The Most Toxic Chemical You've Handled

[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.

 

[deckai]

As far as chemicals go, Potassium cyanide.

But I also worked with a few pathogens (Biosafety level 3) which worried me a lot more.

 

[Quaxar]

Job-wise I've handled quite a few medical things you could describe not as toxic but at least dangerous.
For example Epinephrine, Fentanyl and quite a few ones over their date of expiry that can mess you up quite nice when accidentally absorbed through the skin.

No good chemicals though, in school we were not allowed to use anything more than 1% acid.

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.

German army or some US base? Because I would be surprised if they still used opioid pain medication in the German army.

 

[Frost27]

I rolled a ball of liquid mercury around in my hand once when I was a kid. Pretty cool stuff.

 

[Rotating Bread]

Diaminobenzidine (DAB) is pretty toxic. Beta-mecaptoethanol is also very nasty stuff, stinks too. Concentrated hydrochloric acid is always fun; you don't want to get that in your eye! Xylene is very toxic as well, and it disolves rubber gloves too not to mention that it's highly flamable.

For all the people using ethidium bromide switch to sybrsafe or gel red, both much safer.

 

[Rotating Bread]

Diaminobenzidine (DAB) is pretty toxic. Beta-mecaptoethanol is also very nasty stuff, stinks too. Concentrated hydrochloric acid is always fun; you don't want to get that in your eye! Xylene is very toxic as well, and it disolves rubber gloves too not to mention that it's highly flamable.

For all the people using ethidium bromide switch to sybrsafe or gel red, both much safer.

 

[Mittens The Kitten]

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.

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.

 

[bram961]

i fly rc planes and some of the guys at our club have gasoline powered planes fun thing is you can make em quicker how you do that by adding nitro to the gasoline so i did have a full gas can of nitrogen in my hands and to have fun we took a little petri scale put the stuff in there and ignited it invisible flames of doom igniting paper 2 meters above the scale is awesum so its higly flamable and probably toxic if you swallow it

 

[Phototoxin]

Acid is not toxic - it's corrosive.
Chloroform is usually marked hazardous (and flammable!)
Liquid Nitrogen is just cold... totally not toxic.

Mine is probably Ethidium Bromide - it binds to DNA (woot I will have children with 6 fingers on each head!) although I do love the smell of phenol!

 

[Lukeje]

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.

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.

Acid is not toxic - it's corrosive.
Chloroform is usually marked hazardous (and flammable!)
Liquid Nitrogen is just cold... totally not toxic.

Mine is probably Ethidium Bromide - it binds to DNA (woot I will have children with 6 fingers on each head!) although I do love the smell of phenol!

Why do you think that corrosivity and toxicity are mutually exclusive? Don't you think that if something is corrosive then it is probably a bad idea to drink it? The same goes for LN2. Don't drink it; you will die.

 

[Whispering Cynic]

Most toxic? Probably that plastic bottle full of asbestos dust. Looked flimsy, not exactly well sealed. But we did have some fun with it...