HYDROFLUORIC ACID : Critical Case : PERTH, AUSTRALIA

In the year of 2015, an unfortunate event took place in Perth, with a lab worker passing away shortly after accidentally spilling hydrofluoric acid. This fatality occurred on November 12, when a thirty seven year old man died in the Intensive Care Unit upon splashing approximately one hundred millimeters of a seventy percent solution of hydrofluoric acid on his right leg a month prior. It was estimated that the extent of the spill covered ten percent of his total body area, but still proved to be lethal.

The individual was working as a technician in a small paleontology laboratory, and although he immediately attempted to remove the spill from his clothes, hosing himself down with water attached to a sink in the laboratory, and even running to a swimming pool in a nearby garden, his right leg had to be amputated. Despite this, the lab worker eventually died two weeks after the initial spill, highlighting how hazardous this acid is.