HF fumes are sickening, that's true. But only because we know how dangerous they are. It's more of a physchological effect than they're really
disgusting.
The smell of hydrogen fluoride is similar to hydrogen chloride, only more... "pure". It's difficult to describe. I'd say it's 90% burning and 10% that
something "different". HCl is more like 60:40, at least to my nose.
It's the smell of "damn it, it's burning my nose!", and once you combine the knowledge of the danger, you get that distinctive feeling of HF that is
so scary. |