Hydrogen Sulfide
h2s

_This is the organizing page for research related to hydrogen sulfide in Public Lab._ (above: [DIY colorimetric strips](/notes/megan/9-7-2012/first-experiment-analyzed) reacting to H2S by @megan) ### What is hydrogen sulfide, what are its effects, and where is it found? Hydrogen sulfide, with the chemical formula H2S, is a flammable gas that has a pungent odor at low concentrations and is odorless at higher concentrations. It can be a respiratory irritant and a neurotoxin. [Read more about hydrogen sulfide health effects](/wiki/hydrogen-sulfide-effects). Hydrogen sulfide is naturally formed in low-oxygen conditions with sulfate present, such as in organic-rich sediments and thus in petrochemical source rocks. Upon exposure to oxygen, hydrogen sulfide readily oxidizes to sulfur dioxide or sulfate, and generally reacts within hours to days. [Read more about hydrogen sulfide sources and spatial and temporal variation](/wiki/hydrogen-sulfide-environment) ### How are hydrogen sulfide emissions and exposures regulated? In the United States, hydrogen sulfide emissions are only federally regulated to the extent that they contribute to sulfur dioxide formation, and thus acid rain. These emissions are regulated through the Prevention of Significant Deterioration of major stationary sources review and permitting. Exposure to hydrogen sulfide is mostly regulated in terms of occupational exposure, with very few states regulating ambient exposure to this toxin. [Read more about hydrogen sulfide regulations](/wiki/hydrogen-sulfide-regulations) ## How can hydrogen sulfide be measured? While there is no federal regulatory method for hydrogen sulfide in the US, labs, agencies, and oilfield workers often measure hydrogen sulfide gas through several different means: * badges or glass tubes that change color * continuously sampling electronic sensors, some worn by oilfield workers * [air grab sampling](/wiki/air-sampling), as by the Bucket Brigades, tested with gas chromatography > We're compiling information about the **pros, cons, prices, and sensitivity/limitations** of these techniques: [What are different commercially available hydrogen sulfide detection methods?](/notes/warren/12-04-2017/what-are-different-commercially-available-hydrogen-sulfide-detection-methods) ## Do-It-Yourself approaches to detection There are three prototype, low-cost hydrogen sulfide detection methods currently being explored by Public Lab community members. These include: * a [method using photographic paper](/wiki/hydrogen-sulfide-photopaper) * a [copper tarnishing method](/wiki/hydrogen-sulfide-copper-pipe) * a technique using a [Do-It-Yourself potentiostat](/notes/JSummers/03-10-2014/quantifying-airborne-hydrogen-sulfide) * commercial [electronic H2S sensors](/wiki/hydrogen-sulfide-sensor) connected to a computer or #arduino > Help out! Please help link the above bullet points to corresponding pages across this site. **** ## Questions We can't make progress on these techniques and resources without addressing our unknowns. Please ask questions to help shape the direction of our work! [questions:hydrogen-sulfide] **** ## Related pages See [other related wiki pages here](https://publiclab.org/wiki/tag/hydrogen-sulfide) **** ## Activities These activities are to guide you to test out hydrogen sulfide detection methods or use these tools in the field: [activities:hydrogen-sulfide] **** ## Where can I find more information? Two particularly good resources are listed below. Other hydrogen sulfide wiki pages (mentioned above) include additional relevant resources. 1. Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry. 2016. Hydrogen Sulfide Fact Sheet. [https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/ToxProfiles/tp114-c1-b.pdf](https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/ToxProfiles/tp114-c1-b.pdf). 2. National Research Council. 2010. Acute Exposure Guidelines. [https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-11/documents/hydrogen_sulfide_final_volume9_2010.pdf](https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-11/documents/hydrogen_sulfide_final_volume9_2010.pdf). ...


Author Comment Last activity Moderation
stevie "Hi @deepwinter - We're going to do an OpenHour on exploratory hydrogen sulfide monitoring methods Monday, January 8th at 8pm ET/ 7 central. Hope yo..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
stevie "Hi @ewilder - We're going to do an OpenHour on exploratory hydrogen sulfide monitoring methods Monday, January 8th at 8pm ET/ 7 central. Hope you'l..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
stevie "Hi @megan - We're going to do an OpenHour on exploratory hydrogen sulfide monitoring methods Monday, January 8th at 8pm ET/ 7 central. Hope you'll ..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
stevie "Hi @Clarke_Brian We're going to do an OpenHour on exploratory hydrogen sulfide monitoring methods Monday, January 8th at 8pm ET/ 7 central. Hope y..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
stevie "Hey @sophie - it has been a while! Hope all is well. We're going to do an OpenHour on exploratory hydrogen sulfide monitoring methods Monday, Janu..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
BSweet "Reduced sulfur compounds generally have relatively short lifetimes in the atmosphere (days). A residence time of 4.4 days has been reported by War..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "What's a good way to determine this? Would it work to set up a test somewhere there is H2S, alongside a calibrated H2S detection technique and comp..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "Great notes on choosing different copper pipes (apparently there's red copper and blue copper?) by @sara on this post: https://publiclab.org/notes..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "For what it's worth, you can buy H2S gas here for $189, but I think I'd think twice about doing so given how toxic it is: https://www.durawear.com/..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "And read about air grab sampling as the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and other bucket brigades do: https://publiclab.org/wiki/air-sampling " | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "Also see this post by @megan: $20 a day from Safety Alliance in Farmington, (505)-325-7233 I have included this link to information on the Gas Bad..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "And @sara noted these glove bags for working with toxic materials: https://publiclab.org/notes/sara/2-6-2012/hydrogen-sulfide-testing-glove-bag " | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "https://publiclab.org/notes/megan/4-2-2012/possible-sensor-field-calibration-photo-test-strips shows some ~$200 wearable electronic sensors for H2S..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "Also good resources at https://publiclab.org/wiki/site-survey ! " | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "I was wondering if sheets could be nailed into a wooden plate. It does seem like it would be ideal for the sheets to be flat, so we can more easil..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "This is really cool. Thanks for sharing this, Leslie! " | Read more » over 6 years ago
gretchengehrke "The general principles discussed in this wiki would apply for hydrogen sulfide sampling too: https://publiclab.org/wiki/general-environmental-monit..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "Also, not that this sounds ideal, but these two students did some good documentation and work on detecting h2s from bodily sources, so to speak: ht..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "There's some good brainstorming on this topic in these old posts by @megan, @shannon, and @sara: https://publiclab.org/wiki/new-mexico-hydrogen-s..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "I see a couple leads here, one by @jschaffr : https://publiclab.org/notes/jschaffr/11-21-2011/controlled-testing-bw-film-hydrogen-sulfide-detecto..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
warren "@sarasage posted this about odor logs and it has specific types of odors to look out for, like "rotten eggs" -- https://publiclab.org/notes/sarasa..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
mathew "@eustatic-- you definitely didn't kill momentum on the project! Once we had the calibration locked in, we needed something to test for. The Kitag..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
zengirl2 "I was really excited to work on this at BarnRaising. As a group we constructed sensors by using tin snips to cut sheets of copper, which is a bit t..." | Read more » over 6 years ago
gretchengehrke "@eustatic, no worries -- Mathew got this pretty far (complete, perhaps?). The video is embedded in this page: https://publiclab.org/wiki/formaldehy..." | Read more » over 6 years ago