We like to think that we have a pretty good handle on not only what’s in our food, medicine, and cleaning cabinets, but also which items are dangerous, and how they all work and interact with each other. However, it’s a complex world, and oftentimes it is hard to keep track of all of it at once. Unfortunately, there are dangerous items lurking in our households, of which even the best of us are often almost completely unaware.
10. Bleach And Ammonia Cleaners Can Create Chloramine Gas
Most people don’t think about the fact that many of the cleaning products actually contain ammonia, and that those that don’t probably contain bleach instead. Since most people aren’t even aware of how powerful ammonia is — or even what it is — many also are not aware that when ammonia and bleach are mixed together, they form something called chloramine gas, which is often confused with tear gas due to its milder, but similar effects.
Many individuals cleaning their houses, especially in the early pandemic days, have accidentally mixed the two types of cleaners and started dealing with watery eyes, respiratory distress, and other symptoms, before running to a ventilated area to recover, only later realizing what they had done. The simplest way to avoid this pitfall is to read your labeling and simply make sure not to mix cleaners that have ammonia and bleach agents in them. However, it’s also important to note that natural sources of ammonia — such as urine — can cause this effect as well. This is why experts suggest you do not use bleach-containing cleaners to disinfect toilets, diaper pails, litter boxes, or other areas that may contain a lot of natural ammonia.
9. Too Much Cinnamon Can Quickly Cause Liver Toxicity
Most people are smart enough to avoid the cinnamon challenge, if for no other reason than choking hazards, but it can still be quite dangerous even without that kind of abuse. You see, there are two kinds of cinnamon: Ceylon Cinnamon and Cassia Cinnamon. These two types have an important difference, which is that one has much more of the active compound that can cause liver damage than the other. Cassia Cinnamon, the one most commonly sold in stores, contains a large quantity of Coumarin, which can easily cause liver toxicity in humans.
Now, some studies have attempted to use it therapeutically for things like diabetes, but the evidence is unclear, and the risks are high. Scientific studies have shown that the safe amount of Cassia Cinnamon per day for a human of roughly 160 pounds is less than a teaspoon and a half, if you don’t want to potentially suffer long term liver damage.
8. Plug In Air Fresheners Are Really Bad For Your Pets
People don’t typically tend to think too deeply about air fresheners, but they can be quite dangerous for our pets. The problem is that these air fresheners are not just releasing safe organic compounds into the air. They are actually using something called volatile organic compounds, which are known to potentially cause cancer in animals. They certainly can cause respiratory distress in poets, even if you do not use them heavily enough to cause their deaths.
To make matters worse, a study showed that out of 25 major brands, a combined 133 volatile organic compounds were found, with at least 17 different ones per product. Among those, 24 of the compounds are toxic under US law, with every product containing at least one of the toxic ones. This means a huge amount of potentially dangerous compounds that are very hard to properly test for. Cats especially are in danger, as they are not only a lot smaller than us, but they tend to groom themselves by licking, which means anything in the air that gets on their fur is likely to end up in their digestive tract. For dogs this is not as much of an issue, although still a cause to be careful.
7. Too Much Use Of Spray-On Deodorant Can Actually Kill You
It should be noted, first and foremost, that spray-on deodorants have clearly written warning labels, but due to an alarming number of incidents where teens have lost their lives, some are questioning if that’s nearly enough. A report from the United Kingdom found 11 deaths attributed to this cause in the time period of 2001 to 2020. While this is not a huge number, it’s far more than it should be, as it’s an entirely preventable cause of death. These teenagers were overusing the spray either to make themselves smell good in place of showers, as is the case with one British teenager, or to comfort themselves with a nice smell, like another teenager; this one a girl in Britain who lost her life at the age of just 14.
To make matters worse, not all death certificates are going to attribute this cause as the direct effect, so the true number may be hard to actually track. There have also been 324 deaths related to butane inhalation in the same time period, which is the chemical in the spray-on body scenting products that is so deadly. This definitely leaves the most important question here: why are spray-on deodorant products using such a dangerous chemical to begin with, knowing it will be applied near human skin?
6. A Little Too Much Nutmeg Can Cause Myristicin Poisoning
Most people think of nutmeg as just a spice for eggnog and cakes, but it actually contains an active compound called myristicin, which can have very strong effects. This active compound in nutmeg is rarely ingested in quantities large enough to have any effects on us. A little bit sprinkled on eggnog or a teaspoon in an entire cake isn’t likely to have much effect. However, at just a teaspoon or two, depending on the weight of the person, it can start to cause myristicin toxicity. Now, except for the case of one eight-year-old boy, there are no known deaths on record, but it is called toxicity because you tend to get a very unpleasant fever and high that some people try to exploit for recreational purposes.
Malcolm X was famous for this, admitting in his biography to using a penny matchbox of nutmeg mixed with cold water while in prison, and he claimed it hit like “three or four reefers.” But before anyone gets excited about using nutmeg to emulate Malcolm X (or just to try to get high), he was using this because he was in prison and had nothing else was available, because it really is not a pleasant high. While there is no hard evidence, as it isn’t ethical to test just how much will kill you, it is called toxicity for a reason. When you have too much, you get hallucinations, and an extremely powerful high, but you also get sweating, high fever, nausea, and a sense of impending doom that can last for 24 hours, or even longer.
