What’s the most toxic substance you’ve come in contact with?

Question

Annett Drechsler · Accepted Answer

"My younger brother was autistic and went through a phase where he was obsessed with all things "nuclear." When he was around age 7-9 all he wanted was some Uranium Ore and he wouldn't leave my mom alone about it. At some point my brother located some - I'm not sure if it was through a dealer at a rock show or online or what. But my idiot mom bought it for him and he kept it in his room. I was terrified of being in the same house as the ore and because my brother was also an asshole, he thought it was really funny to put the ore on me when I was sleeping because I seemed to be afraid of it. At some point he talked my mom into buying him a Geiger counter so he could test his ore and when he finally tested it with the counter, it maxed out showing the ore put out more radiation than it could measure. It was at that point he also became afraid of it and so he decided to bury it somewhere. I worry all the time I'm going to get some kind of cancer. "

kristiane · Answer

Agent Orange. Did everything but swim in it. Drank water out of bomb craters - in order to fill your canteen, you had to wipe away an oily scum on the surface of the water. Is there a prize for most toxic? 'Cause I feel like someone owes me.

Douggie · Answer

GTA online Oppressor Mk2 griefer

Katja Weis · Answer

Buzzfeed

Abira · Answer

My ex.

Dom · Answer

Fortnite players

Dennis · Answer

Phenol

Kadrija · Answer

I used to spray herbicides for a living, so I am going to have to go with concentrated herbicides.

Vilmiina · Answer

Asbestos probably, though lead has quicker and more intense acute effects. One of those two for sure

Byram · Answer

Habanero. FSR a wedding I recently attended decided it would be fun twist to add slices of the habanero pepper to the cocktail that was handed out post-ceremony. This understandably wasn't doing wonders for my throat so I made a courageous stupid attempt to salvage the drink by removing said peppers. Like clockwork I rub the corner of my eye and that spicy flavor spreads into my eye socket and towards the frontal cortex of my brain.

Kiele · Answer

League of Legends

Simone Gottlieb · Answer

Mercury

Kamila · Answer

Didn't happen to me but my great grandfather didn't have a mask during a gas attack in WWI he was lucky to survive

Jenni-Julia · Answer

My ex-wife.

Daniela Eiffel · Answer

"Chlorine gas. In the gas mask test chamber, US Army 1965 Edit: There were three four stages: 1st stage: chamber full of tear gas. We went in with the gas mask on. After everyone was in, exit chamber. 2nd stage: chamber full of tear gas. We went in unmasked, waited for everyone to be in then the drill sergeant called out "GAS!" We put our mask on, cleared it and after a few minutes, exited the chamber. 3rd stage: full of tear gas. We went in unmasked, waited for everyone to be in then the drill sergeant called out "GAS!" We put our mask on, cleared it and after a few minutes, we were ordered to remove our masks and yell our name, rank and service number. Lots of crying ensued. 4 stage: chamber full of chlorine gas. We went in unmasked, waited for everyone to be in then the drill sergeant called out "GAS!" We put our mask on, cleared it and after a few minutes, exited the chamber. "

KENIA · Answer

environmental science student here. I've handled a small amount of radioactive cesium as well as various strong acids

Norman · Answer

I work in a laboratory, so I use toxic chemicals pretty much daily. Never come in contact with it though! That's what the PPE is for.

Gabriele Strauss · Answer

Silver community in overwatch. But in all seriousness, lye water. Look it up.

Wallis · Answer

My ex

Jerrine · Answer

My sister in law

Jaana-Maarit · Answer

My ex.

SHAVONDA · Answer

Fungicides and pesticides Nova, Pylon, Forbid, Intercept. All the fun ones

CHERRYL · Answer

Probably not as toxic as most, and not sure if this counts, but I once bought weed from a janitor that I later found out was laced with coke.

