Can bleach kill you What are the effects of bleach on your body?

Answer 1

Bleach can severely harm or kill you, as a dual compound reaction the solution has a limited shelf life all throughout which it produces gasses that can chemically burn or down right kill portions of your lungs

To make bleach, a direct electrical current is sent through a sodium chloride solution (table salt and water). This basically "splits" the atoms leaving chlorine and the caustic soda.

Both chlorine and caustic soda (lye) are extremely dangerous. These two chemicals are reacted together to create what we know as bleach.

What Happens If You Drink Bleach

Sodium hypochlorite removes stains and disinfects because it is an oxidizing agent. If you inhale the vapors or ingest bleach it oxidizes your tissues. Mild exposure from inhalation can result in stinging eyes, a burning throat, and coughing. Because it is corrosive, touching bleach can cause chemical burns on your hands unless you wash it off immediately. If you drink bleach, it oxidizes or burns tissues in your mouth, esophagus, and stomach. According to the NIH (National Institutes of Health), it can cause nausea, chest pain, lowered blood pressure, delirium, coma, and potentially death.

Below are the personal and environmental concerns of using bleach1, 2:

• When mixed with ammonia, it creates a deadly gas. Remember that urine contains ammonia, so usng the products in the toilet increase the risk of creating a toxic gas that can actaully stop lung function.
• Chlorine and dish soap can create mustard gas, a deadly gas used as a weapon in WWI! What is bleach even doing in our homes?!
• Chlorine is actually a gas at room temperature, which makes breathing it in likely in most homes.
• In its gaseous form (such as at room temperature, mentioned above), chlorine can create dioxins, a known cancer-causing compound also related to birth defects, miscarriage, infertility, Diabetes, immune disorders and more.
• It's highly corrosive to the skin, lungs and eyes, as well as other materials, and can actaully cause frost bite to the skin and eyes, as well as chemical burns and ulcerations.
• The oxidation of chlorine may also form hypochlorous acid, which has the ability to penetrate and destroy cell structure.
• It increases Asthma and allergy symptoms because of the likelihood of inhalation. It can also cause wheezing, bronchospasm and sometimes noncardiogenic pulmonary edema (a lung condition that prevents enough oxygen from entering the blood).
• Pets and birds are more susceptible because of their small air capacity and the likelihood of filling their lungs with vaoprs.
• Ingestion of bleach causes corrosive damage to the tissues of the gastrointestinal tract.
• Chlorination of drinking water can oxidize organic contaminants, producing trihalomethanes (also called haloforms), which are carcinogenic (cancer-causing).
• When household bleach is mixed with wastewater it is found to form numerous organic compounds. Two of those compounds are chloroform - which can cause dizziness, headache, respiratory issues, heart attack, liver and kidney damage, birth defects and more - and carbon tetrachloride - which is responsible for nerve damage, liver and kidney degeneration, coma and death.
• Chlorine and wastewater can also create Trihalomethanes, a toxic carcinogen that has been linked to breast cancer3 and miscarriage andother fertility issues in animals4
• Bleach also breaks down in the environment to "halides", which shellfish, as well as other aquatic life.
• Organichlorides, which contain chlorine, stck around in the environment for a long time and have been linked to reproductive issues, immune dysfunction, cancer, hormonal disruption and more.

Sources

sustainablebabysteps,com/what-is-bleach.html

chemistry.about,com/od/cleanerchemistry/fl/Is-It-Safe-To-Drink-Bleach-Will-It-Kill-You.htm