Guy at the hardware store in Denver last Saturday warned me about mixing bleach with ammonia

He said one time his neighbor tried cleaning a toilet with both and ended up in the ER for hours with chemical burns in her lungs. Has anyone else nearly messed up with household cleaners like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

hayes.joel23d ago

Had a buddy in college who thought he'd get real creative cleaning a nasty bathroom sink. Mixed some bleach with a drain cleaner that had ammonia in it, same kind of mistake. Within minutes he was coughing and his eyes were burning like crazy, couldn't breathe right. Roommate found him hunched over in the hallway gasping and had to drag him outside. Spent like 4 hours in the ER getting oxygen and steroid treatments, said it felt like someone was squeezing his lungs the whole time. He's lucky it wasn't way worse honestly.

abbyg6023d ago

Did that mess up his lungs permanently or did he bounce back okay? Always wondered if people recover fully from that kind of chemical burn or if it leaves lasting damage.

mary_foster9222d ago

That story about the roommate dragging him outside hits hard because it shows how fast that stuff turns bad. The worst part is people don't realize bleach and ammonia create chloramine gas which basically attacks your lungs directly, not just irritates them. A few minutes of breathing that in can land you on oxygen for hours and leave you coughing for weeks after.