Olaug · Answer

Hydrofluoric Acid. I was working in a well known CPU manufacturing plant on an installation job. Due to a mistake on the part of a plumbing company the wrong fittings were used on a pipe carrying hydrofluoric acid and the pipe was eaten thru. I was just after starting work and it was pouring out if the ceiling and I came withing 1 meter of getting completely drowned by the stuff. The only reason I spotted it was a glint on the puddle. I was completely blessed that day.

Jermain · Answer

Humans

Aridatha · Answer

Facebook mom's group.

Tuisku · Answer

Palytoxin. A poison made by a specific type of coral. A lethal oral dose is estimated to be 64 micrograms (about 1/70th the mass of a grain of sand). It has a very specific effect on sodium/potassium pumps in mitochondrial membranes and I used it in my undergraduate research project. I was paranoid for an entire year.

Feodora · Answer

I threw a piece of PVC pipe into a small fire when I was a kid. A few seconds later I couldn't breathe or see and blindly ran away into the woods. Must create some caustic vapors when burned.

Tull · Answer

Worked in a lab where we spilled some blood from a Hepatitis C patient. Just gotta be super careful when cleaning it.

Mintik.com · Answer

Probably the chemicals in the photobooths my husband and I own. They're hardly even produced in the U.S. anymore. :X

Gayla · Answer

Today I ate lotion

LAWANDA · Answer

4chan

MARLEN · Answer

fentanyl

Karin Hoover · Answer

In 7th grade we were observing cheek cells under a microscope. We had the options of using 2 types of dye, a blue non toxic one, or a violet one that could cause cancer and a bunch of other health issues. So me and my partner, both being dumb, decide to use the cancerous one. I ended up getting some on my skin. However, I haven't developed cancer. Yet.

Laverna · Answer

"When I was a kid (10-12 yrs old), I had a big brother from the Big Brothers/Sisters organization. He was a pharmacology student at the time. He'd give me various "toys" to play with like pure liquid mercury, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, and hyrdrofluoric acid. The only thing he'd tell me is "don't mix these." Of course as a kid I'm thinking "Hey this is so fucking cool!" As an adult, I'm thinking "Are you fucking INSANE giving a kid things to play with that could severely maim or kill him?!"  By God's good grace I didn't hurt myself with them but Jesus Christ. Years later I worked for AMD in the clean room doing "wet etch." Basically my job was to dip baskets of silicon wafers into large vats of hydrofluoric acid. Go figure. "

Shamso · Answer

A mate of mine was first on scene to the salisbury novachock attacks in the uk.........said that was some pretty bad stuff and he uses anthrax in his everyday lab work

Dell · Answer

I am a pharmaceutical analytical chemist so I often work with pure drug substances. These include cancer/aids/hepatitis drugs that are highly potent and only require doses in the microgram range. Oh also fentanyl.

Rutter · Answer

"WARNING: I like 'do it yourself' projects like most gun owners, however, I cannot recommend making or using "The Dip" to clean suppressors. It is a highly toxic solution that will poison or kill you if handled incorrectly. "The Dip" is created by mixing a 50/50 mixture of White Vinegar (Acetic Acid) with Hydrogen Peroxide. The resulting mixture can then be used to dissolve the lead that is caked on stainless steel baffles. Dropping lead-coated silencer parts into the reactive solution slowly creates Lead Acetate, which is basically dissolved lead in solution. Pb(s) + H2O2 + 2 H+(aq) - Pb2+(aq) + 2 H2O(l) Pb2+ + 2 CH3COO-(aq) - Pb(CH3COO)2 "

ELIA · Answer

9 year old black ops 4 players

Silke Gersten · Answer

I had an internship program in an NIH lab when I was in high school that had us use hydroflouric acid. I wasn't specifically in contact with it, but I got to handle inside the glovebox. Even allowing high school kids to interact with hydroflouric acid in a glove box is kinda surprising, because that shit is the devil made liquid.

