13 children taken to hospital after strong acid spills during science experiment

Kids playing withacid, what could go wrong?

Home schooling looks better every day.

Hydrochloric acid in elementary school, WTF!!!

Never did a chemistry experiment with dangers substances until in middle school.  Even then with minor amounts, and children wearing protective gear (googles, masks?), should have a fume hood to prevent spread of harmful vapors.  Also have a teaching assistant present to aide the teacher in making sure protective gear and precautions are taken.

Hmmm... trying to figure out what part of this is NOT negligence!

Hmmm... trying to figure out what part of this is NOT negligence!

Well, the teacher managed to get the child to only spill the acid on a table, and not on another child. Winning!

Never did me any harm.

We never used it, though....

So, the teachers see the kids eating lunch in their classrooms every day and spilling their drinks and getting food on their desks and the first thought is let's give them acid.

I think we're lacking a bit of information. Three milliliters of hydrochloric acid seems too little to cause a major problem. The headline says "strong acid", but do they mean the concentrated stuff the teacher used to keep locked away, or is it just journalistic license (acid = strong)?

Anyway, back in the day we would use hydrochloric acid all day in chemistry lab with no goggles or silly gloves or nout like that. The teacher could get a bit ratty when we put it in his tea - "Sulphuric acid in tea, and put it in the cup before you pour. Hydrochloric's for coffee."

(Sorry. It's Friday. It's been a long week.)

Well, I really doubt the claim that spilling 3 ml of HCl would cause such a havoc. If a child was allowed to handle it, it wouldn't have been in a very concentrated solution anyway. Remember, humans are natural producers of HCl in our stomachs, and the substance, while corrosive, is not toxic. Perhaps the teachers panicked and overreacted?

Kids playing withacid, what could go wrong?

The same things that can go wrong when you allow children to use products that carry risk of injury, which is nearly everything....

What strength was the hydrochloric acid 20-30-50%?, as for strong, well thats a bit vague, when I am told things by my son or staff and its vague, you now that its not 100% truth because there trying to cover things up,

Brian, LOL, HCl is in itself a gas, and when presented as a aqueous solution, it is usually up to 37-38%. Anything over 40-45 is impossible to obtain, due to dissipation. That being said, the kids played most probably with a concentration of less than 2%.