Cautionary Tales - The Dangers (and non-Dangers) of Mixing Chemicals

Never ever never ever never ever mix chemicals unless directed by the product. And in case I wasn't clear, never mix chemicals.

Shut door or open door. It doesn't matter. Don't mix chemicals.

Ever play mad scientist and play with chemicals? I remember making endothermic reactions in chemistry class and praying the alarms don't get set off. I remember a classmate accidentally spilled a few drops of 12 molar hydrochloric acid. It put a hole in his shoe. Good times.

Let's suppose we mix chemicals. What are we making and what can happen?

Bleach and Vinegar = Chlorine Gas

Chlorine gas can fill your airways and cause some serious breathing issues, including pulmonary edema. It can even cause you to stop breathing. Oh, and if that's not bad enough, the chlorine gas could mix with water. Why is that bad? Now depending on the concentration and the conditions at the time, you now have hydrochloric acid or hypochlorous acid. Both are a skin irritant. That'll damage metal like stainless steel and copper. It'll damage fabric. It''ll also damage natural stone, grout, and waxed floors. Most accidental or intentional mixings do occur in the bathroom, typically around a sink or toilet and that's how that acid gets formed so quickly.

Bleach and Ammonia = Chloramine Gas

Chloramine gas causes shortness of breath, coughing, edema, pneumonia, and more. If it enters your blood stream, your red blood cells can no longer carry oxygen. While chloramine is found in our drinking water (used as a secondary disinfectant to pipes in our water supply), you really wouldn't want to add more to your diet. On surfaces, chloramine causes corrosion on metal, it breaks down plastic, it discolors fabric too.

Bleach and Rubbing Alcohol = Chloroform

Cue in the movie scene with chloroform on the cloth that's placed on someone's mouth causing them to pass out. And action! Well, it's not something you want to do to yourself. It can cause you to pass out. It's toxic and a known cancer source. It also can damage the eyes, skin, liver, kidneys, and nervous system. Chloroform can react with liquid state of some metals and cause explosions or fires, though hopefully you don't have any molten aluminum around. Could be an issue around your oven. Outside of that it can be a source of corrosion on stainless steel. 

Hydrogen Peroxide and Vinegar = Peracidic Acid

Peracidic acid isn't fun. It's highly corrosive on skin. It can cause blindness (I hope you can see the dangers of mixing chemicals up to this point...too soon?). It can dissolve metals. Some people have used peracidic acid for disinfecting. But microbes found in fungi, mold, and bacteria eat the acid right up and it becomes ineffective at disinfecting over time on surfaces. Above 40 degrees Celsius it can react with organic surfaces and combust.

Drain Cleaner and Drain Cleaner

Nope. Not a typo and not seeing double. Drain cleaners have different formulations. Some use sulfuric acid, some hydrochloric acid, some with bleach, sodium hydroxide, etc. For example, adding a sodium hydroxide based cleaner to bleach will cause the mixture to bubble and heat up, and to the degree of the reaction would depend on how much one is added to the other. This will cause damage to most surfaces. Or mixing sulfuric acid to hydrochloric acid will cause it to bubble and fume and will get very hot. Splatters of the mixture can burn you. And for the least of your worries, the gas is toxic and will damage most surfaces.

Bleach and Hydrogen Peroxide

Mix the two and you get a reaction with oxygen gas, which is highly explosive and reactive. You won't even have time to prepare s'mores with a reaction that quick. Even if you don't experience a spark to cause a reaction, you will see a neat reaction that can irritate skin and potentially damage surfaces, including the potential for chloroform gases.

Mildew & Stain Remover and Bleach

Mildew and stain remover contains bleach and therefore bleach and more breach merely raises the level of HOCl in your mixture. Aside from bleaching and skin irritation, it's not too bad on the danger scale. But some mildew removers have hydrogen peroxide. If you mix that with bleach you get the above in the previous example.

Acid-based Toilet Bowl Cleaners and Bleach

Don't do it. Some toilet bowl cleaners are bleach-based and therefore aren't bad if the two were to accidentally mix. However, some toilet bowl cleaners are acid based. That can produce chlorine gas and be a severe irritant and can cause damage.

Oven Cleaner and Bleach

That causes Chlorine gas. As we talked about above, there are significant health hazards when consuming the combo. Heck, consuming oven cleaner by itself is bad enough.

Lemon juice and Bleach

Also causes chlorine gas. Use lemon alone. Or mix lemons to make lemonade. Don't make chlorine gas.

Glass Cleaner and Bleach

This makes chloramine gas. We talked about this above. There's ammonia in most glass cleaners and mixing ammonia and bleach is never a good thing.

All Purpose Cleaner (like 409) and Dish Detergent

Kaboooom! No, not really. No dangerous examples. But many disinfectants and general cleaners are quaternary ammoniums (quats) and mixing the two will negate the disinfecting properties of the disinfectant. Kinda like a waste of a perfectly good product.

Vinegar and Water

Had to put this in here. I see sooooo many people cleaning wood floors with vinegar. It'll damage floors over time. It won't harm you (stinkyness aside), but it will make floor more dull and it'll strip the stain. Moreover, it'll also cause harm over time for waxed floors and will damage marble and other natural stones, like on floors and counter tops. 

In conclusion, don't mix stuff. Buy one and use it. If it doesn't work, then buy another and use that. Don't try to make some super awesome concoction that can damage surfaces or even kill you. Also, be sure to check out the Safety Data Sheets of each product. The more you know.