Sabrina Wirtz · Answer

As a veteran, War material burn pits Korean yellow dust Black mold Asbestos Trace amounts of heavy metals  Explosive chemical / fuel Just to name a few

Uni · Answer

People

MARINDA · Answer

Ooh ooh! My time to shine! Just this year (freshman) in my high school science class one of my classmates dropped a sealed vial of chlorine! It cracked but didn't break, our 70 year old teacher dropped a few f bombs and told us all to gtfo while he put it in a Tupperware container and carried it outside

Lubova · Answer

Radioactive fallout. My town was affected after Chernobyl, and according to my mum (I don't remember it), the rain after that, that went into the grass and water, and the livestock, fell in huge drops like marbles in the weeks following.

Jojo · Answer

my ex

Tanja Weissmuller · Answer

The rick and morty fandom

Jennifer Zimmer · Answer

My first job as a teenager was on a par three golf course. One day I was spraying weeds with one of those big tanks of roundup on my back. I had forgotten to secure the lid and when I bent over to pick up a stray tee, the whole load came rushing out over my head and shoulders. Some even got in my mouth and nose. Thank Christ there were showers in the clubhouse but Im sure I knocked a few of my golden years off with that bonehead mistake.

Guven · Answer

"This one time I was doing a photography project and decided to use a beer bottle as a prop and used an old one I had sitting in my room (college at the time) little did I know that there was a bit of liquid sitting in there for a few months and when I "pretended" to take a sip a huge sludge of mold slid past my teeth into my mouth. I still gag if I think about it for long enough. "

Waylen · Answer

"I don't know what it was, but during a safety briefing for touring a chemical plant I was visiting the guides said, "Follow us. If we stop, you stop. If we walk, you walk. If we run, keep up." Apparently they were chemicals capable of becoming airbourne if there was a breach and in large enough amounts could kill you from coming into contact with your skin. "

Roberta · Answer

hydrofluoric acid. it's the only thing that really gave me a sensation of actual fear.

SULEMA · Answer

Asbestos.

Srinual · Answer

Environmental engineer here, with a focus on landfills. So... Almost everything you can imagine that has ever been thrown out and left to decompose.

Woodie · Answer

We use potassium cyanide regularly where I work. I've run chlorinations involving pure chlorine. We have a special hood for phosgenations but that's super dangerous and you need special credentials to touch anything in there.

Manuela Lowe · Answer

We use a radioactive density gauge to check compaction of earthwork on construction sites. I think the active isotope is Cesium-137? It's been a few months since my refresher course. It's honestly not that dangerous in its current form, but if it's released (gauge gets run over by equipment for instance) you have to call the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and get a HAZMAT team out to your job site to clean it up.   We aren't suppose to touch the rod, but I do anyway because I want to get superpowers.

Merrie · Answer

The internet

LIEN · Answer

Palytoxin. Worked with coral for many years.

Kennedy · Answer

Lots to choose from since I'm a synthetic chemist. Hydrofluoric acid or various cyanide salts are probably the most immediately lethal. Alkyl lithium reagents aren't exactly toxic, but they are spontaneously flammable in air, so that will get you if you're not careful. Sulfuric, nitric, and concentrated hydrochloric acids will all give you nasty burns, especially if you put them together with high concentration hydrogen peroxide to clean glassware. A lot of alkylating reagents like chloromethyl methoxide won't get you immediately, but they are a good way to increase your risk of cancer.

LOYCE · Answer

""A guy I knew" may or may not have once licked a W76 Thermonuclear warhead. "

EVELYNN · Answer

In order of toxicity I'd have to say, cupric chloride, mercury, nitric acid, and Facebook.

Ulla-Brit · Answer

potassium cyanide

Monika Kaestner · Answer

"Environmental toxicologist here.  It's a pretty long list.  By "most toxic", I'm guessing you mean the one with the lowest LD50. That's botulinum toxin. "

