DANGER!! Mixing urine and bleach = VERY TOXIC GAS

i just had a very very narly mishap and I'm actually contemplating on an uninsured hospital trip at this very moment. right now its nothing I'm actually going to go for but if any of the VERY VERY APPARENT symptoms get any worse il be headed to ER for sure.

First off il explain how it went down.

i live in a very old farm house that somehow was retrofitted from a well to city water. now idk if that has anything to do with my drain or whatever but in my basement there is an open drain that looks like it might connect to the sewer? but when it rains really bad and the low part of my yard collects water and the level of water in the drain rises. this drain is basically my sump. next to the drain is another open hole that connects to my house drain and I'm pretty sure some kind of drainage tile from the outside of my house because when it rains heavily this drain backs up and will overflow constantly down into the other drain that usually sits about full when it rains bad but it NEVER floods the basement. it just stays about full but seems to be connected to something else from underneath, maybe the city sewer like i said above?


ANYWAY i described all this is such detail because i wanted every to have an accurate picture of how this might of went down cause i dont know really.

well every now and then if my daughter is asleep the upstairs toilet will wake her up sometimes, i will relieve myself in the basement drain and then use my utility sink hose to make sure and water it down a whole bunch, basically a flush.

well tonight while i was doing my business i noticed the basement floor around the drain was very dirty and had to have a bottle of PRE diluted bleach cleaner next to me. i was disinfecting some equipment earlier today and left it sitting right there. Not thinking i just grabbed the cleaner and sprayed it all around in a 3 foot circle around the drain and then proceed to spray down everything down good with the utility hose.

wellll the drain started fizzing terribly!!! like really really bad! and my nose started burning so bad. i turned the hose on full and got out of there in a matter of 30 seconds - 1 minute and let the hose run for about 10 minutes.

in the mean time i ran upstairs and turned a box fan on in the living room pointing at the only vent in the room where my daughter is sleeping. i then ran down stairs and couldnt smell anything any more really so i picked the hose up and sprayed everything down really really good all the while the water was diluting the drain more and more. the drain had virtually stopped fizzing and there was only a couple bubbles i am assuming from the water splashing around from the hose.

thats when my nostrils burned again and this time to add to the fun my eyes joined the party and began burning and watering.

its now been about 15 minutes and i got several windows open and the smell and burning seems to be gone. i shut off the water right before i came up to type this. i was very light headed and it feels like my heart was racing, still kinda does. i got a headache now too with a slight tickle/burn in my throat. heres the big one, short of breath! i was having trouble getting a full gulp of air until just a minute ago. really felled like my breathing was lazy? idk if thats the right word. i just didnt feel like i could take a full breath. very very off-putting and incapacitating if i would of taken any heavier of a hit i bet.


now first off what is this gas that was created?

Everyone needs to be very very careful of what cleaners they are using where cause this really was a pretty sucky event. my head is just screeching at the moment.


now he's a secondary thought i had as i was typing this all out, what about city water with high amounts of bleach? I've been in several areas including the city i live in now that has very high bleach content in the water, does this release any dangerous fumes when we go to the bathroom? what effects would small and often doses of whatever gas it makes cause?

sorry mods if this is in the wrong area i was going to put it in survival but i just dont know where it really fits. i just figured this was a pretty important warning to bring to people. idk it might just be common sense to most but for some reason i never thought about it until it was too late. exact thought was "isnt urine a type of ammonia?" as the bleach is fizzing out of control...... BE VERY CAREFUL!!!

You know of course you made chlorine gas... right?

You made chlorine gas it sounds like. I'm not aware that urine contains ammonia until it decomposes, but if chlorine hits ammonia, you get some bad fumes. I worked in a restaurant kitchen a while back and a guy dumped a jug of ammonia and jug of bleach on the floor. It produced green fumes of chlorine gas that had everybody in the place running for the exits, gagging and dripping snot. Nasty stuff.

originally posted by: Akragon
You know of course you made chlorine gas... right?

ya chlorine gas good job! i couldnt remember it and mustard gas kept coming to mind lol.

I'm feeling 100% at the moment with a little burn/tickle in my throat still.

I'm totally having flashes to "the lost macguyver episodes" where he takes out a buncha guys with only a jug of bleach and 3 gallons of water (that he drinks LOL)

that old drain could and the other mystery line could go to a cistern.

We found one in one of my mothers rental properties about a decade ago. As I was relocating the bathroom to an addition I built, underneath I found some tank and first was like "weird, an old septic?

Nope, that is when I learned about cisterns.

Btw, if it IS a cistern, please keep it HUSH, many places have ordinances against them and will make you dig it out or fill with concrete. That thing is a great SHTF water supply.

a reply to: HanzHenry

going to read up on these after i have some coffee tomorrow morning, fading much to fast tonight to absorb anything.

this house I'm in has like 10 qwerks that i cant afford to fix or have my landlord interrupting my 8month pregnant fiancé and 10 month old running around with repairs. we plan on moving sometime soon but il always remember that this old place has a cistern in the case of SHTF lol. come surprise the new tenants with the good news and work out a deal!

