Sciencemadness Discussion Board

ammonia gas suffocation

Poppy - 8-5-2012 at 08:03

Alright people ammonia gas as everyone knows is toxic, and smells really bad, but has anyone experienced anhydrous ammonia?
It is far from the smell oh ammoniacal solutions (27% maybe?)
By ading alcali to this ammonia solution, for some reason ammonia bubbles out with a extremely pungent smell.
While trying to dissolved Cr as a ammonia complex, accidentaly I disobeyed the orthodox chemistry procedures and smelled the pot directly..

OH gosh, why
I suffocated. Thats different from inhaling ammonia and saying: "its smells bad! (add meme here)"
It really suffocated me. I had to proceed, as a chemnistry should :cool:, to exhale the gás first, cause my respiratory tract was stunned, after repetitive pumping exercises I could breath trough mymouth and prevent asfixia, but brweathing through the nouse was another story. I just couldnt, and I knew there was ammonia in there: in my lungs and nouse. Tryed to syphon water through the nouse but couldn't.
It was really bad, has anyone of you ever experienced this?
Be careful.:o

GreenD - 8-5-2012 at 08:17

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izN0fXPADVA

Poppy - 8-5-2012 at 08:20

K he would be dead no joke
Wtf thats ridiculous

[Edited on 5-8-2012 by Poppy]

GreenD - 8-5-2012 at 08:56

Quote: Originally posted by Poppy  
K he would be dead no joke
Wtf thats ridiculous

[Edited on 5-8-2012 by Poppy]


Low concentrations (like cleaning solutions) are not very dangerous. Our bodies can deal with low concentrations.

High concentrations of ammonia gas can kill you and cause lung damage...

cyanureeves - 8-5-2012 at 15:25

poppy i will take your word for it and not do it myself because i am about to finally buy 27 plus % ammonium hydroxide.i will use my ammonia for hydrazine sulfate and to drop that red gold stuff from auric chloride and believe it or not i have been nervous about the purchasing thing because of my strange addiction to want to sniff ammonia.very frightening and detailed story poppy. breathing through your nose was just not possible after doing excersises? goodness gracious! i have never even been close to making an ammonia stouter than insect itch relief pens but one time i dried distilled an ammonia based fertilzer and sniffed it. i wanted to slam my head on the ground and scrape the top of my head off all the way to down to my sinus cavity. i remember my jaw was clenched hard due to the pain.

AndersHoveland - 9-5-2012 at 00:08

Ammonia is actually a fairly poisonous gas. The reason it is often not though of as such is because even low concentrations in air cause a burning odor that humans usually try to avoid.

Poppy - 9-5-2012 at 05:38

Thats why we should never ever smell chemicals directly from the pots!
I got surprised with the displacement though: NH3(aq) + NaOH(s) --> NH3(g) + NaOH(aq)

PHILOU Zrealone - 9-5-2012 at 10:34

A long time ago, I took a wif at 35% NH3 solution by weight and yes it hurts ...you feel like your brain is reversed inside its box... it hurts at the back of the head, behind your hears and eyes....it is what we call pungnant...it can knock you out!

In your case it is even worse because more concentrated.

At school a guy once piped this solution with his mouth instead of a mechanical pipette... he went immediatelly to hospital with nose, mouth an trachea burns...the teacher was stunned by the stupidity of the pupil (17 year old)...but yes if there is something stupid to do :) young people will always do it...teachers should know that ;)

White Yeti - 9-5-2012 at 12:07

Thankfully, this has never happened to me. I always handle ammonia solution in closed containers to minimise the smell. The first time I handled ammonia, I was surprised by how bad ammonia really smells. I knew ammonia smelled bad, but I wasn't prepared for how strong the smell really was. I figured it was a cleaning product, so it shouldn't smell too bad; no wonder it's being phased out.

cyanureeves - 19-5-2012 at 08:48

when i opened the ammonium hydroxide bottle i got from fed-ex, it started to bubble like a soda pop so i put it in the fridge.i was not expecting that and there was no warning on the label about hot weather.i did nurd rage's hydrazine method and it separated great but never crystalized so that is the end of that synthesis. on the bright side i made gold ammonia and i got a lung full of weak ammonia right now and i love it! i swear it feels healthy but not the strong stuff because it made be cough and teared my eyes and burned my skin a little. i got to find something to do with 250ml of ammonia so i can take it out of the fridge and after that i think i can live without ammonia. when my hydrazine synthesis failed i felt like drawing a scary peepee just like papaver somniferum did.

[Edited on 19-5-2012 by cyanureeves]