You presumably have a bottle of bleach somewhere around the house. As it’s a strong chemical with multiple useful applications around the house; however, its potency as a cleanser indicates it can pose dangers to your health if not used or stored rightly. There is a piece of misleading information that sanitizing with bleach is likely to kill SARS-CoV-2; the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Furthermore, it’s a way to help prevent the infection from spreading.
However, if bleach is remarkably reliable at killing viruses on surfaces, you may wonder if drinking bleach is safe to kill viruses in people. There is no confirmation that drinking bleach will treat you to battle off COVID-19. Further, it would be best if you didn’t drink bleach at all, nor should you swallow any product that comprises bleach or any other disinfectant. Drinking bleach can lead to severe health consequences, and it can be deadly. Our guide can help you to learn how to classify the symptoms of bleach poisoning and know when to act!
Can Drinking Bleach kill you?
Indeed, it can kill you. There are diverse adverse effects of drinking bleach. It is never safe to swallow undiluted bleach! As it’s a corrosive compound that kills tissues. Drinking bleach harms the mouth, throat, stomach, and further drops blood pressure. How critical harm will it cause? There are a number of factors, which includes:
- your size and age
- additional health conditions
- the amount you drank
- what other compounds were present in the bleach
- whether it makes you puke
- how much you inhaled in, while consuming it
However, there is evidence that it can be dangerous, practically even fatal. With all those factors, it’s not worth endangering your life. Injecting or drinking bleach is not intended for human consumption as it can kill you. It’s not advisable to consume household disinfectant products. In case you drink or inject bleach, call the emergency department directly. COVID-19 misinformation is extensive and dangerous. There is currently no recommended alternative, particularly for COVID-19. Practice caution and address any treatment or examination decisions in advance with your doctor or health care provider.
What happens If You Drink Bleach?
Sodium hypochlorite present in the bleach removes spots and disinfects as it is an oxidizing component. If you inhale the vapors or ingest bleach, it oxidizes your tissues. Moderate exposure from inhaling can have severe adverse effects, which involves:
- Vomiting: Drinking bleach might induce you to vomit, which can direct to other complications. As the bleach flows back up, it is likely to burn your oesophagus (the pipe between your throat and stomach) and throat.
- Respiratory complications: Respiratory complications can happen if you’ve inhaled in fumes from bleach or bleach combined with other compounds, for instance, ammonia. This can harm air pipes and direct to chest discomfort, asphyxiation (oxygen deprivation), furthermore death.
- Skin and eye irritability: Coming in contact with bleach can induce chemical blisters on your hands unless you wash it off instantly. If you spill or splash bleach on yourself, you are prone to undergo:
- skin irritation
- red, watery eyes
- blurry eyesight
People have related severe adverse results after swallowing chlorine dioxide products. The FDA classifies these as:
- stern vomiting
- severe diarrhoea
- low blood cell counts
- low blood pressure due to dehydration
- respiratory malfunction
- alterations to electrical activity in the heart that can drive to possibly fatal, irregular heart rhythms
- acute liver failure
What To Do If You Drink Bleach?
One potential effect from drinking bleach is puking; however, it is not prudent to induce puking as this can prompt additional soreness and damage to tissue; moreover might put the person at danger of aspirating bleach in the lungs. First aid typically involves providing the affected individual water or milk to dilute the compound. Note that profoundly diluted bleach can be another thing wholly. It is a standard method to add a small amount of bleach to the water to make it pure.
The concentration is sufficient that the water has inadequate chlorine (swimming pool) smell, although it does not induce any adverse health effects. If it does, the combination of bleach is likely too high. Evade adding bleach to water that includes acids, such as vinegar. The reaction between bleach and vinegar, even in a diluted liquid, delivers irritating and conceivably fatal chlorine and chloramine vapors. Also, go to the neighboring emergency room in case you:
- drank more than a mouthful of bleach
- drank bleach combined with other compounds or aren’t certain what you drank
- have rigorous vomiting
- can’t consume
- feel lightheaded or dizzy
- have breathing complexity
- have chest discomforts
What kind of strategies will hospitals provide if you Drink Bleach
- Activated charcoal – this fuses the poison to prevent the absorption in the blood.
- Anti-epileptic medicine – to prevent seizures if the individual is experiencing them.
- Ventilation – putting the individual on a breathing machine to be sure they get adequate air.
- Sedatives – this calm the person affected if agitated.
How to protect yourself from COVID-19
Drinking bleach won’t help you from catching the virus that induces COVID-19. Indeed severely, it’s deadly. Here are a few things that will help to lower your possibilities of incurring and spreading the coronavirus:
COVID-19 Prevention- Wash your hands repeatedly with soap for a minimum of 20 seconds.
- If you don’t have soap and water, apply a hand sanitizer comprising at least 60 per cent alcohol.
- Stay indoors as much as attainable.
- While in public, maintain at least 6 feet within yourself and others.
- If you can’t withdraw proximity to others, wear a face mask that covers your nose and mouth.
- Cover while coughing and sneezing.
- Clean and sanitize regularly used surfaces in your house each day.
Word of Caution
There is no confirmation that drinking bleach will assist with COVID-19 or any other condition. Ask for medical help instantly. Be with the person. If they’re alert, get them to splutter out anything enduring in their mouth. If not, put that individual in the recovery state. Give as much information as feasible to the emergency team. Don’t attempt and make them be ill or give them anything to consume or swallow.
