How to neutralize vinegar?

From ancient times to this day, acetic acid is an indispensable human aid in cooking, medicine and in everyday life. It is difficult to imagine the kitchen of a modern housewife without a bottle of vinegar or essence of this product. However, improper handling of such a dangerous product can lead to unpleasant consequences, and the spoiled taste of the cooked dish is just “flowers”, so you always need to know how to neutralize vinegar.

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Vinegar Handling Rules

Acetic acid was obtained long before our era. Some researchers claim that to preserve beauty and maintain tone, Cleopatra, known to everyone, drank a drink in which apple cider vinegar was diluted.

But today's vinegar is quite dangerous for health, because it is not in vain that they say “Danger to life” on the bottles with the product. It is very easy to get a vinegar burn by spilling it on an open area of ​​the skin, and even more dangerous is getting the product inside.

To avoid such problems, you must not forget about the basic rules for handling this product, and you must begin to execute them even at the time of purchase, so as not to worry again:

1. Buy only a quality product. Do not forget that vinegars are natural and synthetic. Acetic acid bacteria produce a natural product in alcohol-containing liquids, for example, in open wine or in fermented apple juice. The synthetic product was obtained in 1898, and today acetic acid is produced from by-products of the production of chemical fertilizers or by dry distillation of wood. In our country, 90% of the product is obtained from the remnants of wood, so such vinegar is best used for household and household purposes: to remove scale, rust, glue, etc. For example, it will not work in pickled mushrooms and food.
2. If you open a bottle of acetic acid, never sniff the product at the neck, do not bring the bottle close to your nose, so as not to get a burn of the airways. If you want to smell the product, then wave your palm next to the neck of the bottle at arm's length so that the smell reaches you.
3. When using acetic acid, be sure to follow the recommendations and the proportions indicated on the package, do not pour again.
4. When cooking, strictly follow the recipe and do not neglect the neutralization of vinegar, so as not to spoil the taste of food and not increase the acidity of the stomach.
5. If you use acetic acid for household purposes, then after using it, be sure to ventilate the room. And to neutralize vinegar, or rather its aroma, use an odor absorber, which is often used as a pet care product, or use salt or soda for this purpose.

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Features of skin damage with acetic acid

Vinegar belongs to the category of organic acids, and a burn resulting from a product getting on human skin or mucous membranes belongs to the category of chemical.

All burns with acetic acid are divided into two main types:

1. External. As a result of this type of burn, areas of the skin or mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, and mouth of the victim are affected.
2. Internal burn. As a result of the ingress of acetic acid inside, the internal organs of a person are affected.

First aid for external burn

To avoid many unpleasant consequences, you need to know how to act when an aggressive chemical enters the skin. To help yourself and other affected people safely neutralize vinegar, use the following guidelines:

1. If a chemical gets on your clothing, remove it immediately.
2. Rinse the affected area thoroughly with running cold water.

Important! Flushing should be plentiful and long, at least 20 minutes. In addition, sufficiently cold water will reduce pain.

If you provide assistance to the victim, then while he is washing the affected area of ​​the skin, prepare a weak solution of soda or regular soap solution. These are the means by which you can solve the problem, than to neutralize the vinegar. Rinse the burn prepared with the solution.

1. If vinegar gets into your eyes, then proceed in the same way, in between rinsing your eyes with cold running water, use a carefully mixed, weak soda solution.
2. After thorough washing, apply a moist compress to the affected area of ​​the skin to neutralize any remaining aggressive chemical.
3. Treat the burned place with an antiseptic, and apply a special preparation for burns, such as “Ricinol” or “Panthenol”.
4. Apply a free bandage to the affected area so that it does not squeeze the skin and does not cause discomfort and pain.

Important! If the burn is serious enough, then immediately go to the hospital or call an ambulance. Specialists will provide all the necessary effective assistance and give the necessary recommendations to the victim.

First aid for internal burn

An internal burn is much more dangerous than an external burn, and can have rather disastrous consequences for the victim. If poisoning with 9% vinegar, as a rule, is manifested by a chemical burn of the mucous membrane of the stomach, esophagus and oropharynx, then poisoning with 70% vinegar essence can be fatal.

If an aggressive chemical enters the human digestive tract, it is necessary:

• rinse your stomach and intestines immediately with plain water;
• without interrupting flushing, you should immediately call an ambulance.

Important! The ingress of acid into the victim’s stomach can lead to burning of its internal walls, as the effect of the acid will be enhanced by the hydrochloric acid present in the stomach.

An internal burn can lead to necrosis of the tissues of the oral cavity, larynx, stomach, and esophagus. Especially dangerous is the ingress of acetic acid into an empty stomach.

Important! In no case can I ignore the internal burn, and calling a doctor home is mandatory.

Internal acid burns go through several stages, namely:

1. Toxic shock and intoxication.
2. Toxemia with hyperthermia, with manifestations of acute intoxication psychosis.
3. Complications of an infectious nature, which manifest themselves in the form of gastritis, pancreatitis, as well as pneumonia and peritonitis.
4. Burn asthenia and a decrease in total body weight, due to a violation of the protein and electrolyte balance of the body.
5. Recovery.

