Water and aqueous solutions such as urine will not dissolve such a film, which explains why petroleum jelly protects a baby’s tender skin from diaper rash. Such alkane mixtures as mineral oil and petroleum jelly can be applied as a protective film. Liquid alkanes with approximately 5–16 carbon atoms per molecule wash away natural skin oils and cause drying and chapping of the skin, while heavier liquid alkanes (those with approximately 17 or more carbon atoms per molecule) act as emollients (skin softeners). (There is no home-treatment antidote for gasoline poisoning call a poison control center.) People who swallow gasoline or other liquid alkane mixtures should not be made to vomit, as this would increase the chance of getting alkanes into the lungs. The lungs become unable to expel fluids, just as in pneumonia caused by bacteria or viruses. In the lungs, however, they cause “chemical” pneumonia by dissolving fatlike molecules from cell membranes in the tiny air sacs (alveoli). Swallowed, liquid alkanes do little harm while in the stomach. A range of petroleum-based products that can be abused as inhalants. Pressurized canisters of propane and butane gas, both of which are intended for use as fuels, are abused as inhalants.įigure 7.1. Inhaling (“sniffing”) these hydrocarbons in gasoline or aerosol propellants for their intoxicating effect is a major health problem that can lead to liver, kidney, or brain damage or to immediate death by asphyxiation by excluding oxygen. Alkanes of low molar mass-those with from 1 to approximately 10 or so carbon atoms-are gases or light liquids that act as anesthetics. These effects depend on the size of the hydrocarbon molecules and where on or in the body they are applied. Hydrocarbons are the simplest organic compounds, but they have interesting physiological effects.
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