The history of isolating fluorine from HF is pretty scary:<p>Humphry Davy of England: poisoned, recovered. George and Thomas Knox of Ireland: both poisoned, one bedridden 3 years, recovered. P. Louyet of Belgium: poisoned, died. Jerome Nickels of Nancy, France: poisoned, died. George Gore of England: fluorine &#x2F; hydrogen explosion, narrowly escaped injury. Henri Moissan of France: poisoned several times, success, but shortened life. For isolating fluorine, Moissan got the Nobel prize, two months before he died.<p>Source: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;History_of_fluorine#Early_isolation_attempts" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;History_of_fluorine#Early_isol...</a>