RogueRose
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Insane Hazmat shipping requirements - CuSO4 vs P2O5 - which is considered more dangerous??
So it looks that Fedex allows a max of 10 lbs of CuSO4 to be shipped and it has a higher hazmat rating than P2O5 which doesn't have a max shipping
weight and requires less precautions to be shipped.
I've worked with CuSO4 in a lot of situations and it seems to be pretty stable, especially the pentahydrate. The anhyrous could potentially produce
some heat if coming in contact with water, but I've never seen it fume or anything besides get warm.
P2O5 on the ohter hand, I've seen some pretty serious reactions with water and many other substances.
What could possibly be so dangerous about CuSO4 where P2O5 is overlooked?
Attachment: HazmatShippingGuide - FEDEX.pdf (2.4MB)
This file has been downloaded 662 times
Attachment: HazmatShippingTable - FEDEX.pdf (3.1MB)
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JJay
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Water + CuSO4 cuts very rapidly through aluminum. I think it may be somewhat more toxic, especially when both are diluted, although eating dry P2O5 by
the spoonful can't be healthy. They put phosphoric acid in soft drinks, and too much copper will give you symptoms of heavy metal poisoning.
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violet sin
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CuSO4 is an aquatic poison too. Id imagine that and the danger to Al materials would be most of the reason.
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BromicAcid
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I could not find copper sulfate in either the hazmat shipping table or in the shipping guide. Could you point out where you saw it, maybe with a page
number or a screen grab?
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RogueRose
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Quote: Originally posted by BromicAcid  | | I could not find copper sulfate in either the hazmat shipping table or in the shipping guide. Could you point out where you saw it, maybe with a page
number or a screen grab? |
It is in the last section (appendix like section that lists allowable weight amounts) of the ShippingGuide probably near page 140 or so. That is
where the CuSO4 is listed.
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BromicAcid
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Found it.
Notice the preface: "This Appendix lists materials and their corresponding reportable quantities (RQ) that are listed or designated as “Hazardous
Substances” and are further regulated by other federal and state authorities."
This is not a real comparison between how hazardous a material is. As violet sin pointed out, it is an aquatic poison. If you spill it and it washes
down a storm drain you could have problems. This is all about regulation, copper sulfate is common and they don't want large quantities of it washed
down drains. They are not saying that it is more hazardous than phosphorus pentoxide in the traditional sense. Hazardous shipping regs are
interesting things, looks at some of the f-codes, many of them are very specific and only apply to one industry or in some cases a single
manufacturer. FedEx ships to all states and they need to comply with reams of regulations, all this is saying is that there is some state that has
taking a stance to limit the potential for copper sulfate to get washed down the drains.
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clearly_not_atara
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Also I think copper sulphate is a more popular chemical than P2O5 particularly among non-laboratory users (it's easy to handle and a cheap fungicide),
so it is more likely to attract the attention of law enforcement, whereas P2O5 is mostly shipped around by established chemical companies whose
internal procedures are already beyond regulatory requirements.
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