"Here, hold me hair dryer, love, an' watch this........." *PA-WOOF!* 
Posted on 03/25/2010 4:19:16 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
... A British hairdresser died after her cigarette ignited a leaking bottle of hydrogen peroxide bleach which then blew up in her car as she drove along a quiet country lane ... "We want to warn people how volatile hydrogen peroxide is, even if it is kept in the boot of a car. Jennie’s friends have all said they carry it," added her mother Pauline Mitchell.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Something definitely wrong here.
The peroxide allowed for cosmethic purposes is limited to 3% in aqueous solution. That won’t blow no matter what you do with it.
They better keep on investigating.
Well I don’t have ‘explosives’ knowledge...but I do have ‘hair’ knowledge and, just a guess here, that if she was using peroxide its NOT the type you get in the drug store (which is less than 1% solution). Professional ‘grade’ is 8 to 10 percent; but can go as high as 40 (for very coarse, dark hair lightening—put it absolutely would fry the hair).
My guess, that she had MORE in her car (as a stylist) (hair spray; gel; acrylics for nails; etc.) and that the collective assemblage of products caused the fire (started by the cigarette).
We used hydrogen peroxide and sulfuric acid to clean wafers when making chips. You talk about a gawd awful combination...you could wave a piece of paper over the fumes and it would ignite.
The stuff in the brown bottle is 3%.
You can buy 25-30% for certain purposes, in very limited quantities.
“3% Hydrogen Peroxide (Drug/Grocery Store Variety)
Used as antimicrobial agent for treating wounds and sanitizing agent.”
Also the best way to remove blood stains from clothing...
You’re right. The peroxide did not explode, even if it was the 20% stuff.
It’s horrible, but I think it’s just one of those bizarre accidents. People get killed by having their acetone nail polish remover catch fire from something you wouldn’t even think would be hot enough; some of these substances are much more volatile than you’d expect, and most of us are just lucky!
"Here, hold me hair dryer, love, an' watch this........." *PA-WOOF!*
I’m no scientist, and I do not play one on TV, but hydrogen peroxide is not flammable, so a cigarette could not have ignited it. Hydrogen Peroxide is an extremely strong oxidizer, and if it comes into contact with organic material it can have an extremely strong reaction.
In fact, you could not use hydrogen peroxide above a certain strength on human hair, because hair is organic too, and you would have that same strong reaction.
A number of things are not right about this one...
Call me clueless...never considered that dry ice could do that.
And the stronger stuff (even 6-12% sold for hair bleaching) ALWAYS contains stabilizers, and is presumably sold in appropriate containers.
I’ve dealt a little with explosives, so let me propose a theory or two.
The hot cherry of a lit cigarette could possibly have blown into the back seat and ignited the material soaked in peroxide. The flame could then have caused an explosion of the car’s fuel tank or, somewhat more likely, traveled into the peroxide container and, due to the velocity of the expanding gas, caused an explosion, which might then have ignited the fuel tank to cause the “real” explosion.
Similar to igniting a metal gas can; it will explode if done properly.
1000 Ways to Die...............
But, that’s just a theory...The peroxide is probably not the thing that exploded.
I agree...there can be alot of flammable items that a stylist would be carting around with. Nail polish remover; the powders for acrylic nails; polish; hair gel; hair spray, etc.
And if she threw her smocks in her car...well, fuel.
No, the story is also on Daily Mail UK. She was supposed a totally immersed hair salon maven ... a kid really. Looked like a young British girl.
She was driving an Austin Mini, and had to open and then close the door to get in and drive away. That alone should have cleared out a significant amount of any concentrated oxygen that had built up inside the car. And cars are nowhere near airtight to begin with, so that should limited the extent of the build-up.
Her father is quoted in the Daily Mail article saying “It was her day off, and she was making her way home to do her mother’s hair, so she had her equipment bag with her and would have been carrying hydrogen peroxide in a small amount.” And she was a “mobile hairstylist”, so it doesn’t sound like she was operating a large scale hair-styling business, involving purchase of large containers of concentrated hydrogen peroxide.
I wondered too about a reaction with other chemicals. But considering the large array of reactive chemicals that are normally present at a hair/beauty salon, I’d think if this sort of accidental cross-contact with hydrogen peroxide could produce such a highly flammable compound (or explode upon mixing) that there would already be a long list of examples of past incidents.
More about this story and the Peroxide in question here:
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