super glue

[Jennifer Edwards]

I could not even imagine getting some in my eyes...

Here is a story for you...

There was a thief who was partial to robbing houses in the early afternoon

He would pick a house where the wife was alone, knock on the door, and force his way in at gun point. Then the guy would lead his captor to the kitchen. Next he would super glue her hands to the table, gag her. Nd rob the house at his leisure.

The local constabulary got in the habit of carrying a bottle of acetone with them.

Finally one day the lady of the house got the drop on him, and glued HIS hands to the table while she called the cops.

When the cops arrived they tore his hands from the table, leaving a goodly portion of his palms behind!

 

[goldstar31]

Posted in error

 

[Cogsy]

One night when I was a lot younger I was rushing to get ready to go out on a date, and I had very red eyes. I grabbed a bottle of Visine eye drops and tried to squeeze some into my right eye. Just as the drop was detaching from the nozzle I had the thought "this stuff seems thicker than normal" and realised I'd grabbed my 406 Loctite (CA super glue) instead of the Visine. I squeezed my eye shut as the drop hit and managed to stick my eyelid shut pretty good. Fortunately for me it didn't get on the eyeball itself. A good thing about super glue is that it is degraded by tears so I eventually managed to get the eyelids apart without any damage. I also made sure not to store my eye drops next to my Loctite anymore.

 

[olympic]

A while back, someone squirted Super Glue into the ignition switch of my motorcycle. Fortunately, he was in a hurry, I guess, because it just became a wad of dried glue right at the top of the keyway and I was able to flick it out with the key. Nasty trick!

 

[ccdedon]

I build flying model airplanes of balsa wood, using mainly Ca to glue the pieces together. I order my Ca from different hobby shops on the internet. I generally buy the larger refill type containers of it. There are thick and thin types of the Ca, and I use both. I always place my Ca in the freezer after using it, and also store unopened bottles of it in the freezer. I have been doing this since Ca first came on the market to the public. Love the stuff. I have some that is close to 10 years old, and it is still good!

 

[StephenZ]

A few years ago someone coated a toilet seat in Grand Central station in the USA. with superglue. Firemen had to go cut the seat loose from the toilet and take a poor guy with the toilet seat stuck to his arse to the hospital to get him unstuck. A lady with poor eyesight got a squeeze bottle of cyanoacrylate out of the cupboard and thinking it was eye drops squeezed a couple of drops into her eye. Apparently the eye wasn't permanently damaged, but it sounds pretty horrible.

Holy crap! (pun maybe intended?) The eye one freaks me out...ahhhhh!

 

[Johno1958]

Cogsy usually I like to get some shut eye but that's a bit extreme..........
Cheers
John

 

[mcostello]

My Mom dropped some in Her eye also. Went to hospital and it was easily dissolved with no lasting effects. Why the glue was on a bedroom dresser must be an interesting story..........

 

[goldstar31]

My Mom dropped some in Her eye also. Went to hospital and it was easily dissolved with no lasting effects. Why the glue was on a bedroom dresser must be an interesting story..........

The mind boggles! I'll stick to that

Cheers

N

 

[ARUP]

I am an eye care professional. If you get it in the right place CA glue will glue you lids shut. It will adhere the corneal epithelium and bulbar conjunctiva to lid's inner surface ( palpebral conjunctiva), temporarily, before painfully breaking loose from a reflex action blink and continue abrading the cornea until the bolus of crystallized CA is removed. You just topically anesthetize the eye with 'numbing' drops, cut the glued lashes using Westcott scissors, instill some 'dilating drops' to reduce incidence of muscle spasm, put some antibiotic drops in the eye then place a bandage contact on the eye and have the patient see you in the morning... literally! lol CA will not dissolve on its own. You will not go blind if you get it in your eye but it will be a painful experience! It is my observation women do this more than men. Evidently, they put their nail glue on the bedside table along with their other eye drops. Throw eggs if you want but it is my experience. Women burn their eyes often enough trying to curl their lashes using a curling iron. The radii are not even close but they try anyway. That is another treatment for another day!

 

[Cogsy]

CA will not dissolve on its own.

This is not what the manufacturers say - LINK .

 

[arvidj]

This is not what the manufacturers say - LINK .

Cogsy,

I followed the link and, as you indicated, acetone will dissolve it ... the single use of the word dissolve I could find on the page.

However, the recommended treatment on the page for eyes and eyelids is (emphasis mine) ...

