What is the Most Dangerous Chemical?

[Emmanuel_Euler]

what is the Most Dangerous Chemical or poison in the world?

 

[nightingale]

I would say Sodium Cyanide (NaCN).

 

[Borek]

Plenty of things that are much more poisonous than cyanides.

But in general, this is a very poorly defined question. Litvinienko was killed using about 10 μg of polonium. Polonium is not a compound, it is an element. Botulinum toxin is lethal in concentrations 1000 times smaller. It is a protein, so it can be qualified as a compound, but its exact composition can depend on the bacterial strain used to produce it. Neither plutonium nor botulinum toxin is dangerous if correctly handled.

 

[StringJunky]

Dioxygen difluoride might be a good candidate in terms of violent reactivity with virtually anything. And that's at less than -150^oC

http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/02/23/things_i_wont_work_with_dioxygen_difluoride.php

 

[SteamKing]

Dihydrogen oxide is particularly deadly. It's all around us. We breathe it in with every breath, but if we breathe in too much, we die. We need to consume a certain amount of dihydrogen oxide each day to maintain health, but if we go for more than a few days without consuming any, we die. Yet, this chemical is not regulated by any agency in the world.

 

[Almeisan]

Dihydrogen oxide is particularly deadly. It's all around us. We breathe it in with every breath, but if we breathe in too much, we die. We need to consume a certain amount of dihydrogen oxide each day to maintain health, but if we go for more than a few days without consuming any, we die. Yet, this chemical is not regulated by any agency in the world.

If you want to see a lot of dead people, one should go ahead and regulate it. Not sure why you promote the opposite.

 

[Borek]

 

[Emmanuel_Euler]

tert-Butyllithium

 

[OCR]

This one is very, very nasty ...

It also claimed the life of Karen Wetterhahn...

Botulinum toxin is lethal in concentrations 1000 times smaller.

Borek is right...

Botulinum is the most acutely lethal toxin known, with an estimated human median lethal dose (LD-50) of 1.3–2.1 ng/kg intravenously or intramuscularly and 10–13 ng/kg when inhaled.

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

Dihydrogen oxide can be very dangerous... with improper usage.

The same holds true for "dihydrogen monoxide" (DHMO)...

 

[rootone]

DNA

 

[Emmanuel_Euler]

DNA

DNA??
Is DNA Poison??

 

[Borek]

DNA??
Is DNA Poison??

You have not limited "dangerous" to "poisonous" in your opening post, now you are shifting the post goals.

I told you it is a very poorly defined question, this answer shows why. It is not that difficult to prove why DNA is so dangerous - after all, it is a necessary compound without which we would not evolve, and we ARE dangerous, aren't we?

 

[Emmanuel_Euler]

You have not limited "dangerous" to "poisonous" in your opening post, now you are shifting the post goals.

I told you it is a very poorly defined question, this answer shows why. It is not that difficult to prove why DNA is so dangerous - after all, it is a necessary compound without which we would not evolve, and we ARE dangerous, aren't we?

can you prove that DNA is a poison??

i am listening.

 

[rootone]

My reply 'DNA' was somewhat 'tongue in cheek'.
But in the sense that it is a chemical which can lead to drastic transformation of it's environment and requisition other chemistry to achieve that end, it certainly poses a threat to environmental stability.
The emergence of cyanobacteria, the first photosynthesisers, led to dramatic changes in the composition of Earth's atmosphere, which previous had little or no free oxygen, and that led to the near-extinction of oxygen intolerant life forms which had been doing quite well until then.

 

[eXa]

Estrogen...

 

[Emmanuel_Euler]

 

[Emmanuel_Euler]

finally i found it!

 

[Borek]

finally i found it!

What have you found? Three people each speaking of a completely different chemical they have DEALT with, not the one they KNOW about. So, which one it is, and why do you assume those mentioned earlier in the thread are not more dangerous?

 

[Emmanuel_Euler]

What have you found? Three people each speaking of a completely different chemical they have DEALT with, not the one they KNOW about. So, which one it is, and why do you assume those mentioned earlier in the thread are not more dangerous?

i found the video about (what is the most dangerous chemical).

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

A lot of people die from H2O

 

[Emmanuel_Euler]

A lot of people die from H2O

of course

 

[Snerdguy]

If you are talking about deaths relevant to mass, Polonium is probably the most toxic per gram. It's extremely hard to manufacture and there is no cure. So, if someone dies from Polonium poisoning, you can be pretty sure a government had a hand in it.

