G’day; those of you who use oxalic acid for cleaning iron stains
from crystals please remember that it is very poisonous, and you
should use protective gloves with it. Not that it will do much harm
to skin, but if it can enter the body it will cause harm. It has the
property of gathering all the iron atoms it can find and converting
them to a condition where they can no longer react with anything very
much. This process is called chelation and cannot be reversed
easily. And blood contains iron… Incidentally it is also
useful for removing what used to be called ‘iron mould’ on clothing;
This was often caused by old fashioned inks which contained iron. –
Cheers for now,
John Burgess; @John_Burgess2 of Mapua Nelson NZ