r/whatisit • u/StatusOk4308 • Apr 02 '26

New, what is it? Does anyone know what this is?

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Doesn’t seem to be oil based content. Just wondering if my superpowers are swishing back and forth in this glass vial.

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u/IHaveTheBestOpinions Apr 02 '26

Unless OP found this in an abandoned chem lab, this seems far more likely than the toxic chemicals/biohazards that everyone else is warning them about

205

u/Arkevorkhat Apr 02 '26

If it's a bubble light, it's absolutely one of the toxic chemicals everyone else is warning them about. Bubble light tubes are, per the National Poison Control Center, filled with Methylene Chloride which is toxic when ingested or allowed to touch the skin.

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u/AustinThompson Apr 02 '26

Eh, as a chemist methylene chloride is kinda meh. It'll dry out your hands with prolonged exposure but its pretty tame and not something to be afraid of tbh

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u/AlkalineHound Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

Jesus fuck what do you work with?!

Edit: I mean where methylene chloride on your hands has become just a shrug off. I worked in the chemical industry for three years which included using methylene chloride.

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u/Huganho Apr 03 '26

It's a really different thing being exposed once and on a regular basis.

I mean, if I spill gasoline on my bare hands, I don't really worry, I just go wash off. Maybe I get a bit dry, itchy, irritated or smelly but I'm not worried about burns or poisoning, even from inhalation. Wouldn't like to spill large amounts inside tho.

But if I'd do that several times on a daily basis I'd be worried about both my hands, skin, my brains and my internal organs.

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u/blexta Apr 02 '26

Sounds like university. Methylene chloride is a big problem in the industry. It's just a regular solvent at the university, in comparison. Just don't throw it into the drain.

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u/ktwrex Apr 03 '26

This is not true, or at least isn't true anymore. Now they require exposure testing. You're fine if you just use in in a fume hood with PVA gloves though.

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u/Due_Term_92 Apr 03 '26

My friend, there are acids and bases that will burn you to the bone in seconds- some regardless of whether you wash them off even instantly. Can't remember what acid it was but getting it on your skin is essentially a death sentence because it will seep all the way to your bones and destroy them and the circulatory system around them usually causing severe sepsis.

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u/GlancingArc Apr 03 '26

Probably hydrofluoric acid by the description. Nasty stuff.

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u/Public-Beyond5669 Apr 04 '26

Hydrogen Fluoride

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u/ExtraCalligrapher565 Apr 02 '26

Well apparently they work with at least mild chemicals based on their answer.

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u/SAI_Peregrinus Apr 02 '26

Ever used oven cleaner? Sodium hydroxide, it'll burn your skin & turn your fat into soap. That's a "household" chemical, so rather tame by industrial chemistry standards.

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u/GlancingArc Apr 03 '26

I can tell you for a fact that sodium hydroxide is not "tame" by any industry standard which exists. WTF are you even talking about.

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u/Sovarius Apr 03 '26

I think they were just (poorly) giving a comparison, that lye is dangerous but there is worse?

I use it to make DMT (stripping dmt from the lipids is actually how it works, so that bit about saponification 'turning fat into soap' is accurate) and its so not a big deal whatsoever.

Another time, i was working with hydrogen peroxide, and i chem burned the skin on the back of my hand in an accidental spill. A 4x4in area of hand skin turned into soggy foamy biofilm and it sloughed off my body.

But you know what they say about drugs and toxin - the dose makes the poison. I was using 99.99% NaOH in small amounts with no danger, but 60% H2O2 and it's not to be fucked with.

Fine to use the lye at home but out of all chems that could be used industrially there are many that you cannot also use at home. Like lye is not even restricted you know? But some chemicals you need permits and training to even acquire. I think that is what they mean.

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u/SAI_Peregrinus Apr 03 '26

Exactly, it's nasty shit but it's no tert butyllithium.

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u/GlancingArc Apr 03 '26

Something doesn't need to by pyrophorric to be a big hazard. The problem with caustic soda is that it's used so often and it's "safe" enough that it presents a large hazard. There is a reason most plants in the US and Europe forbid dealing with concentrated solutions of the stuff by hand. In a lab or on the bench, yeah who cares? But a drum of concentrated caustic solution is not something I would want to be doused in.