My brother-in-law got 3rd degree burns on his knee caps when he took off the knee protectors and worked directly on wet cement. I never heard of this before. Have you??
OT 3rd degree burns
Jul 10, 2007
50 Replies
Isn't there lye in concrete?
Ouch!!! To put it mildly. What's in the cement to result in a severe chemical burn?
Cathy
Lye.
I got a third degree burn from a motorcycle exhaust pipe, my leg touched it only for a second, very painful and I had to see the doc, it took a long time to heal and I got a scar, this was several years ago, today the scar is almost gone, it was about six inches long and 2 inches wide. Sure it wasn't a first degree burn? That would be more like a bad sunburn.
?? But your burn would be from touching a hot surface, his BIL's from a chemical. Why would a chemical burn have to be confined to only 1st degree?
Cathy
"Cathy F." ...
No, chemicals can do that too, but I find it hard to believe he had 3rd degree from cement.
Here's a good reference:
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Natalie
Oh, I guess I missed it. Did he say chemical burn, I thought he said "kneeling on wet cement". Was chemicals involved? If that was the case, such as acid for etching the cement, then yes, but I didn't read that. Sorry, I guess in my old age I missed it. How about you, age catching up too, :) ?
Do they put lye in fresh concrete?
No, Mark usually tells the truth!
Haven't been at my house at 'feeding time', have you? ;)
(should I let this slide....? ;-P)
He didn't say so, but I had a difficult time imagining searingly hot wet cement. ;-)
Cathy
If that was the
LOL! Only for diner & desert. ;-)
Cathy
>
There is no reason why chemical burns can't go beyond 1st degree and they often do so very easily. The burns scale is related to how deep into the skin the damage goes and can go to forth degree if it gets into muscle and bones.
The process that cement undergoes when forming is both exothermic and highly alkaline. To work on fresh cement without knee protectors would be like kneeling in a tray of hot caustic soda.
Yeah, I know - that was the point of my post.
Cathy
Nitric acid "burns" by denaturing
"Diner" and "desert"?
Couldn't resist.
Exactly. Neither could I.
Cathy
>
I don't have a clue as to how they mix it, but it's very alkaline.
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