CA Is It Toxic?
 

A lot of us have CA around the shop or house. Is the stuff toxic in any way? If I glue a coffee cup or soup bowl back together with this stuff, will anyone suffer any bad results?

RE: CA Is It Toxic?
 

It IS toxic, but the minute amount one might be exposed to from fixing a bowl or cup wouldn't do anything (Unless they had an extreme allergy to it)

What you want to avoid is prolonged exposure to the fumes it creates when it's curing.

RE: CA Is It Toxic?
 

It will probably come apart when you least expect it to.

RE: CA Is It Toxic?
 

The fumes are a killer. CA is not your daddy's glue you use to sniff. You know you've got a good glue joint when the balsa starts to smoke. Your best bet on the coffee cup is white Elmers glue, but even that wont hold up to a dishwasher. Unless its sentimental or valuable, your better off trshing it and go down to Wally World and get another one for a dollar.

RE: CA Is It Toxic?
 

Thanks, guys. Points are all well taken. The bowl is part of a set that my wife likes a lot and probably can't be replaced. The bowl is not actually in two pieces. It is a soup bowl that has a hairline crack down low where the side curves into the bottom. It almost looks like it was two pieces at one time that someone put together and then fired. It leaks water slowly. I was thinking about putting just a drop or two of thin CA on the outside and let it run into the crack.

RE: CA Is It Toxic?
 

Actually, CA adhesives have a very low toxicity. The standard "LD50" (lethal dose for 50% of a population) is greater than 5,000 mg. of material for each kilogram of body weight. For a 100 Kg man (220 pounds), that means you'd need to ingest more than 500,000 mg in total of CA glue, or 500 grams (1.1 pound). In comparison, table salt has an LD50 of 3,000,000,000 ng/KG, or 300 grams for a 100 Kg man. Table salt is more toxic because it takes less to reach the LD50 level. (I think I got the math correct!)

You're actually in more danger of burning yourself with the heat given off when the CA adhesive cures when it hits the moisture of the mouth and digestive tract. That, though, isn't considered a toxic reaction.

As far as the fumes go, they can cause asthma-like symptoms and strong allergic reactions to those who are sensitive to it. That, though, isn't considered as part of the toxicity.

All of this information is publicly available. You just need to request the Material Safety Data Sheet for the particular material you're interested in. The MSD sheet must be made available upon request per Federal law.

RE: CA Is It Toxic?
 

That's exactly what I was going to recommend.

Wipe the excess off immediately with a paper towel, then once it has cured for about 10 minutes or so, you can wipe off any residue with acetone - providing the bowl isn't painted or the acetone might remove that too!

RE: CA Is It Toxic?
 

One of the early uses of CA was as a battlefield suture for use in Viet Nam and it is still used to this day as a form of suture in certain situations. True the fumes a certainly toxic but not whats left.

I,ve fixed lots of my carelessly broken coffee cups.

John