allen dick wrote:

> Don't get me wrong.  I am NOT advocating carelessness or a cavalier
> attitude
> to OA, but does anyone have the real info on the risks?

You can purchase OA at any hardware store as wood bleach. The label
includes - Danger: toxic irritant. Causes eye burn. Skin irritation,
harmful if swallowed. See other cautions on back panel. Poison.

The cautions on the back mirrors the front with "see physician
immediately" along with flushing eyes or skin with water and drinking
one or two glasses of water if ingested.

The only handling precaution is to wear rubber gloves when using. No
mention of vapor like formic would have.

In essence, the precautions are fairly generic for handling a "toxic
irritant".

It is interesting that on the US gov site for hazardous materials that
Formic is listed but oxalic is not. Sort of makes sense if you consider
you can buy oxalic at a hardware store in a plastic tub. Formic is
liquid with vapor and can do great harm, while oxalic is solid and no
problem with vapor in that state. It was also interesting that Formic
vapor is explosive.

http://hazmat.dot.gov/pubs/erg2004/psn_o.htm
http://hazmat.dot.gov/pubs/erg2004/psn_f.htm

As far as using more than the recommended, there is a point where more
OA does nothing more than kill bees. There have been several European
studies that arrived at the optimum trickle dosage, posted in this thread.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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