• Question: What is the most harmful liquid chemical?

    Asked by kibo to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 16 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by rose23.
    • Photo: Tim Fosker

      Tim Fosker answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi @kibo

      Wow, I have no idea at all. I don’t work with any dangerous chemicals myself. May be one of the other scientists can help.

      Let me know if you find out! 🙂

    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi @kibo
      I’m afraid I don’t know either. But pretty much anything can be harmful in certain quantities. For example you can drink so much water it will poison you (!) Also some things which are not harmful to us can be really dangerous to other animals (for example chocolate – not a liquid chemical I know – is really bad for dogs).

      Sorry I can’t answer your question 🙂

    • Photo: Damien Hall

      Damien Hall answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofluoric_acid

      I remember from my physics lessons that my teacher said the most harmful liquid chemical was something called hydrofluoric acid.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofluoric_acid

      He said that it was so corrosive (good at eating things away) that it had to be handled only with really thick gloves on, and you could never touch it directly. If you did touch it directly, it would start eating away at your hand, and the only way you could stop it would be to amputate your hand. This Wikipedia page says that’s not entirely true, but, in severe cases, the stuff can kill you …

    • Photo: Rachael Ward

      Rachael Ward answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hi Kibo and rose23,

      I agree with damien – hydrofluoric acid is really dangerous but I’ve never had to use it.

      I have used quite a few nasty, poisonous things though. Lots of neurotoxins such as Tetrodotoxin (TTX) which comes from the pufferfish and can kill you by blocking the electrical signals (action potentials) in your nerves.

      When I’m preparing a sample for my electron microscope, I also have to use a chemical called osmium. Osmium is actually a metal (the densest metal there is) but we use it as a liquid called osmium tetroxide to stain the membranes of our samples black. When we use it we have to wear loads of protective gear and only use it in a fume hood that sucks the air away from the room as if we breathed it in, it could cause lung damage or kill us. You always have to concentrate loads when you use it!
      Having said that, it is an interesting metal! you can read about it here –
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmium

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