How To Manage Car Battery Acid Spills

There are many harmful chemical substances these days from strong alkalis to hazardous acids, and even though we would want to be safe from them, many of these chemical substances have industrial uses.  Say for example, sulphuric acid, that has a lot of uses.  One is as an acid present in lead acid batteries, thus, the term battery acid.

For these types of substances, it is actually vital that you study their nature.  Even if we familiarize ourselves with regards to their usefulness in the industry, we need to also provide ourselves with the right knowledge with regards to their qualities just like the way they behave under specific conditions and how they behave with other substances.

Batteries utilized in vehicles or even in electric power generation services contain sulphuric acid.  And while this acid is considered industrially essential, it is actually grouped under hazardous substances, principally being a strong acid alone, exothermically disolveable in water, and strongly responding with a variety of metals.

You might presume this chemical solution is safely protected inside the battery, but the fact is almost any battery has a likelihood to discharge acid, whether or not from misuse, substandard manufacture, as well as old age.  Hence, it is important to know what you need to do in the event such incident occurs.

1. The most significant thing to remember is the fact that only experts must conduct the cleaning operation.  Many experts, and possibly any highly regarded battery acid manufacturer, acknowledge that the important part of this procedure should happen before the acid leak.  This kind of precautionary measure calls for classification of the products that have higher potential of leaking and of places where spill accidents may be most likely to happen.

2. Be sure that caution signs are put up at that area and that MSDS or material safety data sheet are available to personnel.  The MSDS provides complete information on hazards of chemicals that have the possibility of leaking in the place as well as emergency treatments in the event of exposure.

3. It is vital for companies handling any kind of hazardous chemical to have an emergency group that could act in response to chemical spills.  Since the work of this group is crucial, its members must be well trained in dealing with chemical leak cleaning.  The group should be equipped with clearing tools and equipment (acid spill absorber and neutralizer) and also personal protective equipment (gloves, masks, suits, and boots).

4. All personnel who are employed in the location where spillage may be likely should be trained to answer to such particular accidents.  In the event an acid spill happens in the area of concern, these workers must learn what to do and who to summon for help.  They should not attempt to clean the spill or gather the spilled chemical, most especially if they are not trained to do it.

5. As soon as spill is found, correct classification of the substance has to be completed to ensure that pertinent measure is done.  In case it is a vehicle or car battery acid leakage, the right containment procedure should then be performed.