Tuesday, April 9, 2013

DANGER! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

EVERYTHING in medicine comes with a little packet of paper that tells you what it is, what it's for, how dangerous it is, and how to handle emergencies it might cause.

Bizarrely enough, this includes the most common liquid on planet Earth: water.

Yes water.

And this is the actual warning label that comes with water:

 


So, as per the last paragraphs, let's keep these important points in mind:

1.  If you accidentally get water in your eyes, IMMEDIATELY flush them with more water for 15 minutes.

2. If you accidentally drink water, induce vomiting.

3. If you get water on your skin, wash it off with soap and water.

4. If the water catches fire, extinguish it immediately with something "appropriate."

5. And always call poison control if you drink water! It says so!

Thank you, Webhill!

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26 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 9, 2013 at 5:37 AM

    You are confused. This is not a data sheet for humans. It is a data sheet for those aliens in that movie Signs by M. Night Shyamalan.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 9, 2013 at 6:29 AM

    Congress should ban this poisonous dihydrous monoxide substance! It causes burns, is a large component in cancerous tumors, and can cause drowning!

    ReplyDelete
  3. KapitanoApril 9, 2013 at 9:00 AM

    Years ago, Scientific American published the LD50 for water. Did someone commission a lab to feed enormous amounts of water to rats just to find out how much killed half of them?

    Or did one lab tech just have nothing to do one day?

    ReplyDelete
  4. GPMommyApril 9, 2013 at 9:06 AM

    Never mind that you need a Rx to buy some (the sterile kind anyway...)

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  5. The Wicked Witch of the WestApril 9, 2013 at 9:09 AM

    I'm melting!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  6. MaitriApril 9, 2013 at 9:15 AM

    Bahaha, that is hilarious! Avoiding the sue-happy at its finest.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousApril 9, 2013 at 10:43 AM

    Aka "homeopathic heroin."

    ReplyDelete
  8. bunkywiseApril 9, 2013 at 11:04 AM

    That just makes me want to slap someone. Or maybe that's just the mood I am in...or it could be "age onset crabbiness"...or I could just be slap-happy. HAHAHA. (Sorry.)

    ReplyDelete
  9. OldSquidApril 9, 2013 at 1:22 PM

    What’s funny is this is such a thing as water intoxication. Whenever someone goes on how dangerous vaccines are like yesterday when someone posted a meme on facebook about all the drugs you have to call poison control if you take too many of them I remind them of this. Remember the chemistry saying “the dose makes the poison”. Another favorite of mine is to remind people that o2 is toxic in high doses.

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  10. bobbieApril 9, 2013 at 1:48 PM

    Your tax dollars at work...

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  11. Just MeApril 9, 2013 at 3:49 PM

    Thanks for the huge laugh. I almost spat this highly dangerous substance all over my keyboard

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousApril 9, 2013 at 3:57 PM

    That's not a data sheet. That's a dare. I dare you to light water on fire.

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousApril 9, 2013 at 4:13 PM

    As a chemist, we are required to have a MSDS (data sheet) for every chemical in the lab. We have thousands of these (typically 5 page documents). All of them are about as useful as this one, but somehow it makes us safer to have these sheets. Sand is another funny one to read. The beach is very dangerous with both sand and water.

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  14. AnonymousApril 9, 2013 at 4:46 PM

    Drink a liter of WFI. I dare ya.
    Sterile Water for Injection, USP is a hemolytic agent due to its hypotonicity.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Patti CadwalladerApril 9, 2013 at 5:16 PM

    Another quote from Lost In Space..."Oh the pain.....the pain...." (Dr. Zackery Smith)

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  16. AnonymousApril 9, 2013 at 5:27 PM

    I wonder: if I skipped my next doctor's appointment and explained that it was because I got into the shower and was stuck in there for days, what with rinsing my eyes out with water for a never-ending series of 15-minute cycles and constantly having to re-soap myself to wash the water off my skin, until my roommate finally called the fire department to drag me out of there and get all the water off my skin and out of my eyes, do you think she'd start a blog?

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousApril 9, 2013 at 5:43 PM

    I finally understand why there s an expiration date on my bottle of Poland Spring--it is a truly dangerous substance!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Loren PechtelApril 9, 2013 at 7:46 PM

    I went looking for the source of the LD50 data and so far I'm coming up empty-handed beyond the 90g/kg (rat) value.

    I did find a much more extensive MSDS sheet for it, though. It doesn't have the exposure howlers but there are some others:

    http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927321

    Melting Point: Not available.

    (I suspect this is a glitch caused by a zero value being interpreted as no data.)

    Personal Protection: Safety glasses. Lab coat.

    ReplyDelete
  19. AnonymousApril 9, 2013 at 9:29 PM

    Like Anon at 4:13 said, in the lab we have to have MSDS sheets for everything. My favourite was the one for a brick.
    We use deionized water for our experiments, and one of the lab techs used to drink it. We had to explain that deionized water is bad for you.

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  20. CharlesApril 9, 2013 at 10:37 PM

    Actually, I am surprised that they leave out the most important warning of all - never use water on your gizmo. That will cause it to multiply and turn into gremlins that will run terror all over your town.

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  21. LabMamaApril 9, 2013 at 10:50 PM

    I had to write a MSDS for fetal bovine serum once. Surprisingly difficult to do.

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  22. UnknownApril 9, 2013 at 11:31 PM

    Why did the warning label neglect the drowning risk? These things really should be regulated more strictly.

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  23. Peter BApril 11, 2013 at 2:39 AM

    That MSDS should be taken seriously. Never consume water without diluting it to a safe concentration; the best diluent is ethanol.

    ReplyDelete
  24. AnonymousApril 13, 2013 at 4:01 AM

    You have seen the site for dihydrogen monoxide, yes? DHMO? http://www.dhmo.org/

    ReplyDelete
  25. DuckyApril 14, 2013 at 1:53 PM

    If this was a facebook post, I would "like" it instantly. Best post ever. lol.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hal Dall, MDApril 14, 2013 at 9:11 PM

    On April 1, some radio guys got into deep do for using the DHMO idea.http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/02/florida-water-prank/2046639/

    ReplyDelete

So wadda you think?