Battery acid - is it as bad as I think?

I got a small tractor battery at walmart today. Put it on back seats of car to go home. It was at a 45 deg angle when we got home / the things under it were wet, as was the seat.... battery acid (no fill caps on them these days, I think they are sealed... moron me.).

So I've been washing the seat with water, baking powder repeat.

But I've always thought battery acid is a pain - if a drop gets on your clothes, it'll bleach / make a hole there? or if it was on your shoe and you walked on carpet.... it's going to bleach the carpet?

Same with household bleach... I treat them as a hazmat situation / paranoid of a drop getting anywhere.

Is that overkill? I washed my hands and then happened to 'taste' my palm, and it had a acidic taste... I washed again to get rid of it, but how pervasive / concerned are you when dealing with a battery?

THANKS!

 

Keep diluting with water. Baking soda will neutralize it.
If you got it on your clothes.... soak them in water immediately.
Wash your hands if you get it on them.

Bleach will bleach the color out. Battery acid will eat the material.

 

Bleach is basic, not acidic. Neither is helpful to clothing but, as Pete pointed out, they attack in different ways. Additionally, bleach is a far less potent base than battery acid is as an acid so the effects from the same volume of spill will likely be much worse from your battery.

 

THANKS!

In general, when you are near / handling battery or bleach are you concerned that some is on your (junk) clothes and you and will get transferred to carpets / car seats / etc.