I work at a factory that uses a chemical called MDA for cleaning, is it the same thing as the illegal drug?

Question

We use a clear, very cold liquid (that burns like h**l when it evaporates on your skin) to clean epoxy resins off machine parts. We commonly refer to it as Methylene, but some old signs hanging around call it MDA, and suggest that it may cause liver and lung cancer. Is it the same thing as the illegal drug MDA, closely related to MDMA?

Answer 1

MDA, the drug, is an acronym for MethyleneDioxyAmphetamine. It, like most amine-containing drugs (legal or otherwise) is isolated as an amine salt and is, therefore, a white solid and not a liquid. I'm not sure what is being used at your facility but it sounds a lot like dichloromethane. Dichloromethane is a widely used industrial solvent that is also known as methylene chloride - it is a clear liquid with a very low boiling point (~40 degrees C) that burns like h**l when it evaporates from your skin. But the commonly used acronym for it is DCM (for DiChloroMethane).

Why not ask someone what it is?