Methods for treating internal burns

The treatment of acetic acid poisoning includes measures that are aimed at the rapid removal of aggressive substances from the digestive tract and the correction of disturbances in internal systems and organs that appear during a burn disease. Namely:

1. Immediate gastric lavage of the stomach with cold water is carried out at the scene, it needs a lot, about 10-15 liters, using a thick probe lubricated with liquid paraffin.

Important! A probeless gastric lavage (artificial induction of vomiting) is dangerous, as repeated passage of acid through the esophagus only increases the degree of burn.

2. To stop the pain shock, a solution of atropine (2-4 ml) is administered to the victim.
3. To prevent exotoxic shock, it is advisable to use such drugs:

• • Analgin;
  • Promedol;
  • Fentanyl;
  • Omnopon;
  • drugs from the category of antispasmodics (Halidor, Papaverine).

Important! All procedures will be most effective if they begin to be carried out no later than 6 hours after the burn.

For deep, severe internal burns:

• scars are formed that do not overgrow and do not disappear with time;
• there is a narrowing of the esophagus, which not only negatively affects the quality of life of the patient, but also subsequently often leads to disability.

Important! In this case, the treatment will be lengthy and includes a whole range of procedures, including antibiotic therapy and hormone therapy. Treatment of cicatricial narrowing of the esophagus is carried out using bougieurage.

Useful Tips:

1. If acetic acid gets inside, immediately drink a large amount of water, milk or kefir - these are the means by which vinegar can be neutralized.
2. Burning in the throat can be reduced with Romazulan solution. Buy it at a pharmacy - this is an extract of chamomile and azulene flowers.
3. You can neutralize vinegar with water and soda, and then wash the stomach with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. After washing, drink activated charcoal and strong black tea.

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How to neutralize vinegar?

The neutralization chemical reaction is a reaction between acid and alkali, resulting in the formation of salt and water. You can observe the neutralization reaction itself only if an indicator is added to the acid solution, which will change the color of the solution. As soon as you add alkali to the color solution, the color will immediately disappear.

One of the options for neutralizing vinegar is a solution of sodium hydroxide (NaOH). For this:

1. Fill special chemical flasks with a dilute solution of sodium hydroxide and acetic acid.
2. In a flask with sodium hydroxide, add a few drops of an indicator, for example, phenolphthalein (you can add a catalyst).
3. Then add acid to the alkali solution, carefully one drop each.
4. Continue to add the acid solution until all of the sodium hydroxide is converted to salt.

Important! You can observe this transition by changing the color of the indicator: the raspberry color of the solution will completely disappear, and the liquid will become transparent.

A modern way to neutralize acid

In the event of an accident and a spill of acetic acid, a more modern method of neutralizing acetic acid is used in factories using an automated filling machine. The entire surface contaminated with acid is treated with anhydrous powdered sodium carbonate.

Such treatment of the contaminated surface is carried out until a thick paste is formed, and the paste itself is not removed. In subsequent acid spills on the pallet and in the event of a liquid phase, the spill sites are again treated with sodium carbonate until a paste that binds the liquid phase appears. If acid has got to the surface located outside the pan, this can be corrected by the process of neutralization with water, until a solution with a concentration of 25-30% is obtained.

Important! Acetic acid can be neutralized only with two alkalis: it can be either sodium carbonate or sodium hydroxide. Acetic acid is a fairly aggressive chemical. Therefore, to avoid consequences, be sure to adhere to safety precautions and our recommendations when using it. When working with acid, be sure to use gloves to protect the skin of your hands, and do not overdo it with concentration. Remember, it is always easier to prevent a problem than to fix it later.

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Useful tips in the home

The question of how and how to neutralize vinegar can arise not only when it comes into contact with the skin, into the body, or when acid is too chemically aggressive in production. Such a problem can happen with any housewife who decided to please her loved ones with a delicious red borsch or salad, in the recipe of which the addition of this ingredient is prescribed. What to do in such a situation? The outputs may be as follows:

If you are interested in how to neutralize vinegar in borsch, ordinary water or sugar will help here:

• the first is to be added to the total volume in order to reduce the acid concentration;
• the second product is also added little by little to the total weight of the soup until acid is reduced.

In the case of a salad, it will help:

• washing the ingredients, if, for example, as part of vegetables and subsequent re-dressing, but in the right amount;
• adding sugar - the amount may be different, depending on the total volume of the dish, focus on taste.

When preparing a hot meal or ingredients that you don’t want to rinse, you can neutralize vinegar:

• one of the dairy products - add sour cream or cream;
• sugar powder.

Important! There is information on the Internet about using soda and rice in this case, but:

• soda can only aggravate the situation with the wrong dosage of components in the dish;
• rice - absorbs only excess salt, but not acid.

Therefore, such advice is unlikely to be really effective and it will be difficult to remove the acid.

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We hope that from this article you have received the full amount of information on how and how to neutralize vinegar in various situations. Use this product carefully, then you will only have to enjoy the exquisite taste of dishes and cleanliness in the house, and not solve unusual problems.