What happens when sodium hydroxide solutions comes into contact with my skin?
Sodium hydroxide is extremely corrosive and is capable of causing severe burns with deep ulceration and permanent scarring. It can penetrate to deeper layers of skin and corrosion will continue until removed. The severity of injury depends on the concentration of the solution and the duration of exposure. Burns may not be immediately painful; onset of pain may be delayed minutes to hours. Several human studies and case reports describe the corrosive effects of sodium hydroxide. A 4% solution of sodium hydroxide, applied to a volunteer’s arm for 15 to 180 minutes, caused damage which progressed from destruction of cells of the hard outer layer of the skin within 15 minutes to total destruction of all layers of the skin in 60 minutes. Solutions as weak as 0.12% have damaged healthy skin within 1 hour. Sodium hydroxide dissolved the hair and caused reversible baldness and scalp burns when a concentrated solution (pH = 13.5) dripped onto a worker’s head and treatment was delayed for severa