• Eyelid
  In the event that eyelids are stuck together or bonded to the eyeball, wash thoroughly with warm water and apply a gauze patch. The eye will open without further action within 1-4 days. To our knowledge there has never been a documented case of adhesive in the eye causing permanent damage. Do not try to force eyes open.
• Eyeball
  The adhesive will attach itself to the eye protein and will disassociate from it over time, usually within several hours. Periods of weeping and double vision may be experienced until clearance is achieved. Use of water to wash eyes repeatedly may assist in aiding more rapid removal of the adhesive.

My interpretation is that the CA crystals do not dissolve but are no longer stuck to anything. As ARUP suggests, they will eventually be flushed out of the eye like most other foreign objects are.

But my interpretation may be incorrect so ...

 

[ARUP]

That info is definitely WRONG! Do an experiment and prove it to yourself. All I am trying to do here is reassure folks and end perpetual false statements.

 

[Cogsy]

As I posted earlier, I have done this experiment, although it wasn't on purpose. Eyelid firmly stuck together, no medical intervention, no acetone, situation resolved itself perfectly fine. Dissolve may be the wrong word (although everything is somewhat soluble, even if it's only a tiny amount but that's getting very pedantic), but the glue certainly dissociates from the eye over time.

A quick search of the literature reveals this to be a common/recommended treatment practice in some places, with studies performed on its effectiveness, on top of the recommendation from a well-known manufacturer. So it may not be the practice you follow Michael, but it's certainly not a 'perpetual false statement'.

 

[ARUP]

Put some crystallized CA in water and see how long it takes to dissolve. You may have glued your lids shut but none of the hard CA was abrading your cornea. If so, you couldn't get that stuff out of your eye too soon and certainly wouldn't voluntarily wait for it to 'dissolve'... I'm telling you FACT! It is a painful situation. The epithelium of your lids bound to the CA 'sloughed' allowing your lids to open. It's the same if you get it on your fingers. The skin sloughs allowing the CA to fall off. Blood letting was a common treatment for maladies in days gone by but it didn't cure anything. MSDS sheets for chemicals and products don't always give accurate treatment regimens and are very broad in their scope. I am not a 'cook book' doctor and use my knowledge base and experience to resolve problems. I don't know everything (unfortunately, lol) and will resort to outside sources for data acquisition to apply to new and unfamiliar situations. Most of the time I use 'uncommon sense' to figure things out. It's the same for machinists I reckon.

 

[DJP]

Based on the shock of knowing that glued eye lids are even a possibility, I wouldn't hesitate to visit a hospital emerg as fast as possible. I have had welding flashes in the past in my eye and that was bad enough. Being without vision is a handicap that I do not ever want.

In some of our sports, self rescue is the only option but I do not discount the dangers.

 

[Cogsy]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everyone who manages to glue their eyes shut should just wait it out, I'm just providing some supporting information.

Put some crystallized CA in water and see how long it takes to dissolve.

Tears, as I'm sure you know as an eye care professional, are composed of far more than simple water, and include "water, mucin, lipids, lysozyme, lactoferrin, lipocalin, lacritin, immunoglobulins, glucose, urea, sodium, and potassium" as well as antioxidants including "Ascorbate, Urate, Cysteine, Glutathione, and Tyrosine". Some of these compounds may contribute to the dissociation of the CA, as reported in the available literature. Comparing modern data from manufacturers and peer reviewed studies to medieval bloodletting because they don't agree with your opinion is going a bit far in my opinion.

 

[metalmudler]

All this discussion of eye probs reminds me too much so of when I got a frag of metal in my eye and had to see a specialist at the Royal who used a tiny die grinder called an alger brush to grind the rust out of the surface of my eyeball... Back on topic.. What the heck are these people doing with superglue near their bed and bathrooms? I keep my superglue in the fridge, but there is no way I could mistake it for a coldy!

 

[goldstar31]

All this discussion of eye probs reminds me too much so of when I got a frag of metal in my eye and had to see a specialist at the Royal who used a tiny die grinder called an alger brush to grind the rust out of the surface of my eyeball... Back on topic.. What the heck are these people doing with superglue near their bed and bathrooms? I keep my superglue in the fridge, but there is no way I could mistake it for a coldy!

Paul,
I suspect that most of the comments are 'apocryphal' ie little more than old wives' tales.
Keep cool- from all reports. The snow on Newcastle's model of the Sydney Harbor Bridge has just melted!

We are now shooting the haggis ready for plucking and drawing for the Burn's Supper and next we are onto the Year of the Pig in the Chinese New Year.

Slange a Var and Gung Hay Fat Chow

Norm

 

[metalmudler]

Shooting the haggis.. That's funny, but yeah I makes my own. I just get a small animal and some oatmeal in an old sock and pop it with the 12g, hang it out near the outhouse for a couple weeks.
FYI an economy based on haggis feathers will fly nowhere!