this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
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What if I do have strong ventilation, or even a lab-style fume hood? "Don't produce any gasses" is a lot more restrictive than "don't plan to deliberately work with gasses".
Also, more exotically while we're at it, what about pyrophoric gasses? If you your silane pipe breaks it should "just" start a fire.
If you have a fume hood that's good of course, but since the question was about advising amateurs on safety, my advice is restrictive, because gases can be very dangerous in subtle ways.
As an amateur: Do you know how to properly work in a fume hood so that it protects you? Do you know its capacity, and what to do if something unexpected leads to gas development over that capacity? Have you had training in using this stuff, so that you can react properly and quickly if something goes wrong, rather than freezing up?
In short: Because the potential dangers when working with a lot of gases are harder to detect, and harder to mitigate, than when working with other stuff, I'm taking a restrictive approach in my advice.
For you question on pyrophoric gases: They can remain in contact with air for a while (several minutes, depending on concentration) before igniting. Worst case, the room around you can fill with gas from a leak before causing a gas explosion. In principle you can also inhale gas from this leak, such the the explosion also takes place inside you :)
Ah. I see. A campfire produces dangerous gasses, technically, so that came across a bit "don't do anything"-ish. This is the internet, I promise not to sue you if I decide to do some electroplating in a small, totally sealed room, and get hurt.
Okay then, wow. So that's a nope, haha.
Hehe, exactly :) the thing with gases is that the line between completely fine (campfire outside) to potentially lethal (liquid nitrogen evaporating in a small, poorly ventilated garage) can be harder to see and judge for an amateur than a lot of other things. Anyone would understand that they should avoid getting acids or toxic chemicals on their skin, and the protective measures are quite simple to carry out. The same is true for most flammable or explosive liquids or solids. So the idea behind my advice was really "If there's something that's likely to hurt you because you aren't properly aware of the danger involved and how to mitigate it, it's likely to be a gas, so be extra, extra careful around gases, gas producing reactions, and volatile compounds."