Friendly Reminder

When ever washing around areas that are more likely to have ammonia or similar chemicals due to cats and other animals I will only use Vinegar or a lysol all purpose disinfectant. Or if there happens to be animal urine on any clothing I will use vinegar or baking soda in the wash.

And don't forget that animal urine, such as around the cat box, makes for ammonia too. Ex-brother-in-law almost killed himself cleaning up the cat box and surrounding area with bleach.

Takes me back to when I was a kid: mixing bleach and comet. This is also the reason my mom never allowed us to have a chemistry set. She was always afraid we would blow up the house, because she knew my brother and I would find something to mix together that was volatile.

Wow. A rocket scientist and a chemical engineer? I'm in good company! :D

"Chemistry is awesome, when you're expecting it" - Love it! I have a degree in chemical engineering but frankly I don't need that to know that chlorine gas in my house is a bad thing. thanks for the reminder because not everyone thinks of this stuff all the time. And toilet bowl chemistry is not my idea of a great science experiment for my 4 year old....

My mom's best friend died because of this. She was in the hospital for a few days, but they couldn't save her. It really is dangerous stuff.

When I was a kid, my mom used to gas out the whole house on clearning days with ammonia and bleach. I had no idea at the time that this was dangerous, and she did it for years and years. I hated it when she had all that stuff out because it was so hard to breathe, and I would try to leave whenever I could. It wasn't until I was an adult, out on my own, that I read about how dangerous that is.

Fyi, hydrazine is a common rocket fuel. With enough heat and the appropriate catalyst, it's actually a "mono-propellant" meaning that it doesn't need a separate oxidizer in order to ignite. It's dangerous, dangerous stuff. Safety gurus look out for hydrazine in "parts per million," meaning that you really don't need a lot at all in order for it to be dangerous!

(and yes, I _AM_ a rocket scientist - BS and MS in aerospace engineering)

Thank you Ceci, the typo was fixed.

"Never mix bleach and vinegar, bleach and ammonia, bleach and toilet boil cleaners, or even different brands of toilet boil cleaners (some are bleach based while others are acid based)."

Toilets get boils? Really? Can I use the toilet boil cleaner to clean boils on people?

This is very serious stuff. I know of one person who received second degree burns to her hand when a mixture splashed on her and another who, when mixing cleaners in the toilet, felt woozy and lightheaded and luckily went to another room to lie down. I hate to be graphic, but this is what the Nazi's used in the gas chambers, people.

Yeah, I had a little fun... heh... once when I had wiped my counter with a lysol wipe but wanted to disinfect it a little extra so I sprayed my bleach-water combination on it.

As soon as I smelled it my stomach turned and I knew I had made a BIG mistake. I got out of the room, and then scooched back in only long enough to open the living room deck door and turn on the fan before I holed up in my office again for an hour.

Fortunately, the quantities were very small, so the overall affect wasn't what it could have been. But I learned my lesson that day!