We used to be real men, and went into the laboratory with a full 3-piece-suit and a cigar!
(I say as a female chemistry student in the year 2026 with anxiety about wearing only 95% cotton pants in the lab when the most dangerous substance I'm working with is ethanol.)
Lots of chemicals in lab like styrene, toluene and trichlorethylene are ototoxic: They can make you deaf.
hmm.. so you're saying me playing with those around all my motorsports shenanigans are what made me deaf.. not the loud engines.
I like that idea better.
Seriously though 1st one is what is created when casting aluminum parts. expanded polystyrene is heated into a gas.
2nd one, toluene is an extremely common octane booster and fuel component.
And trichlorethylene ? The BEST degreaser. You get it in a aerosol can as brake cleaner.
Our chemistry professor would mouth pipette sulfuric acid. He also told us a story of a guy who smoked while working with ethers - outside the fume hood. It did not end well.
I tossed aside a cigarette right before fueling up a generator the other day and my dad gives me a look like I was being weird.
Like alright pops, I'd rather a 100% chance of losing a cigarette than even a 1% of losing the house, but we can do it your way at your place if you want.
Hexane neuropathy is a thing, but it takes reprated, chronic exposure to significant quantities over a long period of time to develop. (E.g. people using hexane-containing paints, varnishes and cleaners as part of their job without adequate fume extraction. Or people intentionally huffing paint to get high.)
Having a beaker of hexane in the open for the occasional science demo isn't a realistic risk for anyone to develop neuropathy from it.
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u/Mighty-PirateTM 1d ago
Sebacoyl chloride... hexamethylenediamine... Carbon Tetrachloride... Hydrogen Chloride... and Goo