Oberon · Answer

In my home town we have a mill yard for the pulp and paper mill that shut down a while back. When I was in high school there was a derailment of a car with really high concentration peroxide. I'm not sure of the percentage, but it was causing grass and other plants to spontaneously combust. I was probably about 30 meters from it passing in a school bus. For everyone asking, Fort Frances is the place. And here's an article https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.duluthnewstribune.com/business/transportation/2452811-chemical-spill-reported-after-train-derailment-fort-frances%3famp

siff · Answer

As a vet intern, I frequently handle Euthasol in small doses for companion animals or very large doses for horses. I'm warned to keep gloves tight & wash my hands after to prevent residue getting on me or my own animals. IDK if its overkill but since its the drug we use solely to end lives, ya kinda dont want to be complacent around 100 ccs of it when 12 will likely kill someone my size It works similar to anesthesia I believe. Your cells use Na/K gates to transmit nerve signals and preform actions. It sits at a certain level and a signal depolarizes it to threshold, causing those gates to do their thing. IIRC, both Euthasol and anesthesia push your cells farther down so usual signals cannot reach threshold and will not pass on signals the brain or limbs send. Or in the case of euthanasia, it prevents the heart from beating on its own as well as knock them out. Just a few mL of this bright pink fluid will mess you up and it aint pepto bismol.

Qabas · Answer

I'm on a spill team at my work at a contract lab so any dangerous chemical spill I have to respond to with other team members. I think the worst I responded to was either sodium arsenite or potassium cyanide. We had to clear out the whole lab and suit up to clean it.

Jana Neustadt · Answer

"Nuclear reactor coolant. Which is to say "Slightly irradiated water". "

FRANSISCA · Answer

I'm originally from Belarus and while I didnt come into direct contact, Chernobyl radiation was gently breezing on my family daily.

Dacia · Answer

I once accidentally inhaled chlorine dust while filling up a pool's chlorine hopper. I was coughing and wrenching so hard I thought I was going to spew blood. I didn't, thankfully.

Simone Trommler · Answer

When I worked as a gas station attendant, the other workers let a puddle of brown urine (indicating possible hepatitis) and vomit about a centimeter deep sit in the corner of the women's restroom for two weeks. By the time I got there it had mixed into a fecal-like sludge that was actively rotting.   I'll let you guess what ELSE I found in that puddle (hint: it was sharp).

Stephanie Bachmeier · Answer

Airborne cadmium dust in a battery manufacturing plant.

Mara · Answer

"Concentrated chlorine- AKA "the green cloud of death" "

Klaudia Hofmann · Answer

At Papa John's they don't use flour or cornmeal, theyuse what they call dustinator. I'm pretty sure it's just a flour/cornmeal mix. I was a GM for 15 years and I keep waiting for the day they discover it causes lung cancer and I have about 5 inches of it in the bottom of my lungs.

Hilda · Answer

Carfentanil. Carfentanil is about 5,000 times stronger than pure Heroin. The lethal dose of Carfentanil is actually unknown because it is so insanely small. To put it this way, the lethal dose of Fentanil is 2mg, and Carfentanil is about 100x more potent than Fentanil. I literally had a coworker standing ready with a naloxone kit prepared to inject me in case I collapsed of an overdose if any of it came in contact with my skin.

Sparky · Answer

I got sodium hydroxide aka lye in my mouth. My Dad owns a industrial cleaning company and I used to go along with him as a kid. He was in full protection gear, told me not to touch anything, just to hang around outside while he finished up.  At the time my phone had a charm on it that I liked to chew (?) and so, I can't remember why but I asked my Dad to hold my phone while I did something, then I got it back and put the charm straight back in my mouth. There must have been some residue on his gloves because all of a sudden my mouth started feeling really weird...and then it got worse and worse until I told him my mouth was tingling and we put two and two together.  Not sure we told my Mum about that one...

Julia Egger · Answer

Hydrofluoric acid, 20% concentration, but still. This thing is pure evil.

Birgit Hoover · Answer

Horsegirls

Juliane Freud · Answer

The best ride at Disney World is the air conditioned bus back to the hotel.

Armond · Answer

" My favorite is the couple who is just making ends meet putting $8000 on a credit card to take the kid to DW.   That's American "Exceptionalism" In a nut shell, but these people never stopped to think that just because they could doesn't mean they Should. "

Mattie · Answer

Mad TV did a skit 15 years ago about this. There are also Disney gangs. Or groups of damn adults who wear specific Disney gear to hang out at Disney park.

