The Most Toxic Chemical You've Handled

[bliebblob]

Better question: wich one of them WASN'T dangerous?

Super concentrated HCl, mercury, loads of carcinogenic biochemicals,...
Of a lot of them I don't even remember what was so dangerous about them or what they were called.

Do possibly infected blood samples and several forms of radiation count?

Still, I hear we got it pretty good now. I heard from several different chem. professors that, back in the day, they were routinely up to their neck in chemicals that are now considered highly carcinogenic.

 

[Viral_Lola]

Hmm... I would have to say hydrofluoric acid. That stuff messes with your nerves so you don't feel the acid burns until later. (I was a chemical engineering major and now I'm chemistry major with thankfully steady hands.)

 

[dfphetteplace]

I work in HazMat. You don't want to know.

 

[Lukeje]

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

Francium gives an even bigger explosion. *meh*

No, it doesn't. Francium is so heavy that relativistic effects come into play (the electrons are whizzing by at speeds comparable to that of light in a vacuum). It is thus likely less reactive than Cs (though we can't test it because no more than a few hundred atoms can be made at a time).

As for the most toxic chemical I've handled, I really don't know. Basically everything in undergrad Chem labs was toxic to some extent.

 

[Smokej]

during my time at the army (Germany) as a combat medic i had some nice toys to play with especially when i worked with the ABC (=NBC) detachment of our regiment; i left most of their stuff alone because that wasn't really part of my training... but who needs those stuff if you have an army pharmacy packed with morphin, methadon, nitrous oxide etc.

 

[Alade]

Mercury, and that stuff is pretty toxic.

 

[Red Rum]

I got sprayed in the face with chlorine gas.

 

[blindthrall]

Probably fluoric acid.

 

[devotedsniper]

Hydrocloric Acid or Chlorine gas, although there was something (can't remember the name) which we used in my old chemistry class once, it had to be kept in oil at all times because if it came into contact with oxygen it would catch fire (or was it explode... i dunno id say that was the most dangerous one though).

 

[Pingieking]

Hydrofluoric Acid. Not Hydrochloric, HF.
It eats through glass, latex. You can't feel it on your skin. It goes through the skin and reacts with the bones to release a neuro-toxin. I was mixing that with Acetic acid and nitric acid to etch silicon.

Fun stuff.

 

[Fwee]

I've used acids back in my Chemistry classes, and mercury. And as a kid I had a few summers with a de-tasseling job, walking through cornfields that had just that morning been treated with fertilizers or pesticides.
Oh and one time when I was like six or seven I ingested battery acid.

 

[Lukeje]

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.

Neither is particularly volatile. And Caesium is most definitely toxic; if you were to swallow it your mouth and throat would become lined with concentrated CsOH (and that's before considering the dangers associated with the exothermicity of the reaction, i.e. ignition).

 

[Funkymonk761]

coca cola

 

[William MacKay]

i didnt handle it because that was illegal, but it was used near me: alpha and beta radioactive particles.

 

[Tibs]

My ex.

 

[monkey_man]

Milk. You can't possibly understand the dangers that come with milk!

 

[Madara XIII]

Super-concentrated hydrochloric acid. Don't ask how i obtained it, but it was fun to burn holes in stuff.

Same here. Only the one I had obtained was diluted severely. I think the most Dangerous was 100% Hydrogen Peroxide.

Hehehehe yeah just apply that to any cut you have, you wont have too much left on ya to complain about.

 

[ACman]

The title says it all. What is the most toxic chemical you have handled. Just the other day I was using aqua regia to etch a vial, which is a 3:1 combo of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid. And I thought that it was the most hazardous thing I've ever used. Although, the liquid nitrogen for physics demos would be another compound that could've been equally as dangerous.

Liquid nitrogen isn't actually that dangerous. It's heat capacity isn't great enough to significantly reduce anything temperature unless you have a huge amount. You might smother yourself with it if you spilled it in a confined space.

It certainly isn't toxic tho.

Dimethyl-mercury on the other hand.