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.

 

[Emmanuel_Euler]

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

DNA based viruses.

you are right.DNA based viruses

 

[DrDu]

trichloroanisole ... I suspect it was first developped by algerian extremists to drive out the French colonists. Alone the thought of the desaster a muslim extremist might cause in a region like Bordeaux with only a few drops makes me shudder.

 

[Mark Harder]

trichloroanisole ... I suspect it was first developped by algerian extremists to drive out the French colonists. Alone the thought of the desaster a muslim extremist might cause in a region like Bordeaux with only a few drops makes me shudder.

Is it a poison or an explosive?

 

[Borek]

Technically neither.

 

[Mark Harder]

Along the direction of the silent but deadly, consider plain old phosgene.

Technically neither.

Ahhh Wikipedia enlightens. Yes, in the hands of a terrorist, it could bring Western Civilization crashing down on our jazzed and inebriated heads?

 

[DrDu]

Ahhh Wikipedia enlightens. The dastardly effects include making coffee and wine taste like treated fiberboard?

:-) and that at concentrations in the ng/l range.

 

[Almeisan]

I agree with DNA. Without DNA there is no danger and no death.

 

[msarts]

Hydrogen cyanide is the most dangerous chemical.Cyanide kills by binding to the iron in our blood cells and choking them off, removing their ability to transfer oxygen throughout the body.

 

[TeethWhitener]

Hydrogen cyanide is the most dangerous chemical.Cyanide kills by binding to the iron in our blood cells and choking them off, removing their ability to transfer oxygen throughout the body.

You're describing carbon monoxide, which binds to iron found in the heme groups in hemoglobin, shutting down oxygen transport. Cyanide binds to iron in the heme groups in cytochrome c oxidase, which is found in mitochondria and is responsible for cellular respiration. In fact, cyanide is really useful in certain biochemistry experiments where you need to shut down cellular respiration to examine an oxygen-sensitive process.

 

[David Carroll]

DMT. Trust me on this one.

 

[AgentSmith]

I really hope terrorists do not come across this forum.

 

[Almeisan]

You mean 'politicians'?

 

[Kekule]

I do agree that the parameters of the question are poorly defined, but I'll still throw out a few of the most dangerous things that I've had to work with.

Trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (Triflic Acid): pKa around the -13 range, nasty stuff.
Fluoroantimonic acid: The most potent superacid known, pKa around the -25 range. This stuff is ridiculously dangerous.
Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO): Anything that penetrates the skin so easily deserves a mention.

...and pyridine! Well, pyridine is mostly dangerous to your nose. But, like others have said, the question is too vague.

 

[certainly]

Fluoroantimonic acid: The most potent superacid known, pKa around the -25 range. This stuff is ridiculously dangerous.

It burns through just about everything, except teflon, right? Can you describe the extra laboratory precautions that you had to take when handling that stuff ? And (if you are at liberty to) what you used it for ?

 

[Kekule]

It burns through just about everything, except teflon, right? Can you describe the extra laboratory precautions that you had to take when handling that stuff ? And (if you are at liberty to) what you used it for ?

Yes, it is contained in Teflon. You make it fresh if you're planning on using it, because good luck storing it with any success. And of course, it instantly reacts with even the slightest amount of moisture in the air. So you have to use a glove box, but you also grab some extended tongs so that you don't have to come into contact with it at all. Here is some discussion about it you might find interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Fluoroantimonic_acid#1016_or_1019.3F

It is very, very nasty stuff. When I used it, it was for reactions related to alkane metathesis (yes, alkane and not alkene). I'd prefer to never come near the stuff again.

 

[Mad scientist]

I would say Sodium Cyanide (NaCN).

Sodium cyanide is actually quite safe to use as long as it is used properly with the proper PPE.

 

[Mad scientist]

Botulinum toxin, one of only two substances (the other being the narcotic angel dust) that is lethal in nanogram levels.About 80kg is enough to kill about 8 billion people.Of course the most dangerous substance you are likely to encounter in the workplace is hydrofluoric acid. It is highly corrosive, will dissolve glass, seep into your skin, burn through to the flesh below before you would even feel it and dissolve your bones. It is also acutely toxic and will damage your internal organs and it only takes a fist sized spill on your skin at 10% concentration to be deadly.

 

[AgentSmith]

Sodium cyanide is actually quite safe to use as long as it is used properly with the proper PPE.

Very true. I used to handle sodium cyanide fairly often. Gloves(long ones), lab coat, respirator, and a steady hand. And best not to drop it in acid outside a glove box.That's how California used to execute human beings. For that matter, don't mix vinegar, often used to clean windows, and "clorox".

Botulinum toxin is a good candidate as per Mad scientist. But as someone mentioned, the parameters matter. I had injections of the stuff to mitigate some inherited wrinkles.
Other than a tendency to go into convulsions there were no side effects.

 

[HallsofIvy]

A lot of people die from H2O

That was what SteamKing said in post number 5.

 

[Mad scientist]

Carbon dioxide kills a lot of people too.