The Sodium Hydroxide Gargle 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
In the late seventies I worked in a Research and Analysis Laboratory in Derby, UK.
The story concerns an old friend of mine called Rob. I wasn't present at the time, but Rob himself assured me it was true, and knowing him as I did, I can well believe it.
It was a quiet time of the year, lots of people were on holiday and Rob found himself working alone on the second floor. On the top floor a smattering of people were working in the textile testing section when Rob calmly walked in with his head held back and a pipette in his hand. (A pipette is a device for delivering a set volume of liquid. There are a couple of ways of getting liquid into a pipette, the most common and least safe way being to suck it up and stop sucking just before you get a mouthful.)
Rob, still with his head held back tried to say something. "I got snnnn nnnnn nn nn snnn hydrnn in nn nn, nnn do I do?"
"What's that Rob?"
" I said, I got snn ...."
After a couple of minutes the astounded Lab Technicians managed to decipher what Rob was trying to ask them, which was that he had sucked up some forty percent Sodium Hydroxide solution into his mouth, what should he do?
Considering that forty percent Sodium Hydroxide solution has the same corrosive power as concentrated Sulphuric Acid, the answer was:
"First of all, Rob, you could try spitting it out."
Amazingly, Rob had decided to suck up this dangerous liquid into the pipette with his mouth, and when the inevitable happened,walked up a flight of stairs with it burning away at his gums.
I lost touch with Rob a few years later, but often wonder whether he made it into middle age.
Submitted on 04/02/2002
Submitted by:
Anonymous
Reference:
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