Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Olive Oil

Panache - 27-2-2008 at 15:56

I just received a MSDS with a 20L drum of food grade olive oil

'Ingestion: If ingested seek medical attention'

WTF do they suppose one would do with it. Are MSDS's good for anything anymore?

microcosmicus - 27-2-2008 at 16:44

They also have an MSDS for water and sugar --- those things need to be taken
with a grain of salt (which also comes with a MSDS!).

http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/w0600.htm
http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/s7394.htm
http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/S3338.htm

What one is supposed to do with them is ward off lawsuits. Basically, by listing
any conceivable danger on the MSDS, the manufacturer can say "I told you so"
in court should some dumkopf or wiseguy find a way to hurt himself and
then trun around and sue the manufacturer for making an unsafe product.

By the way. on the topic of olive oil, while browsing through Comey's Dictionary
of Chemical Solubilities one day, I noted that they discussed the solubility of
sulphur in olive oil. In particular, they provided the following table due to
Pelouze (C.R. 68 1179) which says how many parts sulphur dissolve in how
many parts olive oil as a function of temperature:

15C 2.3
40C 5.6
65C 20.6
100C 25.0
110C 30.3
130C 48.2

For people who do not have CS2 or CH5CH3 or do not wish to use these chemicals
for purifying sulphur, this suggests the deep fryer approach: heat olive oil, dissolve
suplhur in it, strain the crud, and recrystallize. Oil stuck to the crystals would likely
be a problem, but this could still be useful as a first step in purifying impure sulphur,
such as what is sold as fertilizer.

bfesser - 27-2-2008 at 17:46

[can't breathe, laughing too hard] I can't believe that you're suggesting people purify sulphur by dumping it in a deep fryer and then in a freezer. It sounds like it's worth a shot, though.

[edit]
Oh, yeah! An MSDS for water may sound ridiculous, but there's one that's just plain ludicrous:

http://www.generalmonitors.com/downloads/msds/10003.pdf

That's right, there's an MSDS for <em>air</em> . . .

[Edited on 2/27/08 by bfesser]

chemkid - 27-2-2008 at 18:06

I like that method of dissolving olive oil. A welcome solvent for sulfur. Ugh... i still have a crucible stuck full of melted and hardened sulfur. Perhaps I'll try that out tomorrow.

chemkid

microcosmicus - 27-2-2008 at 18:11

Just to clarify, I meant the phrase "deep fryer approach" tongue-in-cheek, not literally ---
the point was simply that, according to the table, olive oil looks like a reasonable choice
of readily available solvent for recrystallizing sulphur. I suppose you could go about it
using a deep fryer and a refrigerator, but I would use a test tube or a beaker. However,
I am glad that you enjoyed a good laugh. (I too am having a laugh imagining somebody
literally using a deep fryer for this task.)

12AX7 - 27-2-2008 at 18:15

Sulfurated oil makes good cutting lubricant, so I've heard.

Remember olive oil has a considerable unsaturation content. You'll probably lose a lot of sulfur on the first go as substitution and cross-linking.

Tim

497 - 1-3-2008 at 15:37

I accidentally dissolved sulfur on oil once, I was using an oil bath to heat some sulfur to melt it, and I decided to drop a tiny bit into the oil just to see what would happen. It dissolved nicely, turning the oil slightly red. It also produced a terrible smell. It lingered in my house for several days, I was not happy... I imagine this wouldn't be an issue at lower temps (it was damn hot) but be careful. After it started to smell i took it outside and dumped it a ways away from my house. Interestingly my dog had a very strong interest (constantly sniffing and licking) in that spot for a long time afterword, while showing little interest regular oil. I wonder what compound it produced?

[Edited on 1-3-2008 by 497]

MagicJigPipe - 2-3-2008 at 19:37

This is from the MSDS on air: CHRONIC: There are currently no known adverse health effects associated with chronic exposure to this gas.

HAHAHAHA! No shit Sherlock! It's funny that they even put that in there.

EDIT

Here's another good one.
MEDICAL CONDITIONS AGGRAVATED BY EXPOSURE: A knowledge of the available information suggest that over-exposure to Air is unlikely to aggravate existing medical conditions.

I suppose they man pressurized air but still it's funny.

2nd EDIT
Oh my god.

"OTHER U.S. FEDERAL REGULATIONS: • Air USP is regulated by the FDA as a prescription drug."

I love my country. *sarcasm*

[Edited on 2-3-2008 by MagicJigPipe]

chemrox - 2-3-2008 at 21:36

It was a good idea at first.. like most regulating in the US it got out of hand. Although there are the many absurdities like some of the ones talked about here, it does get the suppliers to collate the toxicology and some of the composition data for us.