SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

'this is a result of the government prioritizing economic activity by getting people to move around again over infection control,' said yoshihito niki, professor of infectious disease at showa university school of medicine.

a panel of experts praised for showing leadership during the first phase, was dissolved in a political mix up, while a much derided campaign to encourage domestic travel began just as infections started to surge.

 

sounds a lot like here. we're seeing an uptick from travelers coming from hot spots. self quarantine is a poor substitute for restrictions. responsible people don't travel where they shouldn't, and irresponsible ones don't quarantine.

 

One of my favorite EV car reviewers and his significant other decided to do a 'grand tour.' I posted a suggestion that no one would think any less of them IF they cut it short. But their latest report is visiting the salt flats and Mojave. I wish them well.

Bob Wilson

 

Methanol in hand sanitizer....

After my first several weeks of shopping attempts, I did finally start to see some hand sanitizer appearing on shelves, and brought home a couple different brands and sizes. All the brands out there are names nobody's seen before, that have just appeared in the marketplace to sell stuff.

Meanwhile, in my news perusal I keep seeing articles about sanitizer brands that have been discovered to contain methanol, and the list keeps growing. It's getting kind of tedious to keep downloading those lists and re-checking them for the brand names on the bottles I have. (Maybe I should really write some kind of browser extension to do that.)

It starts to sound more appealing to find out if there's a way to just test the stuff I've got for methanol, if there is some practical DIY way to do that.

So far, the ideas I've seen run to does it burn yellow rather than blue? or how does it smell after reacting with sodium dichromate and sulfuric acid? (great, that must be why I can't find sodium dichromate or sulfuric acid at the Qwik-Pik anymore).

From what I was reading earlier when I couldn't buy any of the stuff and was thinking of trying to make it, it's typically 60-70-ish percent ethanol in mostly water with a splash of glycerin. I don't know what the addition of glycerin would do to the flame-color test (which was suggested for alcoholic beverages, not hand san).

Any chemists weighing in?

 

Diluted grain alcohol:

If you have any left over, be sure to mix 10-to-1 with favorite fruit juice.

Bob Wilson

 

Are you trying to sanitize the inside of your body??

 

Better way to do it than an injection.

But that's a topic for a separate thread.

 

Or just have a beer or glass of wine when you use the hand sanitizer.

 

Our chance lies in the understanding that most states' citizens aren't packed together like sardines. It's the states with the densely populated areas (even more precise, the dense areas within those dates) that seem to be suffering the worst end of this thing.
.

 

ma gov announces $500./day fine for those coming in from hot spots and failing to self quarantine.

will be intersting to watch enforcement

 

I haven't found anything advising me not to eat ants ... and a variety of sources expounding on how tasty they are.

Is there a guideline for how many ants would have to be eaten for formic acidosis to be an issue?

Or does formic acid ingested have a different destiny than formic acid made in the liver from something else?

 

Sorry but from early chemistry, my understanding is methanol forms some aromatic compounds.

Bob Wilson

 

Always interesting and knowledgeable comments from you.

 

The liver converts methanol to formaldehyde and then to formic acid and formate, which are the nasties causing the damage. The methanol compound itself seems to be relatively harmless if not metabolized, and the kidneys will filter out. Ethanol can work has an antidote to methanol because it is the same enzyme in the liver converting the alcohols, and ethanol ties up the enzyme through competitive inhibition.
Methanol toxicity - Wikipedia

 

I was and remain more interested in detecting methanol:
http://faculty.eicc.edu/sites/kjohnson/labbook/physicalscience/esters.pdf

One of my chemistry experiment was synthesis of wintergreen using methanol. I don't remember if we used sulfuric acid to catalyze the reaction. Just I remember the wonderful smell from the reaction. But this begs the question of ethanol? Would it do the same and I suspect not.

Bob Wilson