Phenol distillation (caveat)

[Paul N Hengen]

In article <drg-041193084951 at ache.pharm.pitt.edu>
 drg at prophet.pharm.pitt.edu (Duke Groebe) writes:

>> I once spilled phenol on both ungloved hands. I was able to quickly stop the
>> burning with methanol. Is any one of these chemicals less dangerous or better
>> for ridding the phenol from the skin? In an unrelated incident, I was cutting
>> some jalopeno peppers and rubbed my eyes. Bad move! I ended up essentially
>> macing myself :-{  ...How do you stop THAT from burning?

> With respect to jalopeno and related hot peppers, the best advice is to use
> latex gloves (dishwashing gloves) when chopping, dicing, or otherwise
> Dahmer-izing the little buggers.  If that offends your sense of
> masculinity....
  ^^^^^^^^^^^

What? the Dahmer joke? :-o  No way! ;-)

>             , limit as much as you can exposure of your fingers to the
> peppers -DON'T TOUCH ANY MUCUS MEMBRANES WITH YOUR FINGERS AFTER YOUR
> CULINARY ESCAPADES- and rinse your fingers in rubbing alcohol followed by
> water.  The hot ingredient is capsacin (sp?) and is an oil-based organic. 
> That's why beer is good with hot foods - helps solvate the hot shit and
> wash it down.

I immediately popped the top off of a cold one and started pouring it on my
face. Oddly enough, it felt better when most of it ended up in my mouth ;-)
After 30 minutes (and several more beers) the burning had gone away and I could
see again, albeit a bit more blurry than before :-)

*******************************************************************************
* Paul N. Hengen, Ph.D.                           /--------------------------/*
* National Cancer Institute                       |Internet: pnh at ncifcrf.gov |*
* Laboratory of Mathematical Biology              |   Phone: (301) 846-5581  |*
* Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center|     FAX: (301) 846-5598  |*
* Frederick, Maryland 21702-1201 USA              /--------------------------/*
*******************************************************************************