Saturday, November 7, 2009

Has anyone been exposed to chlorine gas caused by accidentally mixing bleach with ammonia? What happened?

I did, about 15 years ago, and it nearly cost me my life. It was accidental.I was cleaning the cat box and, duh, there's ammonia in there and there was a cloud that came up from the sink and I happened to inhale it. I started choking. It temporarily blinded me and the burning sensation was like nothing I have ever felt. I crawled away from the sink and collapsed on the floor (this was in the basement so the cold floor actually felt good). I didn't pass out but I actually had saliva and mucous running from my nose and mouth. I couldn't breathe at all. I must have been lying there for a good 20 minutes before I could get up again. My dog came downstairs and started licking me all over and that revived me. My chest, nose and throat hurt for weeks.I'm just wondering if anyone else has had this experience? I was pretty stupid but it happens to other people too. It's deadly and I was probably inches from death. Another gasp of air with the chlorine gas would have probably done me in.
Answers:
I have treated several that have done the same thing. People think that since bleach cleans pretty good, Ammonia cleans pretty good, mix them together and wow, it should clean really good.Wrong, and several people have died and one is permanently blind due to this mess up.Dont mix the two, and dont use the ammonia with a cleanser that has bleach in it, get the same results
you should make that into a movie.
yeah it happened to me when i was cleaning my toilet once, but my experience wasnt that intense.
No, I've never had the experience, but I'm sure it is fatal. Be careful next time.
One of my classmate's moms died from that. she mixed ajax and ammonia.. or something like that.
I think I got just a tiny whiff of it once, from the toilet. Yes, it's no joke.Good thing to be taught in health class or science class. Here's a good example of where science is useful for everyone.
yes I was stupid once b 4 and did it myself but once I noticed that I couldnt breath and started coughing I ran to another romm for air. This was about 7 yrs ago
I never had it happen that bad, but I mixed CLR and bleach, thinking that it'd be ok as long as I turned the vent fan on. yeah. It wasn't.You just gotta pay attention to the labels!
Well there was a case of a derailed railroad car that had roughly 100,000 pounds of chlorine as cargo, and it sent a cloud of gas into a small town in South Dakota. The effects of chlorine gas are very similar to mustard gas, in that they will cause extreme irritation of mucus membranes and can cause death fairly quickly. If you ever deal with that chemical, make sure you're in a well-ventilated area.
never happened to me.thought the danger might have been an exaggeration till I read all this.
good way to spread the word!
It is not called chlorine gas it's cyanide. It's been used for many decades to kill people on purpose as a gas and a pill form.
Yes I have and I coughed alot and it made my eyes water. I could like "taste it" for awhile and I couldn't get the smell out of my sinuses for awhile either.
My friend did that at work below the exhaust fans once. Said it made the water boil and cleaned real well. Ate the rust off the inside of the mop bucket. He was pretty much brain dead to begin with, so didn't affect him too noticably.
Just an interesting factoid about your body.Some of your own body's immune cells, the phagocytes produce hypochlorite (same active chemical in bleach) and use it to destroy foreign micro-organisms.
Note: Scary experience.. you're very fortunate. Glad you survived it.

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