kt5000
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Unknown, toxic substance in bath salt package
My wife purchased a carton of Calgon Milk Bath yesterday. In retrospect it appears the package may have been opened and resealed. When mixed with
the bath water, it created a white haze that had an instant negative, burning effect on our nasal passages, throat, and lungs. The closest thing I
can equate it to is breathing concentrated ammonia or chlorine vapors. I still have half the product and am trying to identify just what the hell we
breathed. Any help is very much appreciated. I don't have a GC available.
Here's what I know. I'll post more as I do some tests:
- The mixture appears to be Calgon Milk Bath (all white powder)
- The fumes appear only after the substance was mixed with water
- The fumes cause an instant, intense burning sensation in the nasal passages, throat, and lungs.
- Effects 10 hrs later include dull, aching headache behing the forehead and dull aching in the lungs.
- If it was a substance added to the milk bath powder, the substance in question must be white, solid at STP, and stable in the milk bath powder.
- I will post the Calgon Milk Bath ingredients list when I get home.
Any help is appreciated. If you have access to a GC, I'll gladly ship a sample for testing.
[Edited on 12-10-2013 by kt5000]
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smaerd
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Did a quick MSDS on the product.
http://www.setonresourcecenter.com/msdshazcom/htdocs//MSDS/R...
Nothing in there sounds like it should do that. might be a good idea to check with the manufacturer. Did you recently clean the bath-tub?
[Edited on 12-10-2013 by smaerd]
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Mailinmypocket
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That is very odd. Was this bought in a pharmacy? Have you tried adding some into a glass of water to see if the same thing happens? I don't get why on
earth anyone would open a container of bath milk powder and replace it with a mixture like that. What you describe might happen is say, a mix of TCCA
and sodium bisulfate was added to water. Still, it would be an awfully weird thing to do!
It would be interesting to test the gas(es) released from this stuff. Do you have access to basic lab equipment and reagents?
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Random
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It would be useful if you could test the vapours with moist indicator paper to check if its basic or acidic.
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kt5000
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Negative--No recent cleaning.
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kt5000
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Quote: Originally posted by Mailinmypocket  | That is very odd. Was this bought in a pharmacy? Have you tried adding some into a glass of water to see if the same thing happens? I don't get why on
earth anyone would open a container of bath milk powder and replace it with a mixture like that. What you describe might happen is say, a mix of TCCA
and sodium bisulfate was added to water. Still, it would be an awfully weird thing to do!
It would be interesting to test the gas(es) released from this stuff. Do you have access to basic lab equipment and reagents? |
I have access to a limited supply of lab gear, reagents, and solvents..
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kt5000
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I'm home now and having some difficulty replicating what happened last night. I did notice the smell of the milk bath powder is really harsh. Maybe
there's no contaminant and we just got a bunch of the powder into the air? The contents listed on the package are:
Soda Ash
Sesiqui Carbonate
Top Flo (salt)
Sodium Bicarbonate
Sodium Laureth Sulfate
Drakeol-7
Aloe Vera Extract Oil
Parfum/Fragrance
Milk/Lait
Yellow 5 (CI 19140)
I noticed the expiration date on the package is June 19 2013 also.
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kt5000
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Man, as I look more at it, some of the milk bath powder is super fine and it mixes into the air readily. It looks like no contaminant and no fumes
released when mixed with water.. So we breathed powdered soap (yuck!)
You'd think they would limit how fine the powder is in order to avoid that?
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Eddygp
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So it was soap after all... no NaHSO4 and TCCA or anything. What a shame! Anyway, I'm gald to know that you know what you inhaled.
there may be bugs in gfind
[ˌɛdidʒiˈpiː] IPA pronunciation for my Username |
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deltaH
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This is the reason I started experimenting with making my own mild soaps...
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kt5000
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Thanks again guys. That had us pretty freaked out! 
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sonogashira
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Airborne strong bases are not pleasant. The other day I was weighing out sodium ethoxide and had a similar reaction to the one that you describe.
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bfesser
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Na<sub>2</sub>CO<sub>3</sub> is prone to forming fine airborne suspensions and causes those symptoms. Next time, use a scoop
rather than pouring it. 
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AJKOER
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Also, look at what is in your bath water starting with the source of the water (rivers, reservoirs, well water, or even a combination of the latter
like mine). Is your local water rich in sulfides, for example?
From your home itself, there could be Copper salt (from pipes), Iron bicarbonate (from dissolved iron), ....
But, more interestingly, how is your water treated? With Cl2, ClO2, NaClO, NH2Cl, or O3? Also, there are the other increasingly common contaminates
found in increasing levels (like nitrates, for example, as a search on "nitrate in drinking water warnings'' on Google returns 7 states including
Iowa, Washington State, Colorado, New Hampshire, Florida, Nebraska and California with a warning that nitrate rich water is life threatening to babies
under 12 months of age on the very first page of the search!) .
In short, the problem may not be with the product, but what is in your water that maybe interacting undesirably. You are correct in being alert as to
what may be occurring as the skin is the largest organ in the body and, unknowingly to many, bathing/showering may actually facilitate exposure to
unhealthy compounds, at least in my opinion (and if you seriously doubt this examine the variation in cancer rates across the USA by state and think
about pollution/water purity issues).
-------------------------------------------------------------
Now, as to some possible chemistry, for example, assume your water is slightly acidic. Then, adding Na2CO3 will liberate CO2. This gas is highly
soluble and will displace less soluble gases. In the case of dissolved Chlorine, the smell of Cl2 could become more evident. In the presence of
Hypochlorous acid, for example, as the pH drops below 7, the smell of Cl2 and Cl2O (from increasingly available 'free chlorine') becomes more evident
especially in warm water (reference: see chart on the last page of this link: http://aquaox.wordpress.com/category/hypochlorous-acid-sodiu... ). Since the pH has to be below 7, I would expect this to occur when adding Na2CO3
to a large amount of water only, as otherwise the pH would rise as Sodium carbonate is very alkaline (conditions like adding a small amount of bath
salt to a bath tube with slightly acidic water).
Now, interestingly, my speculation is that it is not so such the small amount of chlorine gas that is the health problem, but the reaction of any free
Cl2 with those warmed organic oils that adhere to your skin.
--------------------------------------------
[EDIT] A few more words on yet another possibility, but less likely absence a metal tub, or a cracked porcelain covered metal tub and copper plumbing.
The addition of the Na2CO3 bath salt serves as an electrolyte. I am referring to the creation of an electrochemical cell. More precisely, for example,
a bleach battery where even a very low HOCl (or NaClO) concentration is not an apparent issue. See my comments and references at http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=24318 . Other electrochemical reactions are also possible, like the reduction of aqueous
nitrates in the presence of the right metals (Al, Zn,...).
[Edited on 20-10-2013 by AJKOER]
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AJKOER
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I just thought of a way to 'test' your bath for an unwitting electrochemical reaction. Add some tarnished Silverware to the warm bath water with
dissolved bath salts. If you managed to 'clean' it, you may, indeed, have some electrochemical cell reaction afoot.
In the event that the Silverware is cleaned, redo the test with some tarnished Silverware replacing the tub with a plastic vessel containing bath
salts. This should rule out the bath salt as the causative agent.
[Edited on 21-10-2013 by AJKOER]
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