The peroxide and vinegar that people will have on hand will make such a dilute concentration of Parecetic acid, that it's effectively harmless.
You have to go really out of the way to get anything above 6% peroxide and 10% acetic acid
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
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me_irl
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Freeze the peroxide, boil the vinegar. Household chemical accidents with more involved steps.
The peroxide is the hard one.
I mean… Walgreens carries 40 Vol hair bleach. Typically that’s %12 peroxide. You can usually get industrial sizes locally too if you live in a larger city, people use it for retro-brighting.
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Anything that requires you to source chemicals online from specialty suppliers is going really out of the way.
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You have to go really out of the way to get anything above 6% peroxide
All the peroxide I ever bought has always been 12%. But I'm from Germany, might be a regional thing
So if I go to Germany I can more easily make paracetic acid. Got it.
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If your grocery store has a section for natural cleaners, no dyes, scents etc there will often be cleaning vinegar that is higher concentrations. It's really not that hard to find and most people won't have to go out of their way to get it.
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aww I wanted to melt stuff :(
Isn't chloroform a known human carcinogen?
I've accidentally mixed those two ingredients together, very stupidly in my younger years, for misguided cleaning purposes and whatever that reaction is, it's nothing like ammonia and bleach, but it still set off my spidey senses enough to know I needed to get out of the area and never do it again.
It not a known carcinogen. It is in group 2B from the IARC, labeled as possibly carcinogenic. There is some evidence that it might cause cancer, but not enough to say with certainty.
The scale is based on levels of evidence, not severity. Group 1 known carcinogens includes many things from Plutonium to alcohol and processed meat. Rankings are by evidence, not dosage.
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I've never understood this "let's mix two cleaning agents together to make them clean better!" thing. If that was the case, don't you think the manufacturers would sell this product pre-made?
Safety regulations and stuff.
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Wait chloroform is really that simple to make?
It is. It also doesn’t work like it does in the movies so unless you’re looking for an industrial solvent or a bad high it’s not good for much.
I’m not looking to make it, just surprised it was that simple. I had no idea!
Phew, that was a close one. Plausible deniablity 😎
wait, is this thing still on? 🎤
It's not necessarily the cleanest reaction, but yes. That said, if you're thinking of its Hollywood use case as a quick knockout agent, it's not very effective for that purpose. It's not non-hazardous, though; exposure for several minutes can cause dizziness and fainting, and prolonged storage can lead to phosgene formation through autoxidation.
I'm thinking the more Fear and Loathing use case
Are you thinking about the Ether scene? Ether Chloride.
Ether chloride is not a thing. Ethyl chloride (chloroethane) is, but in fear and loathing, they're likely referring to diethyl ether. When people say "ether" it's generally accepted as meaning diethyl ether.
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My father: I found something new today, was trying to clean up (something in a car) I couldn't get any traction, I ended up mixing together bleach and ammonia, it REALLY cleans well, but it's awful to breate in.
me: Dad, that's how they make chlorine gas, probably best not to use it.
My father: ohhh
edit: yesh chloromine, but it would have been lost on him
I’ve mixed all this stuff. Not that I’m recommending it at all. But the output is ridiculously small, you’d probably have to go to extreme measures to concentrate the output in order to have any effect or go out of your way to find more concentrated versions of the chemicals. Most of these consumer products are so dilute the reaction is minimal.
That said, again, don‘t go mixing this stuff for lols. Someone will always find a way to make it dangerous.
Hardware store bleach and ammonia come in many different concentrations for different uses, bleach and ammonia specifically do not mess with, it is an exothermic reaction that puts out poisonous caustic gas and people have died from mixing these two at cleaning chemical strengths. "The concentration available to consumers" is a super dangerous generalization, fairly high concentrations are available for diluting at home or for pool treatments. You can absolutely make incredibly dangerous compounds by mixing things from the pool chemical aisle.
bleach and ammonia specifically do not mess with,
Yeah, even in cleaning dilutions, it makes a dangerous enough amount to be a problem indoors. You start scrubbing around a toilet, back in a corner, and things get bad quickly.
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FYI: Chloroform doesn't work as quickly the way cartoons depict it.
Far easier to use chlorine gas and get into necrophilia
Yeah could go with Jesus, but you need to be quick. He tends to rise from the dead after a while.
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Not mixing bleach with acids, got it.
Oh, and hydrogen peroxide is always fun stuff. Not mixing it either. And not touch it.
It blows my mind that hydrogen peroxide is just available anywhere when I think about it too much.
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Hey baby, does this cloth smell like chloroform to you...?
I just open lemmy bruh 😭😭😭
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