The Most Toxic Chemical You've Handled

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Lead and mercury.

Hydrochloric acid (75%), if we're talking about chemicals as 'liquids.'

I think the highest I've had was 50%.

 

[Ren3004]

Ammonia; several kinds of acid. Chemistry was fun.

 

[Kargathia]

As I never really did chemistry....

Good ol' moonshine.

 

[GLo Jones]

Potassium cyanide for me. My uncle used to work at a jewellers, and they had it to clean or buff the gold of something. Either way, I've handled it in little measured sachets, and I'm pretty sure only like a gram of the stuff can kill you in minutes.

 

[VelinDraconin]

I'd have to say it's a toss up between 90 Mol hydrofluoric acid or Bromoform. Personally the Bromoform scares me more than the acid.

 

[Kingshadow6]

Most toxic is probably Hydrochloric Acid, but most lethal is definitely Liquid Nitrogen. We used it for an overclocking session, got the whole thing for free because we said it was for a "student project". It came plugged with an honest to god sock and we had to pour it using a plastic and metal coffee mug, holding it with a single skiing glove (we couldn't find the other). It was a good day.

 

[Johnny Impact]

I think the chem students win.

I've handled industrial cleanser that will eat the skin off your hands.

That comment, coupled with your user icon, made me laugh. I suppose that means I'm a bad person.

Seriously though cleansers can be nasty, and industrial-strength anything isn't anything to shake a stick at is it?

"Eat" is too strong a word for the stuff I've used. More like "gnaw in a slow, desultory fashion." It would kill you or make you real sick if you drank it -- a coworker went temporarily blind and had slight permanent eye damage after a splash got on her -- but it's designed to leave tile floors relatively unscathed.

Now that I think about it, I've also used liquid nitrogen, mercury, sulfuric acid, insecticide, and a cabinet full of lesser stuff. ....How toxic is the thermal-conductive gel you put between processors and heat sinks? What about superglue and spray primer? I must admit I don't know the exact relative toxicity of most substances. I just look to see if the warning on the bottle is in the shape of a child (mild: don't feed to Junior), an exclamation point (moderate: don't feed to anyone), or a skull (you're already fuckin' dead.)

 

[similar.squirrel]

Hydrochloric acid. It was quite dilute, though.
I'd be happy to never attend a chemistry lab session again. Alas, even ecology calls for it.

 

[BoogieManFL]

That I am aware of, Mercury.

 

[Merkavar]

maybe not toxic but dangerous. a bacteria culture i made from a urinal

 

[bioshockedcriticjrr]

cheap russian vodka called "alaska". it's like someone ripped the label off rubbing alchohol and replaced it with a vodka label with some russian off it. it's a long story. lets just say we were poor.

 

[Naeo]

Hydroflouric acid or high concentration sodium hydroxide, because I am a boss.

 

[Axzarious]

A mercury thremometer before I was in school. Think I broke it too. Not sure.

 

[Mittens The Kitten]

tox·in   /ˈtɒksɪn/ Show Spelled
[tok-sin] Show IPA

?noun
any poison produced by an organism, characterized by antigenicity in certain animals and high molecular weight, and including the bacterial toxins that are the causative agents of tetanus, diphtheria, etc., and such plant and animal toxins as ricin and snake venom.

I know it's nitpicky for me to do this, but since this is a sciencey sort of question, I thought that it might be a good idea for the question to be worded in a more accurate way, and "toxic" isn't really the best choice here.

You gave the definition of `toxin'. Not `toxic'. Toxic is just another word for poisonous.

tox·ic   /ˈtɒksɪk/ Show Spelled
[tok-sik] Show IPA

?adjective
1. of, pertaining to, affected with, or caused by a toxin or poison: a toxic condition.
Since toxic just redirected me to toxin, I thought that just putting that it would be less confusing because this definition is really useless without the definition of toxin.

 

[awmperry]

Although I do remember one guy who accidentally drank diluted hydrochloric acid. I know it's hard to believe but I actually did. He thought the flask was empty and pretended to drink from it and accidentally drank some HCl.

In one chemistry lesson, the teacher poured up a beaker of damn near pure ethanol and passed it round; we were supposed to waft the fumes gently towards us to see how pure alcohol smelled.

Last in the class was Erik, your classic likeable class lunatic. The beaker arrived at him, and he swigged the whole thing down - 80cc 99.9% ethanol.

Funny thing was, nobody could see any discernable difference.

 

[bluewolf]

Base. It was very mild though thankfully so when the jar shattered for no reason and spilt it on my hand my hand only stung a bit.

Yah, for defective saftey measures

 

[Double A]

Hydrochloric acid. I accidentally spilled some. It made a hole in my pants. And tingled.

 

[JasonKaotic]

We've had to work with sulphuric and hydrochloric acid a lot in school, if that counts as toxic.

Probably Sunny Delight.

It's an evil "Orange flavour" "drink" containing more sugar and artificial colourings than should be possible

I miss that stuff...

 

[Chappy]

From A level probably Chlorine Gas, We made it to do other tests inside the chlorine gas I can't remember the tests exactly but I do remember burning a substance in the sealed container with the gas to see what happened.

 

[icyneesan]

I once went on vacation to the states. So I'd have to say the air. How the hell do you guys breathe in that crap?