EO In The Eye ** Flushing - Water or Milk

November 5, 2006

Hi Diana,

> Did I miss something in the discussion awhile back on what to do when

> accidentally getting e.o.s into the eye?

You probably didn't miss anything .. but I can see why you might be a

bit confused. ;-) All of the discussion on Flushing EO from the eyes

is in the list Archive .. easy to find because its properly titled ..

the subject line of those posts is " EO In The Eye ** Flushing " .

(NOTE: When we title posts correctly its easy to locate them later.

One of the worst titles we can give (among many) is .. Question on this

or that. Better it is to start with a subject and then add a verb or

whatever. Its logical .. its simply building a filing system.)

> I just read Martin Watt's Plant Aromatics(p.13), and it recommends

> flushing the e.o.s out with cold milk - pref. whole - or water.

True that it says that .. and for a long time folks gave out information

based on theory .. that is that any fatty substance will dilute the EO

quickly. But its not dilution we want when its in the eye .. dilution

will merely lessen the degree of stinging but spread it all over the

eye. What we want is to FLUSH it out quickly and completely .. so we

use something that won't allow the EO to dilute .. fresh water .. lots

and lots of fresh water .. literally, the head under the faucet. That

is the way it is done .. IN FACT .. by professionals who deal with EO

production and pouring on a daily basis .. and its the way its listed in

the First Aid section of any updated Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS).

I have had EO in my eye .. Dennis Archer (a distiller) has too .. and

many other folks in the business have had such an accident .. and all of

us go for the water first .. we have a flush station in my pouring room.

Will milk work? Yes. Is it the liquid of choice? No!

> I read some people's posts that milk is a bad bad bad idea, but Martin

> mentions milk before water.

Yep .. all you say is true. And all I wrote is true. ;-)

Plant Aromatics has been updated quite a few times over the years .. the

present edition is November 2001 .. I missed pointing out the above to

Martin when the old edition was updated and obviously Martin missed it

too .. but I am sure it will be changed if/when it is updated again.

> Blessings

> Diana

And to you .. y'all have a good one .. and keep smiling. :-)

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