Quicklime
Pre-industrial sanitation in a bag. The regulator's long-term exposure paragraph reads as a description of the hands of everybody who used it.
What not to do
Quicklime requires the precaution Cement and mortar
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Precautions
- Wear gloves
- Wear eye protection
- Ventilate the area
- Keep away from children and pets
Why we say this
Strongly supported
Recorded as a precaution edge rather than a damage one because the hazard is to the person rather than to the substrate. Included at all because limewashing recurs in restoration and traditional-building contexts.
Sources
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Calcium Oxide (RTK 0325)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2003 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That contact can severely irritate and burn the eyes and skin, that inhalation irritates the lungs and higher exposure may cause pulmonary oedema, and that long-term exposure can perforate the nasal septum and crack the skin. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'IDENTIFICATION' block and the hazard summary. Supports the claim as stated. Gives the historical record a substance with a regulator behind it, and supplies the occupational-injury detail that keeps a history of cleaning from becoming nostalgia.
Last reviewed by a person on .
Precautions
- Wear gloves
- Wear eye protection
- Ventilate the area
- Keep away from children and pets
In detail
Before manufactured disinfectants there was lime. Quicklime is calcium oxide, described by the regulator as a white-to-grey odourless solid used in building materials, metal processing and agriculture; slaked with water it becomes calcium hydroxide, the limewash that coated cellars, dairies, stables and cottage walls for centuries. It worked, and it worked by being strongly alkaline rather than by being a biocide in the modern sense — a high-pH surface is hostile to most organisms, and a fresh coat buried the previous one. What makes it worth a record rather than an anecdote is the hazard summary, which reads as an occupational history. Contact can severely irritate and burn the eyes and skin. Breathing it irritates the lungs, and higher exposure may cause fluid on the lungs, a medical emergency. And long-term exposure can irritate the nose causing a hole in the bone dividing it, and can cause brittle nails and thickening and cracking of the skin. That last sentence describes the hands of people who limewashed for a living, and it is the correction a history of cleaning needs if it is not to become nostalgia. CleaningHQ describes no domestic use for the substance.
Properties
- Chemical name
- Calcium oxide
- pH
- Strongly alkaline
Why
- Quicklime is explained by pH in cleaning
Sources for this page
Sources
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Calcium Oxide (RTK 0325)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2003 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That calcium oxide is lime, a white-to-grey odourless solid used in building materials, that contact can severely irritate and burn the eyes and skin, and that long-term exposure can perforate the nasal septum and cause brittle nails and thickening and cracking of the skin. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'IDENTIFICATION' block and the hazard summary. Supports the claim as stated. Gives the historical record a substance with a regulator behind it, and supplies the occupational-injury detail that keeps a history of cleaning from becoming nostalgia.
Last reviewed by a person on .