> Just looking at science notes, it mentioned the following “ When you
mix strong acids and water, it makes a difference whether you add acid to
water or water to acid.
May I suggest to all that we go beyond "notes" and generalities, and engage
in a more informed discussion?
All the cautions about mixing acid and water are about concentrated
sulfuric acid, which will indeed cause a drop of water to boil. But this
is hardly the case with most acids.
And we're not talking about oxalic acid anyway -- we're talking about
oxalic acid dihydrate, which already has two water molecules attached.
And if one doesn't know the answer to something, I agree with Jim, that one
can resort to actually running a test to find out.
So just now I filled a test tube with oxalic acid dihydrate crystals at 68F
and inserted a thermometer. Then I added distilled water at 68F to the top
of the acid crystals. The temperature on the thermometer went down by a
few degrees, not up (I double-checked the starting temps of both
materials).
The above result indicates that the reaction of OA dihydrate with water
does not generate any heat whatsoever.
Over the past several years, I've dribbled many thousands of hives. with
OA. I've applied thousands of OA/gly towels and sponges. I've also
vaporized the acid (and collected and weighed the vapor), and vaped a
number of hives.
The experience of myself and my crew are that the application of OA by
saturated pad or dribble are extremely safe -- far safer than spraying,
fogging, or vaporization. As far as mixing, over the past few years I've
mixed over 300 lbs of OA dihydrate with water, sugar syrup, glycerin and
glycerin syrup, or other solvents and substances, often with heating
involved.
The heating does increase the chance of accident slightly, but not to
nearly as dangerous as cooking french fries. So long as one wears eye
protection, hot OA/gly solution is not even as dangerous as pouring hot
coffee (since coffee is generally heated to a higher temp). If the hot
acid gets on your skin, it can be easily rinsed off with no harm -- far
safer than with formic acid, or hot fat from a french fryer.
But the heat issue is actually moot. No heating is required at all for
dissolving OA into glycerin at the 1:2 w:v concentration -- it will
dissolve completely at room temperature (it does take several hours. but
requires minimal stirring).
So all that I'm asking EPA to approve is to add an additional, and safer,
application method for OA to the existing label, based upon facts, rather
than irrational fears.
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
530 277 4450
ScientificBeekeeping.com
>
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