OY!!! Thing we forgot from science class.

When I clean the bathrooms I put bleach into the toilets, clean the room and come back for the toilet.  I leave the bleach in there, a hospital smell is better I guess.

Mrs. 914 likes ammonia.  Bleach is soaking the scenery of the upstairs bathroom, I'm in the basement making Saab door cards.  I hear screams, crap.  She put ammonia in with the bleach making something like acid.  It all foamed up, would barely flush down and her lungs and eyes burned like hell.

Yep, burned me 15 minutes later.

"Promise Honey, I'll never clean the bathrooms again".

I win.

Chlorine gas, used in WW1 too i believe. Nasty

Dangerous stuff. Hope she is feeling better!

Antihero said:

Chlorine gas, used in WW1 too i believe. Nasty

This.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine#World_War_I

914Driver said:She put ammonia in with the bleach making something like acid.  It all foamed up, would barely flush down and her lungs and eyes burned like hell.

Technically, it makes water and a salt, no?  Or am I thinking of acid/base mixing?

Okay, time for another one of those Google searches that probably flag you for something.

(I think the burning is because it reacts with the moisture in your nose/throat/lungs to make acid.  So, yes I am probably wrong if I'm right)

Hey wow, the H2G2 project made it to the web!  And it's USEFUL!

https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A795611

I remember when H2G2 was a DOS-based, 80x25 text, rudimentary hyperlinked program, and you had to submit articles to the main mailing-list and download periodic updates, if you didn't want to install individual articles yourself.   I don't think HTML had even been invented yet.

/old

I learned Pluto is a planet in science class.

Pluto is a planet.

I'LL NEVER FORGET.

As a chemist who makes cleaning products for a living I tell people never mix ANYTHING with bleach.

A little too much Chlorine gas and you start coughing up pieces if your lungs. Never worth the risk.  

Even just bleach vapors are hard on your lungs. I dont even let the stuff out of my laundry room. 

I once put bleach in an empty (or so I thought) RV black water tank to sanitize a horrible odor.  20 minutes later I heard a hissing and a "bonk." like a hot gas can blupping out one of its sides in the sun.  Some mud wasps had built a nest in the roof vent.  (which was likely the primary cause of the odor being concentrated inside)  The bleach reacted with the leftover paraformaldehyde in the tank.  I opened the flush valve on the toilet and this jet of chlorine gas shot out like a party fog machine.  I promptly stopped breathing and vacated the RV for a very long time.  By the time I got up on the roof to investigate the roof vent, it had built pressure again and when I dislodged the wasp nest, it was a jet of dried mud, shredded wasp larvae, and more chlorine gas.

My mother did this when I was about 10-years old. She had absolutely no sense of smell(born that way) but it didn’t take long for her to realize there was a problem & have us all evacuate. 

Also, don't use bleach because of this:  https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/11/regularly-using-bleach-linked-to-higher-risk-of-fatal-lung-disease

Vinegar is acidic, sterilizing, cleans very very well, and is safe enough to drink. I use vinegar for a lot of things now. Bleach stays in the laundry room. 

dculberson said:

Vinegar is acidic, sterilizing, cleans very very well, and is safe enough to drink. I use vinegar for a lot of things now. Bleach stays in the laundry room. 

We make disinfectants. Vinegar does NOT sterilize and only kills low level bacteria. Please don't trust your safety to it in critical situations. If you want to kill bacteria using an unregistered disinfectant, use hydrogen peroxide.

I used to know an old duffer who ran a public swimming pool.  Any time he had to work on the chlorination system, he would pour straight ammonia over the pipe joints and look for green smoke.

In reply to ultraclyde :

Good to know; thanks!

So is it less sterilizing than bleach?

dculberson said:

Vinegar is acidic, sterilizing, cleans very very well, and is safe enough to drink. I use vinegar for a lot of things now. Bleach stays in the laundry room. 

I use both, but I greatly limit my use of bleach.  Its overkill for most household situations.  I use it in laundry sometimes, and to keep the A/C condensate sump clean, but neither of those situations result in a lot of bleach fumes.

My go-to cleaner is vinegar+water.

dculberson said:

In reply to ultraclyde :

Good to know; thanks!

So is it less sterilizing than bleach?

Unfortunately, yes.  It isn't a strong enough acid to really kill anything.  Also since it is an acid, it tends to increase surface tension of water, unlike alkalines which are surfactants and help break up soil and grease.  It is perfectly fine to use as a cleaner, but it is more like Windex.

I keep a few bleach-y cleaners in the bathroom just because bathrooms have poop, but I keep a peroxide cleaner in the kitchen for cleaning up after meats.

Curtis is on the right track. Sodium hypochlorite (the active in bleach) is an approved active for use in EPA registered disinfectants. Acetic acid (vinegar) is not.