[Stadtjunky]

Does Methylene chloride burn when you get it on your skin?

[Doc Oc]

Are you asking if it leaves a chemical burn?  In that case no.  It does evaporate quickly and give the sensation of being cold at first, then very warm (at least that's when happens when I get a little on me).

[Stadtjunky]

Are you asking if it leaves a chemical burn?  In that case no.  It does evaporate quickly and give the sensation of being cold at first, then very warm (at least that's when happens when I get a little on me).

Would 0.11 nitrile gloves stop this chemical? for a few seconds anyway?

I work with it all the time now.

[Doc Oc]

I work with nitrile gloves and DCM seems to be able to slowly make its way through.  So yes, nitrile gloves will stave it off for a little bit.  Just be careful with it and if it does spill take your gloves off and get a new pair.

[Stadtjunky]

I work with nitrile gloves and DCM seems to be able to slowly make its way through.  So yes, nitrile gloves will stave it off for a little bit.  Just be careful with it and if it does spill take your gloves off and get a new pair.

J-Bone, thanks for your reply there. Yeah I agree, DCM penetrates so fast, but since I spilled about 10 mL onto the top of my hand I'm wondering how much got through, like, do you think in gram amounts, or in the 10's of milligram amounts?

[Doc Oc]

I don't have definitive numbers so I'm making completely unquantified claims.

If you took your gloves off right away, I doubt any of it touched you.  Even if you left your gloves on DCM is so volatile the majority of it most likely evaporated.  I'm inclined to believe that only small mg amounts got through.

[OC pro]

Like we had the discussion with iodomethane you will not die or get ill from spilling your hands once with methylene chloride. Again, long-time exposure is the problem. I can just give the advise to always wear gloves and change them often. In my Ph.D. times I was also a bit lazy with saftey issues (wearing safety glasses and gloves) but now I am an advocate for lab safety (our technicians suffer... ).

[FlowSyn]

I've worked with DCM a lot over the years - primarily to dissolve metathesis-based oligomers and to wash them off glassware.  I have discovered that a double glove combo works best - nitrile over latex.  If you don't like to sweat profusely I would suggest only using nitrile and removing/changing the glove shortly after getting exposing it to DCM.  We also kept DCM in vented squirt bottles.  I would avoid this unless you were using it regularly on a daily basis.