking like hell (the bottle was very inflated and it had spilled quite a bit over the place)... the smell in that area was very strong and the air around was just unbreathable, I ran for my gloves and brought every chemical that was stored in that area into my backyard, I cleaned everything with vinegar and tomorrow morning I'm going to dispose of the bottle and another bottle I had of nitric acid and formaldehyde that apparently I forgot to get rid of... I am going to check if I missed something else as well.

The bad thing is that I inhaled quite a bit of ammonia gas during cleaning and began feeling a little dizzy and now I am developing a feeling of pressure on my chest that I didn't feel at the moment, I'm going to see how I do as time passes and I'm going to evaluate the possibility of being checked by a doctor tomorrow if symptoms don't go away.

That was my story guys, thanks for giving the time to read my experience and that hopefully this helps others in the community that one should be careful with what you are storing in your lab during very long times, I am just thankful this incident happened while I was at my house. (Again, do not underestimate the capability of any chemical to leave a mess when given the chance ... chemicals love you and hate you in a weird way haha)

P.S.: I believe that the leakage of ammonia in this case had to do with the hot days we are having over here... we are living one of the hottest summers since a long time...


[Edited on 05/12/2013 by BlackDragon2712]

JJay - 22-2-2017 at 23:57

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Ammonia is simply too nasty for conscious, mobile mammals to remain in the vicinity of a spill long enough to sustain toxic effects. It's the odorless, tasteless ones that you need to be concerned about.

j_sum1 - 23-2-2017 at 01:49

I'd get a doc check up if only to establish a baseline for future reference. But I agree that ammonia is an acute risk and you are unlikely to have any long-term effects. Maybe a bit of cellular damage on the lungs but you should recover in a matter of days.

Extractions and Ire on yt has a nice video on storage in PET bottles. Two years to catastrophic failure for 25% ammonia would seem to be about par for the course. Good thing it is pretty volatile and so everything that you haven't neutralised will disperse in a short time. Think of your lab as nicely disinfected and chalk this one up to experience.

Oh, and do wstch the video I mentioned.

[Edited on 23-2-2017 by j_sum1]

Sulaiman - 23-2-2017 at 05:03

Other than for emergency 'squirty' bottles of tap water, I do not use PET for storage bottles at all,
mainly due to my concerns over plasticiser leeching.

HDPE bottles are very good, but I like to use glass for most things
though if Ido ever drop a glass container I may change my mind :P

whilst watching the Extractions&Ire video on PET bottles I did the quiz ... fail.
Another good reason to not use PET :)

My ammonia solution came in a hdpe bottle but I transfered it to glass bottles as they do not bulge ominously ....
the worst for this in my stock is sodium hypochlorite bleach,
every summer I had scarily bulging bottles, until transferred to glass.

I suppose that it is worth remembering that the bottles used for shipping are not always the best for storage.

Side note: I keep my ammonia solution in the same plastic tub as my hydrochloric acid - in the hope that the fumes mutually neutralise each other :)
... ignore the fine white powder on my bulk storage bottles :P
(for me, 'bulk' means >= 1 litre :)

AJKOER - 26-2-2017 at 17:33

For a reason I discussed a while back on SM, and wish not to repeat, please avoid storing CH3OH, NaOCl and aqueous NH3 anywhere near each other.

In the event of a fire, for example, there may get a chance to interact.

JJay - 26-2-2017 at 23:12

Hopefully everything turned out well.

One time I was working in a factory with an ammonia leak. For some reason, our supervisor insisted that we continued working despite the smell; periodically a safety officer would test the air quality and made us evacuate after the threshold reached 18 ppm. It's highly unpleasant even at that concentration, which is considered safe. Of course, afterwards, people were complaining of various toxic effects, a psychosomatic response, no doubt

I've only ever really been around dangerous levels of ammonia once... someone had replaced a piece of stainless steel pipe with galvanized pipe, and it corroded and developed a pinhole, which required taking equipment offline immediately to make repairs. Working around that actually required a respirator, but it would have been impossible to stay in the area without one.

Exposure to ammonia *can* cause some very serious problems if it occurs suddenly, but you would not willingly submit yourself to a high enough concentration to cause injury. It would be like cutting your arm off with a hacksaw. But if you think you should see a doctor, you should see a doctor.

Chemetix - 27-2-2017 at 01:38

I copped a mouthful of ammonia inadvertently with a flask that had quite a high concentration left in it, totally forgot what was in the flask and connected a hose and blew to check the seal. The return from the pressurisation carried enough to strip a few layers from the tip of my tongue and the roof of my mouth. I have an instinct to only blow into a flask or glassware with the mouth only, using the tongue to seal off the back of the throat. So should the worst happen- and in this case it did, no lungs involved.

It took a week to be able to taste salt on the tip of my tongue again. The burn wasn't as bad as the dilute citric soln I made myself use, to neutralise after lots of water initially.
The doctor took a look and went 'Yep caustic burn...no inhalation you'll be fine.'

On a slight tangent about toxic exposures...
You'd probably be horrified at the amount of NO2 created when making joins on a large flask when glassblowing. There is a distinct red tinge to the air in a vessel and glass blowers are constantly blowing into the vessel and having it return back up the blow tube. For me at least this is where the instinct to blow from the mouth comes from.
Out of curiosity and a deep seated desire for self preservation, I rang the poisons information bureau after a particularly heavy day and asked just how much is a toxic dose?
If you don't have any sense of difficulty with breathing, you're fine, was the response. The MSDS is rather conservative at times and I was assured the latency period is 6 hrs at its' worst. A short acute exposure to low levels is apparently without effect. This is not medical advice, every case is taken on it's merits, but my original line that I took regarding the lethality of NO2 was a bit paranoid in retrospect.

Sulaiman - 27-2-2017 at 01:49

When I was about 13. I went with my grandfather to his workplace, a large cold storage warehouse.

He left me to play outside and told me to wait.

After a while I went in to find him, down a path past machinery - that was purging the ammonia coolant !
I just about made it to the end of the corridoor, and found my grahdfather - who was a lot more concerned than me
Not nice !

JJay - 27-2-2017 at 02:14

Quote: Originally posted by Sulaiman  
When I was about 13. I went with my grandfather to his workplace, a large cold storage warehouse.

He left me to play outside and told me to wait.

After a while I went in to find him, down a path past machinery - that was purging the ammonia coolant !
I just about made it to the end of the corridoor, and found my grahdfather - who was a lot more concerned than me
Not nice !


Purging has the hazard of possible liquid ammonia sprays. It's not something to do with bystanders in the area.

Sulaiman - 27-2-2017 at 02:48

If I had been a 'good' boy and done as told, I would have not been in danger ... story of my life !