[paul.fr]

okay, the title is not exactly the question, but it looks good  []

Some time back on a chemical health and safety course we were shown how mixing cleaning products could cause an expolsion, they used a toilet for the demonstration!

So whilst i was visiting the "little boys room" i remembered this and began wondering if there are any "household" chemicals that could have an adverse reaction to urine.

Are there?

[lightarrow]

I only know bleach. It reacts with ammonia and urea contained in urine, producing chlorine gas (mostly).

[Karen W.]

ME TOO!!

[neilep]

If your house happens to be a munitions factory and your ' joy department ' is a genetic hereditary throwback from when a distant ancestor mated with a dragon then it's entirely possible that doing a wee wee could be dangerous.

Hey !!..it happens y'know ?

[Karen W.]

LOL!!

[Bored chemist]

Bleach reacts with urea to give nitrogen and CO2 (mainly) the bubbles of gas rising through the bleach carry the odour of bleach into the air so that you get a really strong pong. There are also traces of chloramines produced which are very irritant to the eyes and nose. On the whole it's a good idea to flush the bleach away before taking a leak.

Bleach will react with acids used for removing limescale and this will produce chlorine and this sometimes causes problems when people mix cleaning products.

On a slightly more weird note I once read of someone working in a lab many years ago where one of the jobs was to analyse urine samples from people working in some bit of the nuclear industry. They were looking for contamination by uranium and plutonium and the technique was quite simple. Dry down a sample of the urine in a dish, heat it to burn off the organics etc and check the ash with a geiger counter.
One day they made a strange observation. The urine sample from one person turned greed as it was dried down and then it exploded. The poor bloke doing the analysis repeated the experiment with the same result- this person really had got explosive urine. It turned out that he had been taking a cough medication containing perchlorate and this was being excreted via the kidneys.

I just can't help wondering about the lab technician having to go to his boss and explain what caused the bang.

[lightarrow]

On a slightly more weird note I once read of someone working in a lab many years ago where one of the jobs was to analyse urine samples from people working in some bit of the nuclear industry. They were looking for contamination by uranium and plutonium and the technique was quite simple. Dry down a sample of the urine in a dish, heat it to burn off the organics etc and check the ash with a geiger counter.
One day they made a strange observation. The urine sample from one person turned greed as it was dried down and then it exploded. The poor bloke doing the analysis repeated the experiment with the same result- this person really had got explosive urine. It turned out that he had been taking a cough medication containing perchlorate and this was being excreted via the kidneys.
I just can't help wondering about the lab technician having to go to his boss and explain what caused the bang.

This is really very funny!  []
But do you think this story could be true, or that it's presumably a legend?
(By the way, do they really sell medications containing perchlorate? It would be interesting).

[Bored chemist]

Trust me, the bloke who told me witnesssed it and he wasn't given to making up stories. Lots of odd chemicals were used historically in "patent medicines" not all of them worked. It may have been chlorate rather than perchlorate but it's been a long while since I heard the story.

[neilep]

LOL..THANK YOU BC......fascinating urine pyro fun !!