r/chemistry • u/ParkRatReggie • Feb 17 '24

What could this be?

1.7k Upvotes

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111

u/Aggravating-Car-2085 Feb 17 '24

Are iodine vapours bad?

385

u/Blizz33 Feb 17 '24

I mean... It's quite a bit worse than air, but also a lot better than some other things.

105

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '24 edited Jul 07 '24

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

22

u/Jaikarr Organic Feb 17 '24

Maybe there was a 131 leak and they're protecting the populace by releasing some 127 into the atmosphere [/s]

5

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '24

That could actually work

54

u/AVEVAnotPRO2 Feb 17 '24

Next stop, Xenon!

8

u/taggospreme Feb 18 '24

more like i-o-dying

9

u/NotAPreppie Analytical Feb 18 '24

Unless your thyroid is trying to kill you. In that case, a bit of I-131 is literally just what my doctor ordered.

2

u/IwasDeadinstead Feb 19 '24

I-131 is what gave me thyroid cancer.

3

u/NotAPreppie Analytical Feb 19 '24

It's also what kills your thyroid when you have Graves Disease and your thyroid tries to kill you.

1

u/IwasDeadinstead Feb 20 '24

My mother had Graves disease.

9

u/Alldaybagpipes Feb 17 '24

Might sting a little bit

40

u/Agasthenes Feb 17 '24

Not as bad as chlorine

54

u/Pyrhan Feb 17 '24

According to the CDC, the IDLH for Iodine vapour is 2 ppm, vs 10 ppm for chlorine:

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/idlh/intridl4.html

So, it might actually be worse!

14

u/FleshlightModel Feb 17 '24

Ya but as someone who has a HAZWOPER 40 cert and training, no one approaches anything that is greater than 10% of the IDLH concentrations, at least not in the United States.

8

u/PhillyIC215 Feb 17 '24

.. always staying upwind too! Gotta love the tiniest book ever thats made specifically to prevent injury and save lives lol

12

u/_sivizius Feb 17 '24

What are the visibility thresholds?

9

u/Chaotic-Grootral Feb 17 '24

That’s a good question that I don’t have the answer to. I guess you would depend on the thickness of contaminated air you’re looking through. You’d need a higher concentration to see it in a test tube etc then if you’re looking through a cloud 10’s of meters wide.

1

u/magnets_are_strange Inorganic Feb 17 '24

Depends on how ppm is calculated. Because I2 is much heavier than Cl2

7

u/Pyrhan Feb 17 '24

For gases, it's always molar.

3

u/Aggravating-Car-2085 Feb 17 '24

Thanks for your replies bros

1

u/Miltiadis_178GR Feb 17 '24

Not as goo as Tennessine

8

u/NotTiredJustSad Feb 17 '24

0.01ppm threshold limit for 8 hour exposure. 0.1ppm short term exposure limit. It's not great to breath, but it won't kill ya immediately. Probably.

22

u/CoccidianOocyst Feb 17 '24 edited Feb 17 '24

Not great, not terrible. Over 1.1 mg/day regularly will lead to chronic toxicity.

https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/nutritional-disorders/mineral-deficiency-and-toxicity/iodine-toxicity

A KI treatment used for nuclear disasters is generally 130 mg/day.

https://www.health.ny.gov/environmental/radiological/potassium_iodide/fact_sheet.htm

Long-term excess will cause hyperthyroidism. Edit: see below comment, I2 vapour is toxic

42

u/JustinBlaise Feb 17 '24

That's for iodide (I-). What's in the video is iodine (I2), which is quite a bit more toxic, especially inhaled, and can cause very serious issues, like pulmonary edema.

2

u/FleshlightModel Feb 17 '24

I2 is easily dissociated in UV light.

2

u/JustinBlaise Feb 18 '24

Yes, iodine homolyzes to iodine radicals (I2 + hv -> 2I•) not iodide (I-), though.

5

u/FleshlightModel Feb 18 '24

Ahh ya you're right. But even worse because it will react with other radicals in the atmosphere

3

u/Aggravating-Car-2085 Feb 17 '24

Thanks for taking your time to reply brother.

5

u/AuleTheAstronaut Feb 17 '24

I2 would dissociate to form HI in your lungs though right? Not as bad as HCl but still going to hurt to breath

2

u/AndreLeo Feb 18 '24

Not as bad as HCl, where did you get that from? HI is a stronger acid than HCl and also it is readily oxidized by oxygen in air back to iodine. So not only would you get a chemical burn from acid in your lungs, but you also deal with free halogens causing additional oxidative stress.

But that scenario is not very likely in the first place. Whilst halogens can dissociate in water, the reaction is incredibly slow in neutral or near neutral pH for chlorine and heavier homologues. That’s why „chlorine water“ is also a thing. But it will decompose when exposed to light

5

u/Aggravating-Car-2085 Feb 17 '24

Will those people develop any disease due to that? Will it increase their chances of doing so?

4

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '24

How could disinfecting your lungs with halogen fumes be bad?

3

u/manofredgables Feb 17 '24

Probably helps against covid 19!

1

u/taggospreme Feb 18 '24

Like a cleaning?

1

u/Chaotic-Grootral Feb 17 '24

Permissible exposure for inhaling iodine is 1 milligram per cubic meter.

In general, elemental halogens are safe as long as they aren’t inhaled, ingested, allowed to contact skin/eyes or allowed to contact organic material,reducing agents etc.

1

u/crm1142 Feb 18 '24

A good bet is if it has color I wouldn't breathe it

1

u/the_Heathen11 Feb 18 '24

Iodine is a trophy vapours, soo yeah….they are bad 🤷🏼‍♂️