3 ms·

Elemental fluorine is nasty toxic, but it doesn’t really pollute the environment because it’s too busy oxidizing the first thing it finds and forming a never go

by User23 5y ago

Elemental fluorine is nasty toxic, but it doesn’t really pollute the environment because it’s too busy oxidizing the first thing it finds and forming a never gonna let you go bond.

aidenn0 5y ago
Kind of the reverse of mercury; elemental mercury is relatively non-toxic, but it seems like almost all mercury compounds are nasty. [edit] Chronic exposure to small amounts or acute exposure to large amounts of mercury vapor is toxic; it's just that most compounds are worse.
- kragen 5y ago
  Yup. Cinnabar is the exception, being less toxic than both metallic mercury and most other metal sulfids.
- mgiampapa 5y ago
  Beats breathing fluorine!
  - NotVerstappen 5y ago
    Give a man fluoride toothpaste and he'll have good breath for a month. Give him fluorine gas and he'll have good breath for the rest of his life.
dtgriscom 5y ago
Fluorine never gonna give you up...
thaumasiotes 5y ago
Isn't it happy to form hydrogen fluoride when it meets something with hydrogen in it? If that was a never-gonna-let-you-go bond, HF would be a much less nasty substance.
- User23 5y ago
  There are certainly plenty of nasty fluorine compounds, but they too are quite reactive and quickly bind to something[1]. On a tangent from that link: “Fluorine is a naturally-occurring, pale yellow-green gas with a sharp odor.” What lunatic went sniffing fluorine gas and how did he have any sense of smell after doing so? [1] https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts11.pdf https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts11.pdf
  - kragen 5y ago
    I hear it's a strong enough odor, and it's good enough at escaping containment, that fluorine chemists can't avoid smelling it from time to time, and there are levels where it is detectable but not especially dangerous. It occurs naturally in trace amounts in fluorite exposed to radioactivity, so crushing some fluorite and smelling it may be a way to get acquainted without risking your life. (It doesn't occur naturally in very many places.) There are some fluorine compounds that are far less reactive than things like HF, but still toxic; perfluorooctanoic acid is the most notorious one. Naturally these are the ones that are most used to synthesize fluorine compounds.

by User23 5y ago

Elemental fluorine is nasty toxic, but it doesn’t really pollute the environment because it’s too busy oxidizing the first thing it finds and forming a never gonna let you go bond.

aidenn0 5y ago

Kind of the reverse of mercury; elemental mercury is relatively non-toxic, but it seems like almost all mercury compounds are nasty. [edit] Chronic exposure to small amounts or acute exposure to large amounts of mercury vapor is toxic; it's just that most compounds are worse.

kragen 5y ago
Yup. Cinnabar is the exception, being less toxic than both metallic mercury and most other metal sulfids.
mgiampapa 5y ago
Beats breathing fluorine!
- NotVerstappen 5y ago
  Give a man fluoride toothpaste and he'll have good breath for a month. Give him fluorine gas and he'll have good breath for the rest of his life.

dtgriscom 5y ago

Fluorine never gonna give you up...

thaumasiotes 5y ago

Isn't it happy to form hydrogen fluoride when it meets something with hydrogen in it? If that was a never-gonna-let-you-go bond, HF would be a much less nasty substance.

User23 5y ago
There are certainly plenty of nasty fluorine compounds, but they too are quite reactive and quickly bind to something[1]. On a tangent from that link: “Fluorine is a naturally-occurring, pale yellow-green gas with a sharp odor.” What lunatic went sniffing fluorine gas and how did he have any sense of smell after doing so? [1] https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts11.pdf https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts11.pdf
- kragen 5y ago
  I hear it's a strong enough odor, and it's good enough at escaping containment, that fluorine chemists can't avoid smelling it from time to time, and there are levels where it is detectable but not especially dangerous. It occurs naturally in trace amounts in fluorite exposed to radioactivity, so crushing some fluorite and smelling it may be a way to get acquainted without risking your life. (It doesn't occur naturally in very many places.) There are some fluorine compounds that are far less reactive than things like HF, but still toxic; perfluorooctanoic acid is the most notorious one. Naturally these are the ones that are most used to synthesize fluorine compounds.