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Safety(shower)Phenol has antiseptic properties, and was used by Sir Joseph Lister in his pioneering technique of antiseptic surgery, though the skin irritation caused by continual exposure to phenol eventually led to the substitution of aseptic (germ-free) techniques in surgery. It is one of the main components of the commercial antiseptic TCP. Phenol has anesthetic properties, and is the active ingredient in some oral anesthetics such as Chloraseptic spray. It is also used in the production of drugs (it is the starting material in the industrial production of aspirin), weedkillers, and synthetic resins (Bakelite, one of the first synthetic resins to be manufactured, is a polymer of phenol with formaldehyde). Exposure of the skin to concentrated phenol solutions causes chemical burns which may be severe; in laboratories where it is used, it is usually recommended that polyethylene glycol solution is kept available for washing off splashes. Washing with large amounts of plain water (most labs have a safety shower or eye-wash) and removal of contaminated clothing are required, and immediate ER treatment for large splashes; particularly if the phenol is mixed with chloroform (a commonly used mixture in molecular biology for DNA purification). Notwithstanding the effects of concentrated solutions, it is also used in cosmetic surgery as an exfoliant, to remove layers of dead skin. Injections of phenol have occasionally been used as a means of rapid execution. Phenol was also used as a mean of extermination by the Nazis during the second world war. Phenol injections were given to thousands of people in concentration camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau. These injections were administered by the doctors in the camp, and very often by their assistant. They were given at first in the veins of the intended victims and later on they changed the procedure and they injected it directly to the heart causing death within seconds. |