I feel a little awkward about doing this but I really believe that you've been taken in by some buzz words and phoney science. Cyanoacrylate is completely safe for use on wounds; very very ocassionally, someone is allergic to it and it causes a rash and that's super rare. Proper clinical testing in the UK and elsewhere will confirm this. If it were the case that regular super glue was no good for people, newskinproducts.com would be out of business, so it's good for them to perpetuate the myth. In reality, cyanoacrylate has been injected directly into people's blood streams (not accidentally picked up via an infected wound) with very positive results for certain ailments and no side effects ( http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2011/bcr.02.2011.3913.abstract?sid=5ef5ca3f-069f-48ab-9eca-c5556fb2e447 and others).
Do your own research, don't take either of our words for it, please. And again, apologies to good@sabacc; you seem like a really good guy who knows what he's talking about but I have to disagree with you on this issue because the research tells a different story.
It's OK - I don't mind being correct. I prefer to call it "discovering the truth". If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong.
I took a quick peek at the article you quoted - it mentioned a particular procedure performed using "cyanoacrylate" but not going into details as to which type or brand. The term "cyanoacrylate" (or "CA") covers a large number of different chemical compounds.
Here's where I got my info from: Wikipedia article on "Cyanoacrylate" in the "Safety Issues" section, copied below. It states the various safety issues - there's a few more than simple skin irritation. The whole "This section does not cite..." part may not inspire confidence, but it's remained there unchallenged since July. (I see that on a lot of reliably informative articles; I think it was just that the poster was too lazy/busy to cite them.) If you read the whole article, you'll see that
ethyl CAs (the OTC "superglues" used for bonding objects) are not what's used in medicine, but
2-octyl CAs are, and under multiple brand names, for both medical and veterinary purposes. The only easily obtainable OTC 2-octyl CA would be New-Skin; others would have to be obtained from a medical supply shop either in person or online. Some marathon runners use New-Skin on their feet where they know they're prone to getting blisters in order to prevent getting them while running in an event; think of it like the calluses that a guitarist's fingers develop, except in liquid and spray form. A 2-octyl CA like New-Skin is thought of as better than normal adhesive bandages because the application is waterproof and bonds stronger while remaining flexible.
Funny thing - read the entire article and you'll see that while the first application of CAs was in medicine, they were developed when Eastman Kodak was trying to create a plastic see-through gun sight!
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Toxicity The fumes from CA are a vaporized form of the cyanoacrylate monomer that irritate sensitive membranes in the eyes, nose and throat. They are immediately polymerized by the moisture in the membranes and become inert. These risks can be minimized by using CA in well ventilated areas. About 5% of the population can become sensitized to CA fumes after repeated exposure, resulting in
flu-like symptoms.
[15] It may also act as a skin irritant and may cause an allergic skin reaction. The
ACGIH assign a
Threshold Limit Value exposure limit of 200
parts per billion. On rare occasions, inhalation may trigger
asthma. There is no singular measurement of toxicity for all cyanoacrylate adhesives as there is a wide variety of adhesives that contain various cyanoacrylate formulations.
The United States National Toxicology Program and the United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive have concluded that the use of ethyl cyanoacrylate is safe and that additional study is unnecessary.
[16] 2-octyl cyanoacrylate degrades much more slowly due to its longer organic backbone which slows the degradation of the adhesive enough to remain below the threshold of tissue toxicity. Due to the toxicity issues of ethyl cyanoacrylate, the use of 2-octyl cyanoacrylate for sutures is preferred.
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Reaction with cotton
Applying cyanoacrylate to materials made of
cotton or
wool (such as cotton swabs, cotton balls, and certain yarns or fabrics) results in a powerful, rapid
exothermic reaction. The heat released may cause minor burns, and if enough cyanoacrylate is used, the reaction is capable of igniting the cotton product, as well as releasing irritating vapor in the form of white smoke.
[17]Material Safety Data Sheets for cyanoacrylate instruct users not to wear cotton or wool clothing, especially cotton gloves, when applying or handling cyanoacrylates.
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I suppose if you were evil or desperate enough, you could fling some ethyl CA at a pursuer - a majority of the garments made these days have some amount of cotton or wool in it. His or her clothes burst into flames while creating an irritating vapor allowing you an easier escape. Alternately, you could slather it on something like a dish cloth or a cotton rag and toss that - it would bond to their clothes or skin rapidly enough, I think, though it's something that one should test, if they had the inclination to do so... (Sounds like a cool plot device in a thriller novel for escaping capture!)
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