REGENIA · Answer

Damn that's a hard one. I'll give you a too 5. Suplphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, uranium (just a little bit), GHB, and lastly the streets of the tenderloin in San Francisco

Dosi · Answer

Directly? Sulfuric acid. Used some to clean extraction hardware, and it sputtered on some water in a glass filter. Itty bitty burns through my lab coat and on my arms. Slightly painful.  Handled without incident? Boron trifluoride methanol solution. Used for deriving fatty acid methyl esters from oils, usually for analyical chemistry. BF3 is a strong acid that will eat you and then react with water to make other strong acids that will eat you some more. (Eli5 version.) Was in same room as and it freaked me the fuck out? Dimethylmurcury. Edit - it needs no introduction, but dimethylmurcury is a colorless and volatile substance that can penetrate clothing, conventional laboratory gloves, and the blood-brain barrier. An amount too small to notice is sufficient to give you the equivalent of a lifetime of mercury poisoning and a painful, lingering, but irreversible death.

Ursula Wolf · Answer

Cum (mine) in the eye (also mine).  Hurts like a buttcheek on a stick.

IOLA · Answer

r/gameofthrones moderators

dorethe · Answer

"Probably HCN. I caught a whiff of "bitter almonds" and ran. I was a kid, and I thought "I wonder what would happen if I added concentrated sulfuric acid to this potassium thiocyanate." It fizzed. Then there was the time with the chlorine gas, but that is another story. "

Laura Hoffmann · Answer

This technically doesn't answer the question but when I was young, around 7 years old, I found a paracetamol tablet just on the floor. I was a kid, so naturally my immediate reaction was to lick it. I got scared afterwards and asked my parents what would happen if I hypothetically licked a paracetamol, and in what I assume was a deterrent attempt, they told me I'd die (thanks guys).   So for an entire day I was completely convinced I was going to die because of something I stupidly licked, and genuinely thought it was a toxic substance.

Mora · Answer

Polychlorinated biphenyls

Praveena · Answer

As some that struggles with substance abuse... alcohol.

Morrie · Answer

Chlorine, as a lifeguard we had to pour liquid chlorine in the pool filtration machine that woukd add the chlorine slowly into the water. My coworker thought it would be funny and poured any extra bottle on me when I was pouring another bottle in the machine. Had to get hosed of for and hour and had several severe burns for 2 weeks. I looked like had been doused in poison ivy.

Gunveig · Answer

League of legends.

pippi · Answer

"Child pornography. As a mod here I had the displeasure of dealing with someone that posted something like, "Isn't this so hot?" and in the textbox posted a link to CP. I sent it up to the admins to deal with it, but it really ruined my week and it's still some thing I very much wish I hadn't seen. But it does make me feel better that by removing it I was able to save other people from it. "

Rand · Answer

"My dad did chemical work for a company years and years ago, and one day he brought home hydrochloric acid from work to fuck with the ants under our shed. I touched the acids bottle, and spilled it on the ground/my foot. I panicked and used a kitchen towel/washcloth to pick it up and for me that was that, until my foot started hurting a little bit. Only a small drop actually made it on my foot and it ate away at a few cm of foot flesh. The towel looked like a necromorph spit on it To conclude: those ants never came back, and I never touched bottles that said "DANGER" every again (I was 12 years old, and dumb as a rock) "

Nona · Answer

Semi-pure uranium on a science trip, lab member freaked out when he saw me holding the jar

Joslyn · Answer

Tetramethylammonium hydroxide Conc. Nitric acid (shits nastier than sulphuric) HF (moving a bottle, so not really using it) Trifluoroacetic acid seemed nasty too

Simone Boehm · Answer

One time I found a coffee jar containing DDT in my Grandad's shed that had been in there for decades.

What’s the most toxic substance you’ve come in contact with?

Nadiya

JamesWilson

Alexi

Catlaina

Dulciana

Endora

Karita

Collin

Gerhard

Jae