For the love of god, don't sniff anything!!! ?

[Keith_Beef]

The words my manager said as I left the office an hour ago.

I'm currently sat in A&E waiting to be seen. Yesterday i arrived at the horses to find a 25litre container of liquid outside my feed room. Not knowing what it was and the label being unreadable I opened the lid (thinking it might be cattle fly repellent stuff) to have a sniff. It didn't smell of anything, so I had a bigger sniff (just to be sure). Still couldn't smell anything but the pain and burn in the inside of my nose hit me. My eyes were streaming and i felt sick. This passed after about 10 mins. Sorted myself out and then found the label on the back. Its formalin 40!!! Basically formaldehyde!! Its used as a foot bath for sheep if diluted at a ratio of 1:19 with water. So I hid it out of the way of any children and got on with jobs. Found out wear it came from and declined the gift and asked them to take it back. And that was that. Went home with a bit of a head ache but put it down to weather. Head ache still this morning getting gradually worse and my nose is really stinging, the smell of the epoxy at work really hurts.

So anyway, a work of warning to all! Don't sniff stuff in containers left by good intentioned friends, just don't sniff anything! ??

In O-level chemistry we were taught a technique for sniffing chemicals to identify them. The first bit of advice was never, never sniff straight from the neck of the carboy/demi-john/flask. You open the vessel, keep your nose about six to eight inches away level with the opening and use a hand to gently waft the fumes to your nose.

I think we were taught the technique on something innocuous like a conical flask of vinegar, then a weak solution of ammonia and finally hydrogen sulphide, but never needed to sniff formalin (not that we'd have that in the chemistry labs, anyway).

I've just spent a couple of hours sniffing fennel, pepper, timut berries, fresh almonds and duck breast... safe and delicious!