 

[iScience]

i'm told hydrazine (C2H4) is quite up there

can you prove that DNA is a poison??

i am listening.

DNA based viruses.

 

[itzkovitch]

You have to define dangerous. Dangerous can be broken into toxic and hazardous. Toxic means how much of the substance can kill you and hazardous means how easily it can enter your body to harm you (The easier a substance enters your body the more hazardous it is; eg. through your lungs by breathing it). So with that definition, the most toxic (potent) chemical that we know of is Batrachotoxin. It is found in certain species of frogs. The most toxic protein (meaning not a chemical but a protein made from a bacterium) is Botulinum toxin (a.k.a. botox). Inhaling just 13 billionths of a gram can kill and adult. Botulinum toxin is perhaps the most dangerous substace we know of since its both highly toxic and hazardous.

 

[Mark Harder]

One way to think of 'dangerous' in chemistry is a destructive chemical you can't isolate yourself from. I believe that methyl-mercury is one such. A chemist recently was working with a sample of the stuff as part of an NMR experiment, I believe. She was wearing gloves, but spilled a tiny amount on one of her gloves. It diffused right through the glove and her skin. It killed her of acute mercury poisoning. Not immediately, mind you, but in a matter of days, I believe it was. This type of hazard is particularly insidious because you don't know it's even happened to you at the time, having taken what you thought was the adequate precaution of using gloves, you don't think to wash the stuff off and get to an ER. Hydrogen fluoride(hydrofluoric acid) is like that. It's commonly used in the semiconductor industry, so many people use it. It goes through skin fairly quickly and slowly attacks bone. I think they become flexible, or rubbery or something like that. HF is not an extremely strong acid, so it doesn't burn you right away. I know of one chemist who refuses to wear gloves when handling chemicals. He wants to know immediately when he spills something on his hands so he can wash it off and take other measures, if needed. There is something to be said for NOT applying a protective covering that could end up cloaking something dangerous... What you don't know can indeed kill you, especially if you give it a little time to do so.

A startling example is simple iron! We need iron to live, but iron in usable form is not common enough in nature that we can get enough from scounging nuts and berries and the like. Our bodies have evolved to scarf up iron from our intestines without limit, since placing limits on our iron intake was not necessary during the prehistoric millenia when food, especially the rich protein and iron sources like meat, was scarce. Iron in our intestines is avidly grabbed and held by a protein in the liver for storage there. A nurse I once knew told me a sad story about a pregnant mother taking iron supplements who had a young child to care for as well. The child got into her tonic and swallowed a whole bunch. When the mother found out, she thought little of it - how could iron hurt you? In a matter of days, the child fell ill and when his illness grew alarming the mother sought medical attention. Sadly, so much of his liver was destroyed by then he couldn't be saved. If human tragedy is your measure of danger, iron should be near the top of your list.

 

[AlephNumbers]

A startling example is simple iron! We need iron to live, but iron in usable form is not common enough in nature that we can get enough from scounging nuts and berries and the like. Our bodies have evolved to scarf up iron from our intestines without limit, since placing limits on our iron intake was not necessary during the prehistoric millenia when food, especially the rich protein and iron sources like meat, was scarce. Iron in our intestines is avidly grabbed and held by a protein in the liver for storage there. A nurse I once knew told me a sad story about a pregnant mother taking iron supplements who had a young child to care for as well. The child got into her tonic and swallowed a whole bunch. When the mother found out, she thought little of it - how could iron hurt you? In a matter of days, the child fell ill and when his illness grew alarming the mother sought medical attention. Sadly, so much of his liver was destroyed by then he couldn't be saved. If human tragedy is your measure of danger, iron should be near the top of your list.

Hmmm. I feel quite terrible after reading that.

 

[Borek]

A chemist recently was working with a sample of the stuff as part of an NMR experiment, I believe.

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

Whether almost 20 years ago counts as "recently" is disputable, but yes, that's a thing some of us remember.

 

[Mark Harder]

I guess it's been 'recent' to me for 20 yrs. now ;-).

 

[Mark Harder]

Hmmm. I feel quite terrible after reading that.

Sorry. Hope I haven't spoiled your evening, morning, whatever.

 

[Mark Harder]

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

Whether almost 20 years ago counts as "recently" is disputable, but yes, that's a thing some of us remember.

..and not in a matter of days. It took months according to the Wiki link. BTW, thanks for that link.