Silver Nitrate

[Voice]

G'day All,
I am currently running around the place with spots of Silver Nitrate all over my neck - result of a medical procedure. And, of course, I have forgotten how to rid myself of silver nitrate stains.
Can anyone give me a safe method of cleaning up my skin.
Thank you
Maree

[Sassi]

Doesn/t vitamin c work??? Or is that for something else? actually pretty sure it is for silver nitrate You rub it on your skin where the stain is... not drinking it!

Sass

[RosalieM]

I've always just waited till the skin naturally replaces itself when I've had it on my hands after preparing it... Can take more than a week! I don't think I knew there was another option, but if there is, maybe I'll try that next time!

[Sassi]

D'OH... vit C is for iodine stains... not much to do about silver nitrate, just gotta wait til it wears off Sorry if I gave you hope there

Sass

[Whspa]

I just found this on the net and found it very informative.

(1) Silver nitrate is soluble, so it should wash off with water, right? No,
not with tap water. Tap water is chlorinated. Once the chlorinated tap
water hits the silver nitrate you get silver chloride which is exceedingly
insoluble. If you have silver nitrate on your hands or clothes or anywhere
else, and you wash with tap water, you just convert the silver salts to
insoluble silver chloride, and essentially bind it in place. Of course, on
your hands, some silver nitrate turns into silver chloride because of NaCl
in your skin, and even washing first with DI water won't get rid of this.

(2) If we have silver halides in our skin, clothes, whatever... and it has
not yet turned dark... this is when photographic fixer (primarily sodium
thiosulfate) will work because it will react with silver halides and allow
them to be washed away. This is exactly what happens when you "fix" black
and white photographic film and paper. The goal of the fixer is to wash
away the silver halide that has not been reduced to silver metal.

If you get silver nitrate on your hands, try this:

(A) rinse hands with DI water to get rid of any silver nitrate that hasn't
yet become silver chloride
(B) bathe hands with photographic-strength fixer (or sodium thiosulfate) to
get rid of any silver halides
(C) do above procedure before light has a chance to reduce the silver,
turning the spots black... because once it's silver, you have to bathe hands
in bleach or iodine.

[franco]

I keep a can of 'Silvo' silver polish handy in case of an accidental spill in the labs and it works fine on benches and floors. Reading the can it's flammable and contains 6g/L ammonia but doesn't give a full list of ingredients. It's never done my hands any harm when cleaning silver electrodes at work or the silverware at home.
Cheers,
Fran

[Labbie]

Well done Carol. Excellent.