How unfortunate. You could toss out some seeds to see if they grow. I would not consider putting a vegetable garden there.

Acetone is not odorless by any stretch of the imagination.

That's a good point. If the liquid was odorless, is sure wasn't acetone. The potency of acetone doesn't decrease with time. The stuff just evaporates and disappears. Why did you think it was acetone in the first place? I've got barrels with all kinds of ugly labels that now just contain water.

BTW, when acetone evaporates, it leaves no residue. So a barrel that once held acetone that evaporated is going to be pretty clean.

I should add to that the caveat that acetone is such a good solvent, it can leave residues from any soluble stuff in the storage container that got dissolved by it. Also true that some commercial acetones have added petrochemicals, depending on the purpose.

Why would someone have a barrel of acetone, anyway? I don't think for one second that the material in question was acetone, but I'm so curious as to why someone would have a couple of barrels laying around!

Other than manufacturing meth (haha), or owning a dry cleaning business, why would a person need barrels of acetone?

I agree if it didn't smell, it likely wasn't acetone. Even if it were acetone, as others have noted - it's a strong organic solvent, so would kill stuff, but then evaporate and / or get eaten by microbes pretty quick. Mostly evaporate.

But it must have been something else. Likely water.

I am hopeful that all the good questions and points raised by the respondents, above, will be addressed by the OP upon his return.

Also note: the offending party is variously referred to as “someone”, “they”, and”them”.

“Better to have the full thing out”. Act 1 - The Importance of Being Earnest

Why would someone have a barrel of acetone? The stuff is a fabulous degreaser, paint dissolver, and epoxy remover. I think of acetone in tanker trucks, not in barrels.

Maybe the OP runs a nail bar?

Ah-Hah!! I believe flora nailed it!

That's a lotta nails.

Can one get hammered at a nail bar?

tj

I think the OP must have dissolved. Strong stuff!

Earlier posters nailed the properties pretty well. I suspect if there was any at all, it was an acetone-water mix because acetone is fully water soluble. And very fast to evaporate so if the barrels weren't sealed, it would be gone. If they were sealed and it was acetone, there would have been such a massive cloud of fumes (highly flammable fumes BTW) that no one could have ignored it.

Acetone comes in all kinds of containers from tanker trucks to half pint bottles. And barrels.

As far as I know it is not used for dry cleaning. Maybe spot removal, by the teaspoon, but not for overall cleaning.

haha! maybe i shouldve kept some of the acetone for my nails. theyre looking pretty cruddy nowadays and i could use manicure for once in my life.

to answer some of the questions of why i had these barrels, they were freebies on craigslist. i picked them up at some point in the past to see if i could do something creative with them. havent really gotten around to doing anything interesting with them yet though

@ahappy camper, my understanding is that the acetone is used as nail polish _remover_.

So you should go out and get the manicure and your nails done up right first anyway.

Free barrels of acetone on Craigslist? That's a new one. How big are these barrels? A 55 gal drum of acetone would weigh hundreds of pounds. Were you going to do something creative with the drums or with the acetone? So many questions!

I think the OP had free barrels. It was established that they didn't contain acetone. Probably just got some water in them. They may have had acetone labels on them. When noxious contents disappear, labels tend not to.

I doubt that it is legal to give away barrels that had been filled with a toxic substance.

Huh? Acetone isn't toxic. Though I wouldn't drink it. No law is going to prevent me from giving away a barrel of acetone. I don't think any law is going to prevent me from giving away a barrel of concentrated hydrochloric acid, or arsenic, either. Buyer (or beneficiary) beware.

A barrel that once had acetone in it is hardly toxic. When you brush your fingernails with acetone, and it evaporates, your fingernails sure aren't toxic.

I don't know whether any of those substances is outright illegal, but law enforcement may well show interest in anyone trading/selling (including giving away) industrial chemicals that also have applications in production of illegal drugs or explosives (and acetone apparently is used for making some drugs). Especially if the person giving away or acquiring has no obvious plausible use for the substance.

Side note, I don't know for certain, but use of arsenic in some industries (e.g. pesticides) is highly regulated and controlled/banned. There are some industrial uses but I doubt giving away arsenic is legal, even if you could obtain it.

Take a deep breath. You can buy acetone in the hardware store, and off the shelf in the makeup aisle in the supermarket. It is routinely used in paint and varnishes. Acetone is produced in the human body through normal metabolism. It is present in blood and urine. It isn't particularly toxic if ingested or inhaled, and it is neither a carcinogen or a neurotoxin.

Now, that being said, acetone is a recognized "precursor" for manufacture of illegal substances, along with lots of other chemicals. In the past few years regulations governing it's sale have been both passed and repealed. In large quantities it is a controlled substance. As per the Chemical Diversion and Trafficking Act (CDTA), sales and transfers of large amounts of it have to be reported to the Justice Department. No one is banning it.

