Is it possible to accidentally create harmful substances

[girly_gurl]

I haven't studied anything in chemistry with years (and that was only at school level). Anyway my question is this? I somehow remember our teacher telling us at the time how harmful it could be to mix certain household cleaners or to use certain substances with other substances because the mixture might create a harmful mixture. How true is this and is there any real danger? I mean when you throw some type of cleaning liquid into the toilet, then use some other on the rim of it and then put in some tab to keep it smelling nice, my house is still standing

 

[Oli]

It's very true: household cleaning goods are quite capable of being used to make explosives/ incendiaries, but they do require specific preparation.
It's not likely to happen at all during normal use.

 

[girly_gurl]

Thanks I didn't think so. Maybe our teacher was just trying to frighten us a little at the time. I was always a bit worried when I cleaned in case I would knock myself unconscious

 

[Nasor]

The main example of this sort of thing is mixing bleach and ammonia, which releases a poisonous gas (some sort of chlorinated amine, if I'm remembering right). Since bleach and ammonia are both often found in household cleaners, it's fairly easy to imagine someone unwittingly mixing them together (perhaps if they were trying one cleaner on something, but found it didn't work and so switched to the other cleaner). Most cleaners that contain either bleach or ammonia will have warnings against mixing them with other cleaning products for that reason.

 

[girly_gurl]

Yeah that was what I was thinking about. I did an apprenticeship as a hotelier and when you start out you must clean the rooms and I always had a little fear that I might knock myself out using two things together. I tried to avoid doing that

 

[Buffalo Roam]

It's very true: household cleaning goods are quite capable of being used to make explosives/ incendiaries, but they do require specific preparation.
It's not likely to happen at all during normal use.

No it doesn't take any special preparation to make common household cleaning chemicals lethal, just mix the wrong ones together and you end up with some very toxic gasses, that can kill in minuets.

 

[Nasor]

The one nice thing about mixing bleach and ammonia (well, nice in a relative sense) is that the toxic fumes are usually also very irritating, which tends to drive people out of the area before they reach toxic concentrations.

 

[Xylene]

you can create an hypergolic reaction by mixing together certain chemicals--eg, petrol and ether, or potassium permangenate and glycerine--which will catch fire on contact.

 

[guthrie]

The main example of this sort of thing is mixing bleach and ammonia, which releases a poisonous gas (some sort of chlorinated amine, if I'm remembering right). Since bleach and ammonia are both often found in household cleaners, it's fairly easy to imagine someone unwittingly mixing them together (perhaps if they were trying one cleaner on something, but found it didn't work and so switched to the other cleaner). Most cleaners that contain either bleach or ammonia will have warnings against mixing them with other cleaning products for that reason.

This is why you make sure the toilet hasn't been used recently before you add the bleach.