Long Island, New York (NewYorkInjuryNews.com) — Yesterday afternoon, seven people were hospitalized due to a spill over of Muriatic acid. The incident took place in a Lowe’s home improvement center in Medford, New York. According to the Brookhaven Town Department of Building and Fire Prevention commissioner, Joe Saurewein, the leakage of Muriatic acid occurred in the afternoon at approximately 2:38 PM when store employees were using a forklift to carry a wooden pallet containing twelve containers of Muriatic acid.
The fork of the lift is meant to slide beneath the wooden pallet and lift the container to transport it from one place another. During the accident on Wednesday, one of the forks made a cut into the cardboard while damaging several plastic containers containing the acid.
Muriatic acid is well known as Hydrogen Chloride and is popularly used a cleaner. Hydrochloric acid is an aqueous solution used in various industries for cleaning purposes and has to be handled with extreme care with full safety precautions as it is a dangerously corrosive solution. Over exposure to Muriatic acid can lead to asphyxiation in case of poor ventilation and other injuries such as chemical burns. Muriatic is often used as a pool cleaner solution.
Once the Muriatic acid was leaked, customers complained about breathing and two workers were burned due as five workers were taken ill by respiratory problems. Three workers were taken to the Stony Brook University Medical Center and the other four injured workers were brought to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital.
Seven of the patients were treated by medical attendants. However, there were no fatal injuries according to the police. The store was closed after the spillage. People were asked to evacuate Lowe’s and the remaining Muriatic acid was placed in a 90 gallon container safely. Lowe’s reopened once the spilled Muriatic acid was cleared while availing an all-clear indication after an hour.