28% acetic acid?

[Marko]

Talking about ignorance, the following is perhaps the biggest kicker:

Glacial Acetic Acid is a strongly corrosive chemical substance that attackes organic matter.

Therefore Glacial Acetic Acid is a caustic chemical. If you have any doubts, take a whiff and see for yourself (not advised)!

I don't know what is that you are whiffing there, but the logic in all this is truly one of a kind.

A weak acid is strongly corrosive?

It is corrosive because it attacks organic matter?

And it is therefore caustic?

This is, like, awesome, dude!

Gotta post this to some chemical humor boards, nobody'll believe it's been seriously said...

[SamReeves]

Open up a bottle of glacial and breathe deeply. Those of you who are nitpicking will quickly find out!

[tgtaylor]

Originally Posted by SamReeves
Be sure to mix your glacial outside. It's extremely caustic.

Technically, bases are caustic. Acids are corrosive.

Obviously, Merriam Webster was not a chemist...

Kirk,

You're confusing a noun with an adjective. In the above post "caustic" was clearly meant as an adjective.

caus⋅tic  /ˈkɔstɪk/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kaw-stik] Show IPA
Use caustic in a Sentence
–adjective 1. capable of burning, corroding, or destroying living tissue.
2. severely critical or sarcastic: a caustic remark.

–noun 3. a caustic substance.
4. Optics. a. caustic curve.
b. caustic surface.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Origin:
1350–1400; ME < L causticus < Gk kaustikós burning, caustic, equiv. to kaust(ós) burnt (v. adj. of kaíein to burn) + -ikos -ic

Related forms:

caus⋅ti⋅cal⋅ly, caus⋅tic⋅ly, adverb
caus⋅tic⋅i⋅ty  /kɔˈstɪsɪti/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kaw-stis-i-tee] Show IPA , caus⋅tic⋅ness, noun


Synonyms:
2. biting, mordant, bitter, scathing, acid.

[Kirk Keyes]

Kirk,
You're confusing a noun with an adjective. In the above post "caustic" was clearly meant as an adjective.

Actually, you and Sam are confusing caustic with corrosive.

To quote Hawley's Chemical Dictionary, 14th Ed. -

Caustic. (1) Unqualified, this term usually refers to caustic soda (NaOH). (2) As an adjective, it refers to any compound chemically similar to NaOH, e.g, caustic alcohol (C2H5ONa). (3) Any strong alkaline material that has a corrosive or irritating effect on living tissue.

Corrosive material. Any solid, liquid, or gaseous substance that attacks building materials or metals or that burns, irritates, or destructively attacks organic tissues, most notably the skin and, when taken internally, the lungs and stomach. Among the more widely used chemicals that have corrosive properties are the following:

acetic acid, glacial
acetic anhydride
bromine
chlorine
fluorine
hydrochloric acid
hydrofluoric acid
nitric acid
potassium hydroxide
sodium hydroxide
sulfuric acid

So for a material to be caustic, it has to be similar to sodium hydroxide (NaOH), regardless of its use as a noun or an adjective. Acetic acid, is not similar to sodium hydroxide in this respect, as acetic acid is acidic and sodium hydroxide is basic.

Note that acetic acid is the first item listed as corrosive by Hawley - thanks to the list being presented in alphabetical order.

So the interesting thing to learn here is that sodium hydroxide is both corrosive and caustic, while acetic acid corrosive and not caustic.

[Gem Singer]

Don't we humans use vinegar (acetic acid) in many of our food products?

Seems to me that vinegar would be a dangerous substance to ingest if it was corrosive and attacked organic matter.

Vinegar and oil salad dressing, ketchup, and pickles (to name a few) would be toxic.

[Alan Rabe]

Yes vinager has acteic acid in it. It is pretty close to the same dilution as the working solution used in photgraphy.

[Kirk Keyes]

To quote Paracelsus, "All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous."

[Marko]

Indeed.

Our stomachs produce and contain hydrochloric acid, one of the strongest. Most of us get to feel it at one point or the other as heartburn. It doesn't cause (serious) harm because it is diluted to less than 1%.

To put things in perspective, acetic acid is technically classified as a weak acid and hydrochloric acid as a strong one.

[tgtaylor]

Don't we humans use vinegar (acetic acid) in many of our food products?

Seems to me that vinegar would be a dangerous substance to ingest if it was corrosive and attacked organic matter.

Vinegar and oil salad dressing, ketchup, and pickles (to name a few) would be toxic.

Gem,

I believe that Glacial was first distilled from vinegar. Where vinegar is roughly 2% glacial, Glacial Acetic Acid is 99.5 to 100% pure. From Glacial's Material Safty Data Sheet:

Emergency Overview
--------------------------
POISON! DANGER! CORROSIVE. LIQUID AND MIST CAUSE SEVERE BURNS TO ALL BODY TISSUE. MAY BE FATAL IF SWALLOWED. HARMFUL IF INHALED. INHALATION MAY CAUSE LUNG AND TOOTH DAMAGE. FLAMMABLE LIQUID AND VAPOR.

SAF-T-DATA(tm) Ratings (Provided here for your convenience)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Health Rating: 3 - Severe (Poison)
Flammability Rating: 2 - Moderate
Reactivity Rating: 2 - Moderate
Contact Rating: 4 - Extreme (Corrosive)
Lab Protective Equip: GOGGLES & SHIELD; LAB COAT & APRON; VENT HOOD; PROPER GLOVES; CLASS B EXTINGUISHER
Storage Color Code: Red (Flammable)

[tgtaylor]

Actually, you and Sam are confusing caustic with corrosive.

So the interesting thing to learn here is that sodium hydroxide is both corrosive and caustic, while acetic acid corrosive and not caustic.

Another interesting and the main thing to learn here is that the adjective "caustic" accurately describes the action of NaOH and Glacial Acetic Acid on human tissue.

Here's yet another definition of caustic - this time from the American Heritage Dictionary, 2d College Edition:

caustic, adj. Capable of burning, corroding, disolving, or otherwise eating away by chemical action.

Note also the derivation of the word caustic: From the Greek kaustikos < kaiein, to burn.

Nowhere in the english language is caustic limited to bases or alkali. In fact an alkali is defined in Hawleys Condensed Chemical Dicionary (11th Edition) as:

ANY (emphasis added) substance which in water solution is bitter, more or less irritating or caustic (emphasis added) to the skin and mucus membranes; Sounds like NaOH and Glacial to me.