all i am saying is that you don't have to shit your pants when you spill some lye on your arm.
Get some vinegar, stay calm, and wash it off. you'll be alright. When working with stuff like lye, always keep several jugs of plain white vinegar around. It may save your skin, and it can be used to neutralize spills. It's not like lye comes in contact with you and immediate eats to the bone. It takes minutes to do that, so you got plenty of time. Maybe not enough time to go to the grocery store, but enough time to calmly remove your clothing and wash any lye away with vinegar. There is really no reason to be afraid. Be afraid of POLICE, but respect lye, and you'll be aight
and if you happen to have an accident with lye and you don't have the proper precautions lined up and get injured, don't blame the lye. It's your lack of preparation and safety, there is no reason someone has to sustain burns from lye in a properly set up kitchen laboratory.
three things are mandatory when working with lye:
- Eye protection!!!!!!!
- Vinegar
- and a proper spill kit, even something simple like kitty litter becomes effective when combined with vinegar. This includes a bucket and a dustpan.
several years back a friend of mine dropped a 1/2 gallon jar during the basification process. The thing shattered on the floor, and both our lower legs were purple. My friend freaked the fuck out, i however advised him to stay calm and take his pants off right away (

). We both took our pants, socks and shoes off, washed all purple crap away with water followed by vinegar, then spread kitty litter over the spill, scooped up and neutralized with vinegar. Nobody got hurt, it was just a bit messy. we, however, found that purple stuff even made it all the way up to our safety goggles, without safety goggles there would have probably been injured eyes as well. God bless the safety goggles.