viscount Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 A quick question about spring cleaning. If one inhales the odor of household bleach (at <%5 but >%4 strength) without dilution, is it harmful? Or is the odor of full strength bleach just benign and yet irritating? thanks P.S. (no mixing with ammonia or the such involved, just straight household bleach) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainPanic Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 What does it say on the bottle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UC Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 It's a lovely mix of chlorine and chlorine oxides. Nothing you really want to be breathing on purpose, but a little won't kill you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.C.MacSwell Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 A quick question about spring cleaning. If one inhales the odor of household bleach (at <%5 but >%4 strength) without dilution, is it harmful? Or is the odor of full strength bleach just benign and yet irritating? thanks P.S. (no mixing with ammonia or the such involved, just straight household bleach) http://greenopolis.com/myopolis/blogs/ecodiscoveries/chlorine-bleach-can-cause-asthma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hermanntrude Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Just a few notes about that article: 1) no references at all. How do you know that "chlorine has been linked to asthma"? for instance? was it a study performed using the scientific method, or was it that someone drew the two words on a whiteboard and then drew a line linking them together? 2) repeated mentions of chlorine in water do not state what form the chlorine is in. Is it molecular chlorine, [ce]Cl2[/ce]? or perhaps chloride ions? or the perchlorate ion? who knows? Probably not the author of the article. 3) the statement that chlorine can form "THM"s shows the author's lack of common sense as well as knowledge. Since chlorine is the halogen present the only possible THM is chloroform. There was no need to use the general term "trihalomethanes", and certainly no need to go evoking an acronym. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ope Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 uc's got the right idea... it won't kill you. plus i'm sure chlorine is absolutely safe i mean salt has chlorine but you eat salt, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Ope - I fear that your post appears to me as somewhat misinformed, naive, and possibly even dangerous. These types of issues require pretty solid understandings prior to making outright declarations. If safety is involved, and you don't know the answer for sure, then it's better to make your post a question than to make it an assertion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UC Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 uc's got the right idea... it won't kill you. plus i'm sure chlorine is absolutely safe i mean salt has chlorine but you eat salt, right? No, salt has chloride anion. Chlorine gas was used to kill tons of people in WW1. At low concentrations, however, it acts merely as an irritant. Plus NaCl is pretty toxic, all things considered. It would just be hard to eat enough to kill you because of the taste. When I was less careful with my experiments, I managed to almost gas myself once or twice. The smell clings in your nose for hours and I was coughing for quite a while. Unless you're stupid enough to add acid to the bleach, you won't reach levels like I inhaled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBruce Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 uc's got the right idea... it won't kill you. plus i'm sure chlorine is absolutely safe i mean salt has chlorine but you eat salt, right? No salt has chloride in it not chlorine, there is a large difference. Higher levels of chlorine have resulted in the following effects in humans: 1 to 3 ppm: mild mucous membrane irritation; 30 ppm: chest pain, vomiting, dypsnea, cough; 46 to 60 ppm: toxic pneumonitis and pulmonary edema; 430 ppm: lethal after 30 minutes; 1,000 ppm: fatal within a few minutes. http://www.weblakes.com/toxic/CHLORINE.HTML I would not suggest purposely inhaling bleach in any amount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sisyphus Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 I wouldn't recommend eating pure sodium either... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psycho Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 I wouldn't recommend eating pure sodium either... The real question is would that be better or worse than breathing in pure Chlorine, which isn't advisable from experience. At least you can spit Sodium out after the chemical burns and then your only left with burning NaOH in your mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UC Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 The real question is would that be better or worse than breathing in pure Chlorine, which isn't advisable from experience. At least you can spit Sodium out after the chemical burns and then your only left with burning NaOH in your mouth. But the sodium will cause thermal burns as well and you risk a hydrogen explosion...in your mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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