The Most Toxic Chemical You've Handled

[YawningAngel]

Anhydrous 30M Sulphuric Acid is probably the least pleasant thing I've been let near.

 

[Kirky]

I did get a fair amount of boiling Hydrochloric acid over my hand in chemistry class once, but it was at such a low concentration that all I had to do was run my hand under cold water for a while to deal with the scalding. Thank god for overly safety-conscious British secondary schools.

And it gave me the right to give my partner hell about it for a few days, mainly because I warned him about holding the test tube so close to the Bunsen burner before it happened.

Now that we're in sixth form - or at least, enjoying the three month holiday that comes immediately before sixth form - apparently they're gonna let us play with a few slightly radioactive isotopes in physics. That's gonna be a laugh.

 

[YawningAngel]

Hydrofluoric acid.

Wow really? Mind if I ask what you clean with that stuff? I'd have thought it was way too dangerous to be used for something like that, thought you'd use a stronger and safer acid like hydrochloric.

Etching some circuits and some specific equipment.

 

[mcnally86]

I don't know if caesium is toxic, but it is undoubtedly the most fun chemical I've handled.

Toxic is not the term, it's volatile. And I'm not sure but it may be the water that is volatile.

 

[theriddlen]

Well, numerous dangerous acids, i don't really know which is the most toxic.
My dad works in a place where industrial amounts of these are used, and as a young child i used to visit him at work.

 

[Wintermoot]

I don,t handle that much cheimcals but here is what I handled
Paint Thinner (Tamiya,s and Revell,s)
Ethanol
and highly concentrated alcohol (forgot the percentage but it,s meant for cleaning metal.)

 

[ZeroMachine]

Brutal Legend.

No, seriously, I'm lucky I walked away from what without cancer or something.

 

[PatrickXD]

I've used all those school acids, so Hydrochloric, Sulfuric and Nitric but only in lower percentages during my GCSE's.
I guess the most toxic chemical I've ever handled is Creosote mixed with motor oil. I got that shit on my arm and it burned like hell. Had to get some laser surgery to sort of get rid of a layer of skin, or I'd've got me some skin cancer. That shit is nasty.

 

[obex]

Nothing that toxic but i have handled small amounts of trinitrotoluene aka tnt which i guess is dangerous and i used to be a lab assistant so i worked around undiluted acids such as hydrochloric and sulfuric

 

[derelict]

I'd say uranium, but I don't think it really counts in ore form, since it's safe enough to handle. So, taking a close second, is chemical paint stripper. Not sure what it's made of, but that stuff is vile.

 

[AngryMongoose]

Solid Sodium Hydroxide probably, in GCSE chemistry, or some concentrated acid or other. I really hate handling remotely dangerous chemicals. Part of the reason I didn't take Chemistry into A level.

 

[Quantom Quak]

I've handled some weird stuff in my science career, and most of them are sort of dangerous.
I did also handle some liquid nitrogen once, and a class member thought it would be funny to pour some down the back of my shirt. I'm lucky it wasn't much, but I got a nasty cryogenic burn down my back.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Would handle various chemicals during my time in the navy, but honestly nothing toooo dangerous, but seriously, don't underestimate how dangerous jet fuel is. It might not kill you to get any on you, but your officers will sure as hell make you suffer for spilling any.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

Francium gives an even bigger explosion. *meh*

Francium doesn't really exist though except for about a second so I doubt anyone's ever put it into water. The most toxic thing I've handled is probably mercuric chloride as part of Nessler's reagent. Most corrosive is probably 9M sulphuric, most illegal probably methamphetamine, most dangerous probably a solvent like acetonitrile or chloroform.

Dihydrogen Monoxide.

I hear that stuff is especially dangerous when inhaled, just breathing a small amount of it is enough to kill someone.

I hope you're not confusing Dihydrogenmonoxide with Carbonmonoxide.

The first one is water, the second one is a deadly gas. Although I guess you can die from breathing in water, you'll need more than a small amount :<

 

[Tonimata]

I don't know if caesium is toxic, but it is undoubtedly the most fun chemical I've handled.

Caesium is what the dreams of the teenager scientist are made of

 

[En Row]

Most toxic chemical that I've handled?
hm... well that would be my peni- err... that isn't allowed? really? fine....

ok I played with tons of mercury in the past. Especially in my school laboratory. I almost died from mercury poisoning when I didn't noticed that I spilled a bottle. It was a closed room with the ventilation closed. It was fun. I mean the "playing with mercury" but the mercury poisoning...not so much....seriously...Dear God I almost died. I can't believe I survived.
You might be wondering how I got my hands on poisonous mercury. Well, since everything there is locked from the entrance door to the storage closets, I pretty much had to teach my myself how to pick a lock. For 3 months I practiced over lots of locks to familiarize myself. So I unintentionally taught myself how to break in homes.

ya...another story of my life.

 

[Pearwood]

The first one is water, the second one is a deadly gas. Although I guess you can die from breathing in water, you'll need more than a small amount :<

No I got the joke. It just depends how you quantify "small".

 

[bruunwald]

I've spent a lot of my life handing or being involved with caustic/hazardous materials. I don't always know the names of the chemicals themselves, but some of the industries I've worked in were:

Fiberglass moulding
Injection rubber moulding
A fully-loaded machine shop, including handling of various lubricants, coolants and solvents, including some mild acids

And on the side, I used to do a lot of electronics work, which mostly included a lot of soldering. Not sure if mercury is still in that stuff now, but this was a few years ago.

More recently, I've been making tabletop wargaming terrains at home. So for the past few years I have regularly handled various resins, RTV compounds, and all the various chemical agents (releases, hardeners, softeners, etc.) that attend those things.

I guess for me, it's a matter of quantity, rather than caustic quality.

 

[FallenTraveler]

Nitric acid in art... you use it to burn lines into metal plates.... you do it for five minutes... luckily it was very diluted... most of the idiots in there would've really fucked up...

It's fun to watch metal plates sizzle