Chemistry is everywhere, including in your household materials like the one mentioned in Common Chemicals Used at Home . Perhaps most of you have already aware of that, though there might be some who are still clueless. Be it the natural chemicals or the artificial ones, they both are surrounding us. Like, detergents, cleaners, shampoo, soaps, air fresheners, and many more.
Of course, they are quite handy, helpful, and useful in the same time. Well, just imagine that there are no detergents in this world. Oh, the idea of walking around with a shabby, stinky clothes doesn’t sound good, does it?
What is Corrosive?
Almost all sort of household materials that have been manufactured have their special uses. But we still have to remember that there’s a dark side of everything, including household materials. Since they’re mostly made of chemicals, and some chemicals have their very own hazards, such as corrosive, so that we have to keep an eye on it. Just a quick review, what is corrosive?
Corrosive is the hazard characteristic of a chemical subtances, it is the one that will destroy and damage other substances which are in contact with them. These substances seem to “gnaw” their way through flesh or other material. That’s why corrosives are immediately dangerous to the tissues they contact.
So, what are those corrosive household chemicals? Here are few list examples of corrosive household chemicals:
Cleaning Materials and Bleaching Agents
Here are examples of corrosive household chemicals that common used in cleaning chemicals:
1. Laundry detergent
Clean, soft, and fragrant clothes are everyone’s favourite, and the ‘hero’ behind them is detergent. Detergent helps clean your dirty and smelly clothes with the chemicals within them, such as ABS (Alkyl Benzene Sulfonate), LAS (Lauril Alkyl Sulfonate), CMC (Carboxymethyl Cellulosa), STTP (Sodium Trpholyphosphate), and so much more.
- Sodium Hypochlorite ( NaClO)
This chemical is frequently use to bleach, clean, disinfection, deodorize, and so on. It’s considered as a strong oxidizer and strong base in water. Oxidation reactions are corrosive, so basically, this chemical is corrosive. As the Usual Signs of Overexposure to Hazardous Chemicals , it can burn the skin and cause eye damage when used in concentrated form. Inhalation will produce severe bronchial irritation and pulmonary edema, while ingestion might lead to burning of mouth, nausea, and vomiting. On heating, contact with acids, and under the influence of light, it produces toxic and corrosive gases such as chlorine. It reacts violently with combustible and reducing material.
2. Toothpaste
Smiling widely with a row of white, sparkling teeth. It must be everyone’s dream. One of the way to make it come true is to take a good care of your teeth, such as brushing them regularly. But did you know? Toothpaste contains a lot of chemicals in it, including the Harmful Chemicals in Toothpaste . Some of them are unexpectedly dangerous for our health. One of them is ;
- Sodium fluoride ( NaF)
This odorless and white or colorless chemical is categorized as an acid. That pretty much explains its corrosivity. Ingesting too much sodium fluoride can result in vomiting, diarrhea, collapse, thirst, disturbed color vision, acute toxic nephritis, and abdominal pain.
Ingestion may cause vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, convulsions, collapse, thirst, disturbed color vision, acute toxic nephritis.Since it’s corrosive, skin and eye contact might lead to severe skin burns and eye damage. Some other effects are osteomalacia, hyper-parathyroid osteopathy, impaired renal and liver function. Large doses may cause paralysis, muscular weakness, and followed by respiratory and cardiac failure. To prevent all of those damage, you should only use a pea-sized amount of toothpaste when brushing and avoid swallowing.
3. Floor Cleaner
Orange juice’s spills, cookie’s crunches, tomato sauces, and all sort of dirt that ruined your floor are surely annoying, right? We can’t really stop them for happening, but we can fix them by mopping the floor with the best floor cleaner that we have at home. Did you know that the floor cleaner that you use daily actually contains hazardous chemicals? One of them is :
- Benzalkonium Chloride (C6H5CH2N(CH3)2RCl )
It functions as detergent, as well as disinfectant. This chemical is considered caustic and corrosive. Skin contact can cuase itchiness and redness. In the dose of 10%, it leads to inflammation and eye irritation, worse, it damages the cornea and thus, might results in blindness. It is a suspected respiratory toxicant, immunotoxicant, gastrointestinal toxicant and neurotoxicant. Ingestion might cause death.
4. Antiseptic Mouthwash
Antiseptic mouthwash is mainly used to maintain clean, fresh, and good smell mouth and breath. In fact, it might contains hazardous corrosive chemicals such as ;
- Zinc chloride ( ZnCl)
This chemical is a skin and eye irritant. It is caustic to the gastrointestinal tract, leading to hematemesis. Acute intoxication to this chemicals are gastrointestinal distress, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Symptoms caused by inhalation include rapid breathing, dyspnea, cough, fever, shivering, sweating, chest and leg pain, fatigue, salivation, thirst, and leukocytosis, which can last from 24 to 48 h.
You might also read : Harmful Cleaning Chemicals Compounds & Side Effects
5. Bleaching Agents
Bleaching agents are chemicals used to whiten clothes, lighten hair color, and remove stains. It is used in many household products such as detergent, dental bleaching agents, floor bleacher, swimming pool disinfectant, and so on. Their basic ingredient is hypochlorite, which is somehow hazardous like mentioned before. But that’s not the only type of bleacher. There’s also peroxide-based bleach, such as magnesium peroxide
- Magnesium peroxide ( MgO2)
Inhalation, ingestion, contact with substance may cause severe injury, burns, or death. Fire may produce toxic corrosive gases.
More Corrosive Chemicals in Household
Beside the household chemicals mentioned above, there are others that’s harmful and hazardous in some examples of corrosive household chemicals:
- Air freshener
- Fabric softener
- Soap
- Window & Kitchen cleaner
- Hairspray
- Insecticides
- Household furniture
- Camphor
- Motor oil
- Oven cleaner
- Rat poison
- Wall paint
- Cosmetic products
- Melamine tableware
- Cleansing sponge
- Fragrant Ingredients
- Shampoo
- Car wash or polish
- Furniture polish
- Windshield wiper fluid
- Ammonia
One thing that we all should keep in mind, our household chemicals are not 100% safe for us, nor for the environment. Almost like the other hazardous chemicals in textiles ,and hazardous substances in plastic materials , what we can do is to reduce its usage by traditionally-homemade soap, for example, or the other safer substitute. We can also choose the products that we’ll use wisely by learning and knowing what’s banned, what’s safe, what’s better, and so on.
Last but not least, knowing the first aid might be handy at times. I mean, we all know that accidents can’t be perfectly avoided, right? We should know well what are the right things to do when something like that occurred. Shop wisely, life healthy.