Acetone
The solvent in nail polish remover. The same fact sheet that lists it as a solvent for plastics also warns, in three words, that it attacks them.
What not to do
Acetone is unsafe on Household plastics
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Damage is dissolution or crazing rather than a mark, and it cannot be polished out.
Precautions
- Ventilate the area
- Test on an inconspicuous area first
Why we say this
Strongly supported
A regulator stating in three words that the substance attacks the material, on the same sheet that lists it as a solvent FOR that material. The cleaning use and the damage are the same property.
Sources
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Acetone (RTK 0006)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2015 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That acetone attacks plastics, and is a solvent for plastics. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' paragraph and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Establishes acetone as a catalogue agent on a regulator's identity and reactivity rather than on general chemistry, and supplies the plastics warning that governs every domestic use of nail polish remover on a surface.
Last reviewed by a person on .
Acetone is unsafe on Laminate worktop
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
A nail-varnish spill and its remover are among the commonest ways a laminate worktop is ruined.
Precautions
- Test on an inconspicuous area first
Why we say this
Supported
A laminate worktop's wear surface is melamine resin over printed paper, which is the class the regulator names. The mechanism transfers directly and the damage is not repairable, so the warning is stated at full strength.
Sources
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Acetone (RTK 0006)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2015 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That acetone is a solvent for resins, plastics and varnishes. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' paragraph and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Establishes acetone as a catalogue agent on a regulator's identity and reactivity rather than on general chemistry, and supplies the plastics warning that governs every domestic use of nail polish remover on a surface.
Last reviewed by a person on .
Acetone is unsafe on Coated spectacle lens
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Why we say this
Supported
The lens manufacturer excludes the class and the regulator establishes that this substance belongs to it. Coatings on optical surfaces are microns thick and their removal is not recoverable.
Sources
Lens and Screen Cleaning: how to clean your glasses
Carl Zeiss Vision · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That the manufacturer excludes solvents and household cleaners from coated lenses. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The what-not-to-use, cloth-care and scratch sections. Supports a narrower statement — our claim was reduced. This supports the ABRASION half of the lens question and not the chemistry half. The page read does not state that alcohol damages coatings, and CleaningHQ therefore does not assert it — which matters, because the demand batch carried exactly that claim from consumer sources and a manufacturer page recommending its own products is not evidence against a competitor's chemistry. The alcohol question stays open, and it is recorded as open next to an electronics answer that permits 70% isopropyl alcohol on a display.
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Acetone (RTK 0006)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2015 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That acetone is a solvent for resins, plastics and varnishes. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' paragraph and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Establishes acetone as a catalogue agent on a regulator's identity and reactivity rather than on general chemistry, and supplies the plastics warning that governs every domestic use of nail polish remover on a surface.
Last reviewed by a person on .
Acetone should be avoided for Plastic storage boxes
Best avoided
The available guidance advises against this.
Precautions
- Test on an inconspicuous area first
- Ventilate the area
Why we say this
Supported
Two sources: the substance's attack on the material, and the conservation finding that cleaning technique is itself a named cause of accelerated deterioration in ageing plastics.
Sources
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Acetone (RTK 0006)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2015 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That acetone attacks plastics and is a solvent for resins and plastics. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' paragraph and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Establishes acetone as a catalogue agent on a regulator's identity and reactivity rather than on general chemistry, and supplies the plastics warning that governs every domestic use of nail polish remover on a surface.
Conserve O Gram 8/4: Care and Identification of Objects Made from Plastic
National Park Service, US Department of the Interior · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That improper cleaning techniques cause damage and accelerate deterioration of plastics. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The sections headed Plastics Identification, Causes of Deterioration and Signs of Deterioration, plus the ventilation guidance. Supports the claim as stated. Gives the household-plastics record a deterioration mechanism and explains the sticky-remote-control problem, which the catalogue previously had no account of at all. Also establishes that improper cleaning is itself a named cause.
Last reviewed by a person on .
Precautions
- Ventilate the area
- Test on an inconspicuous area first
- Keep away from children and pets
- Never mix with other cleaning products
- Do not apply to a hot surface
In detail
Acetone is the strongest solvent most households contain, and almost nobody thinks of it that way because it arrives in a small bottle labelled nail polish remover. The regulator's description names what it dissolves: fats, oils, waxes, resins, plastics and varnishes. Four words into that list is the reason it is dangerous to furniture — plastics. The warning later on the same sheet reads simply that acetone attacks plastics, and it is not a side effect but the same property applied to something the reader did not mean to dissolve. A drop on a laminate worktop, an acrylic bath, a painted surface, a varnished table or a spectacle lens does damage that cannot be polished out, because the surface has softened rather than been marked. The carpet trade nonetheless names nail polish remover as a legitimate step for greasy and resinous spills, with a specific caution attached: the amyl-acetate kind leaves residues that cause rapid resoiling and must be rinsed with dry solvent. Acetone is a flammable liquid and a dangerous fire hazard, and it forms explosive peroxides on contact with oxidising agents.
Properties
- Chemical name
- Propan-2-one
- pH
- Not applicable
What works
Acetone is effective against Nail varnish Strongly supported
Acetone is effective against Glue and adhesive Supported
Why
- Acetone is explained by Solubility and polarity
- Acetone is explained by Solvents and polymers
- Acetone is explained by Solvent crazing
- Acetone is explained by Skin is not a surface
Hacks and claims involving this
Sources for this page
Sources
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Acetone (RTK 0006)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2015 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That acetone is a solvent for fats, oils, waxes, resins, plastics and varnishes and is used in nail polish remover, that it attacks plastics, and that it is a flammable liquid and a dangerous fire hazard. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' paragraph and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Establishes acetone as a catalogue agent on a regulator's identity and reactivity rather than on general chemistry, and supplies the plastics warning that governs every domestic use of nail polish remover on a surface.
Last reviewed by a person on .