ABSTRACT
Corrosives are the largest class of chemicals used by industry, so it stands to reason that they would frequently be encountered in transportation and at fixed facilities. DOT Class 8 materials are corrosive liquids and solids. There are no DOT subclasses of corrosives. There are, however, two types of corrosive materials found in Class 8: acids and bases. Acids and bases are actually two different types of chemicals that are sometimes used to neutralize each other in a spill. They are grouped together in Class 8 because the corrosive effects are much the same on tissue and metals, if contacted. It should be noted, however, that the correct terminology for an acid is
corrosive
and for a base is
caustic.