Now, I can buy arsenic on Amazon. Real easy. Metal or oxide.

But again, we established way back up at the top that we weren't even dealing with acetone here. We're dealing with a barrel that was labelled acetone, and the barrel, not the acetone, was being sold on Craigslist. It probably had some rainwater in it. Pure acetone doesn't leave any residues.

^^ What he said.

As a govt hazardous substance bureaucrat, regulations regarding hazardous materials, hazardous substances, and hazardous wastes (which are all distinctly different), are complex. But nothing in this thread suggested wrongdoing as far as I am concerned. The 'labeled but empty drum' theory makes a lot of sense. It is not clear from the OP's posts that this was the case though. e.g. "Maybe I should have kept some of the acetone for my nails."

I did not intend to suggest that anyone was doing anything lillegal or untoward! Just that law enforcement could show interest and in some cases laws do apply restricting such transactions. (and iI think authorities do sometimes pay attention to craigslist.)

Hey, iI once had to fill out a form and show ID to buy a single packet of cold medicine - it contained pseudoephedrine. I thought the store was joking at first...

Yeah that Sudafed has been regulated for awhile because you can make meth out of it. I think my state has been #1 or #2 in meth production for some time. At least it was. Anyway you're right, you never know when Big Brother is watching. I dabble in antique radios and vintage audio. Some audio enthusiasts swear by oil-filled capacitors for their special sound. The old ones (50s-70s) are often still good because they're sealed in a can. I have a box full of them. But most of the time they contain PCB oil. Perfectly safe as long as they stay sealed, and you can legally USE them, and even give them away, but technically, you can't sell them. It would not surprise me if there is someone watching ebay for them. Too bad really, because people could actually get some use out of them before they have to be destroyed expensively as hazardous waste. The law of unintended consequences.

I don't mean to make anyone paranoid - authorities in normal countries mostly try to focus on dangerous stuff. Ie I doubt they worry about an old radio here and there. But what they consider an indicator of something dubious may be unpredictable. Does a drum of acetone look weird? Well, everyone here thought it a bit strange.

A drum labelled "acetone" that doesn't have acetone in it shouldn't look weird or dubious. The OP has yet to confirm that this is what's going on, but it sure sounds like it. As I said, a drum full of acetone that was acquired should have provoked official notification, but that still would hardly be weird or dubious.

But I hear ya talkin'. I have an elderly neighbor who has a shed filled with pretty noxious stuff. Remember Vapam? It's now banned for residential use. Pretty awesome stuff in a Hitchcockian way. He's got a small truckload of it. I'd call that a little weird and dubious.

I was not aware of Vapam, haven't run into the stuff before in my travels. Looks like a soil fumigant that is stable in crystalline form, but when it gets wet (in soil) it decomposes to methyl isothiocyanate which would be pretty toxic $h!t. Along with carbon disulfide and hydrogen sulfide. So a cocktail of noxious gases!

"a drum full of acetone that was acquired should have provoked official notification"

By who, the buyer? And to whom? I don't think they would have any obligation to report buying a common solvent, and who would they report it to? Ah well, it's all speculation and flagellation unless the OP gives us more info.

BTW the PCB capacitor thing was a little off topic but just to clarify, local officials couldn't care less, they're regulated under TSCA so it's the EPA TSCA people who watch for commerce in PCB products.

Yes, Vapam is a soil fumigant. It kills EVERYTHING. Bugs, weeds, fungi, microbes. It leaves you with sterile, and quite dead, soil. I believe it was rendered inaccessible to homeowners because they were using it, um, in their homes. Acutely toxic, though not carcinogenic. Those were the days. Still used in the ag industry.

CDTA evidently requires notification of the Justice Department about transferring large amounts of acetone. Look it up. Goodness knows who is responsible for doing that.

I think it was established here that the OP didn't have a large quantity of acetone. Not clear the OP had any acetone.

CDTA = Capital District Transportation Authority of NY? Oh wait maybe Chemical Diversion and Trafficking Act? That's a new one for me, I usually deal in wastes and even then, after they're spilled into the environment, so I admit I'm not totally up on product commerce. Acetone appears to be listed as a List II chemical under CDTA but I was unable to determine in a few minutes of looking around the federal website exactly what that means. Presumably there is a volume threshold above which some reporting requirements kick in, but I don't know what it is for acetone. All of which is merely academic interest on my part due to the sketchy info from the OP.

List I are precursors. That is, they turn into bad stuff. List II are mostly reagents and solvents which help the List I substances do that.

Ah very good thank you.