ETA, I'm probably going to stop using it as a lazy mans bathroom too lol. i feel so bad now for doing that!

a reply to: skunkape23

I am sure you are right about the ammonia not being produced until the urine decomposes. If the OP has been relieving him self in that tank for some time, or if it has a connection to the septic tank then the reaction could of occurred from entering the septic or interacting with the build up of decomposed urine.

originally posted by: AprilFooseball
a reply to: skunkape23

I am sure you are right about the ammonia not being produced until the urine decomposes. If the OP has been relieving him self in that tank for some time, or if it has a connection to the septic tank then the reaction could of occurred from entering the septic or interacting with the build up of decomposed urine.

id say 7-10 times over a 7 month period. maybe more i guess cause its either really early or really late when i usually do it when the kid is sleeping. id definitely call it a rare occurrence but not too rare.

edit : NM, many others have already said what I did... the post updated oddly for me lol

originally posted by: mindseye1609
a reply to: HanzHenry


ETA, I'm probably going to stop using it as a lazy mans bathroom too lol. i feel so bad now for doing that!

You could always go outside and spread some of it around on all of the plants in your yard, including any trees or flowers. That stuff is magic fertilizer, man. Don't let it go to waste

Mixing urine and bleach? Sounds like fun. I might do this for the hell of it. No wait..... I'm not thirteen any more.
On a serious note, I hope no one else tries this at home.

now first off what is this gas that was created?

Others already answered it correctly for you. Ammonia + Chlorine = Chlorine Gas. You should be alright after getting some fresh air, and a little time.

Also, assuming this may lead to a drain field (likely why it backs up when you get a lot of rain), pouring bleach down it will kill the bacteria in there that are supposed to break down waste. Get some Rid X or other brand emergency treatment and pour down it, and will likely help.

Everyone who has peed into a toilet bowl with bleach in will know this.

You hold your breath and take a step back.

Best to flush first.

Does nobody clean their toilets over there?

Pee in your toilet, just don't flush til the morning... and make sure you flush before cleaning your toilet with bleach.

originally posted by: Kali74
Pee in your toilet, just don't flush til the morning... and make sure you flush before cleaning your toilet with bleach.

I've tried this but the misses is 8 months along and she gets real cranky when she gets up in the middle of the night to a toilet thats already full lol.


ETA: following is a reply to Gumpy64

if ya read the OP i make it pretty clear that its a very very bad idea and its pretty easy to happen by accident. i can see alot of todays generation of kids who never had to do anything around the house having mishaps like this one. i personally had to clean the bathrooms every 2 weeks or so when i was younger and it still didnt even occur to me. it took all of 3 seconds to just grab the bleach and pour it on the floor and it was too late! totally took me by surprise.

originally posted by: Gazrok

now first off what is this gas that was created?

Others already answered it correctly for you. Ammonia + Chlorine = Chlorine Gas. You should be alright after getting some fresh air, and a little time.

Also, assuming this may lead to a drain field (likely why it backs up when you get a lot of rain), pouring bleach down it will kill the bacteria in there that are supposed to break down waste. Get some Rid X or other brand emergency treatment and pour down it, and will likely help.

im gonna look into if its a cistern or a drain field and get some ridX if its the latter. every now and again a nice little funky smell will be around that drain so I'm assuming its when the yard/drain field go anaerobic and gets a chance to off gas up through my drain tube? beneficial microbes would probably really help in that situation!

a reply to: mindseye1609

I guess use ammonia to clean it up then lol.

originally posted by: Kali74
a reply to: mindseye1609

I guess use ammonia to clean it up then lol.

the second part of that post was a reply to grumpy my bad on getting em mixed up like that.

i think il just have to sneak out the back door and go outside now that its summer. no biggy to go for a little walk down to the woods or whatever. lots of stars out here

Sorry dude I was not having a go at you. When I was a kid my brother was a keen chemistry nerd and we used to make gunpowder, rocket fuel and other dangerous compounds. We never caused any harm though and would have made your gas if we knew how back then. Another highly dangerous combination is to inhale refridgerant gas such as freon through a cigarette if you smoke. Apparently it forms phosgene poison gas and several air conditioning techs have died as a result. Or lit up a cigarette after accidentally breathing in LPG gas. Please pass this on about the air con gas as fridges can sometimes leak. Just don't smoke.
cheers

a reply to: grumpy64

good lookin out on the AC cigarette combo being bad.

I'm thinking the 64 in your name might be a hint at when you were born, back then kids had more freedoms with chemicals then we do as adults today. I've talked to my old man a ton about the # he used to play with as a kid. I managed to source a few nifty chemical combinations over the years but nothing like what was available in the 60's-80's. you guys had it good lol.


heres a question, does the current safety paradigm where we shield kids to any danger to such an extreme they barely teach reactive chemistry in school anymore create safer adults? or does having 1 out of every 99 kids blow up or burn their face off give the other 99 the respect for chemicals that they need to be safe adults?

I've been leaning on the lemming side of it lately. i know i had a healthy fear of chemicals and explosions and just plain ole dangerous situations NOT because i was told BUT because i had a few close calls that drilled it into the back of my head. I'm pretty stupid and stubborn tho so just because i needed to almost get blown to bits to learn doesn't mean others do to but i have my suspicions that its the only real way to know.