Sodium hypochlorite reacts with ammonia, drain cleaners, and other acids. Many household products state that they contain bleach on the label.
Don't mix bleach with ammonia, acids, or other cleaners.
Mixing bleach with common cleaning products can cause serious injuries. Be sure to always read the product label before using a cleaning product.
Take a look at chemicals you should never mix together:
Ammonia and bleach: This combination is dangerous, producing vapors that can cause severe damage to your respiratory system. Vinegar and bleach: If you add a weak acid to bleach, it creates vapors of toxic chloramine and chlorine.
Bleach and ammonia
Many window cleaners, such as Windex, contain Ammonia. If mixed with bleach, it produces a toxic gas called chloramine. Fumes from this gas can cause side effects including sinus congestion, choking, shortness of breath, and coughing. In some cases, it can even cause chest pain.
Peroxides (inorganic), when mixed with combustible materials, barium, sodium, and potassium, form explosives that ignite easily. Phosphorus (P), both red and white, forms explosive mixtures with oxidizing agents.
You should never clean with these two ingredients combined. Mixing chlorine bleach, which contains sodium hypochlorite, with any type of acid like vinegar creates chlorine gas, a dangerous chemical that's deadly in high volumes.
Fabuloso will release a chlorine gas when it is mixed with bleach. This becomes TOXIC and should not be mixed. These two cleaning products do not work together. The chemical released can be lethal to your lungs and a major damaging eye irritant.
Hydrogen Peroxide and Vinegar
“Combining these two creates peracetic acid or corrosive acid, an irritant that, in high concentrations, can harm the skin, eyes, throat, nose, and lungs,” says Bock.
Hydrogen oxide (separately, a great cleaning agent and antiseptic), if mixed with vinegar, creates peracetic acid, as vinegar contains acetic acid. This combination of vinegar and hydrogen peroxide is potentially toxic and corrosive, which can break down or damage the surface it is applied to.
It's generally best to avoid mixing chemicals, which is serious business and can be unsafe. Bleach and ammonia can create a toxic gas, and the same goes for vinegar–an acid that releases toxic chlorine vapors when mixed with bleach. Separating your cleaning products will keep your home clean and safe.
When mixed together, bleach and vinegar produce toxic chlorine gas. Chlorine gas itself is greenish-yellow but, when diluted in the air, it's invisible. This means it's only detectable by its strong scent and the side effects you experience.
urine turns red on contact with hypochlorite bleach (toilet bowl cleaner) - aminosalicylic acid.
Chloroform in particular can cause unconsciousness and chloroacetone has been used as tear gas. Example: Lysol All Purpose Cleaner Spray and your everyday rubbing alcohol are also another good example of two products that should never be mixed.
Mixing baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and vinegar (acetic acid) causes a chemical reaction that produces a salt (sodium acetate) and water, as well as carbon dioxide gas. In this demonstration, baking soda is placed in a balloon that is attached to a flask holding vinegar.
If you mix bleach and enough baking soda to create a paste (around 1/4c bleach to 3/4c baking soda), the combination makes for a powerful grout cleaner. I would reserve a “bleach paste” for extreme grout cleaning only. It's powerful when used to remove mold, mildew, and severe grout stains.
Bleach and rubbing alcohol create chloroform. This combination is highly toxic and can cause damage to your eyes, lungs, and liver. Combining these products can create peracetic / peroxyacetic acid, which can be highly corrosive and irritate your eyes, skin, and respiratory tract.
Due to the chemical reaction that occurs between bleach and ammonia, chloramine can occur. Breathing difficulties and chest pain can occur as a result of this toxic gas. Cleaners that are mixed should not be used at all.
Important to note: When bleach is mixed with acid (ex/ vinegar, toilet bowl cleaners) it creates chlorine gas. When bleach is mixed with an ammonia product, it creates chloramine gas. Both of these gases are very irritating to inhale and can cause coughing, chest tightness, wheezing and headache.
Acetone and peroxide is “an exceedingly reactive mixture” that can be easily detonated by an electrical spark, said Neal Langerman, president of Advanced Chemical Safety, a consulting company in San Diego. Acetone is easy to obtain, hydrogen peroxide somewhat harder.
Azidoazide azide is the most explosive chemical compound ever created. It is part of a class of chemicals known as high-nitrogen energetic materials, and it gets its "bang" from the 14 nitrogen atoms that compose it in a loosely bound state.