5. Appliance Fires Are Becoming A Serious Problem — And It Isn’t Just The Obvious Ones
When people think of house fires they think of things like unattended candles, or other negligence issues, but appliance fires are becoming a big problem and they are often not the user’s fault. Now, we can’t mention appliance fires without mentioning toasters, but contrary to popular belief they are one of the lesser causes when it comes to these accidents. The fact that people often forget to clean them doesn’t help, but studies by consumer agencies have shown that most toaster fires are not created by the consumers themselves, and that there is a truly measurable problem when it comes to faulty electronics. One of the most common causes of toaster fires is that they will not stop after the timer tells them to, continuing to heat up (and up, and up) until a fire starts.
However, as bad as toasters are, they are hardly the worst offenders. From 2001-2009 consumer agencies tallied all the different appliance fires, and found over 35,000 likely caused by appliance failure. Of those, they were absolutely sure that in over 15,000 instances it was indeed an electrical problem with the appliance. In these tallies, they found that range-tops, dishwashers, dryers, refrigerators and other big appliances were actually causing way more fires than small appliances like toasters. Experts believe these electrical problems are often traced back to one shoddy part that ended up in the mix, which can lead to appliances overheating, refusing to turn off when they are supposed to, or turning on without being told.
4. Raw Flour Is Often A Carrier Of E. Coli
Many people dismiss the danger of raw flour, and when worrying about raw dough only think about the eggs. They may not realize that letting raw flour spread around their kitchen is almost as bad as doing the same with raw chicken. The problem is that flour that has not yet been cooked in something — even though we may not think of it this way — is actually a raw food, and can often contain E. coli. This, of course, is the contaminant that often causes the recall of products like lettuce. This means that as a rule of thumb, you really shouldn’t use raw dough as a toy for kids to make clay shapes, nor allow it to spread around your kitchen without thorough disinfecting, and you really shouldn’t ever eat it. Not that we expect people to scarf down spoonfuls of flour, but still.
Now, some people have heard of raw cookie dough that is sold that way, and is safe to eat. This dough often contains no eggs and has flour that was specially heat-treated before it was added to the cookie dough. Some people may think this is safe to do at home so they can make their own cookie dough, but this is really not recommended by food experts. They simply do not believe that most home processes are going to adequately heat-treat the flour well enough to be sure of removal of any contaminants, such as E. coli.
3. A Moderate Amount Of Licorice On A Regular Basis Can Actually Kill You
Many people think little of black licorice, and enjoy it for a snack. But overconsumption can easily be deadly, as it contains a dangerous compound called glycyrrhizic acid. The problem is that this compound in real liquorice, while healthful in small quantities, can be very dangerous in larger quantities. Many people, either eating it as a regular snack or trying to use it in supplements or teas for health benefits, have accidentally overdosed and put their health at risk. More than two ounces a day for two weeks is more than enough to start causing noticeable health problems, which include high blood pressure and extremely low potassium levels.
Now, while deaths are relatively rare, they do occur on occasion and usually tend to skew towards older folks in their 50s and up. Unfortunately, apart from the fact that the older generation tends to like it more, and the fact that the risks are not well known, its health effects are more likely to bother an elderly person than a younger, healthier individual. Heart arrhythmia, high blood pressure, messed up acid levels in blood; and low potassium may be bad for a young person, but they are much more likely to be fatal for an older person.
2. Wedding Crashers May Be Funny, But Eye Drops Are No Laughing Matter
The scene in Wedding Crashers where a man is snuck eye drops and he ends up on the toilet is played for laughs, and most people think of it as a harmless prank. It is important to understand that the effects of this drug in real life are much, much worse when consumed than simply spending an uncomfortable period of time on the john. The fact is that eye drops contain something called tetrahydrozoline, which is very useful for removing eye redness and irritation, but when ingested or injected, causes dangerous drops in blood pressure and heart beat. In fact, not only is it deadly, but the side effect of gastrointestinal distress that we see in the hit movie is actually not a common side effect at all.
The more common side effect of taking too much especially over a long period of time is death, as extremely low blood pressures and heartbeats can kill you if not medically treated. In some cases people have killed others using the eye drops as poison and in one case a woman was even convicted of the killing of her husband by poisoning his drink with eye drops and was sentenced to 25 years.
1. You Should Really Monitor Your Tuna Intake Due To Mercury Levels
Most people think little of it, likely due to the small can size, but tuna is actually quite a large fish. So, the government has advice on how much we should eat to avoid mercury buildup.The recommendation is that adults should not be eating more than 2-3 cans (at the very most!) of chunk light tuna per week, and that if they do eat that much, they shouldn’t eat any other fish that week. Now, you might notice here that chunk light tuna is specifically mentioned, and that’s because it’s actually different in terms of mercury levels than albacore or white tuna. Albacore tuna tends to have about three times as much mercury as the smaller tunas, like skipjack, that are usually found in chunk light tuna. This means if you have a taste for the more expensive white tuna, you really shouldn’t have more than one can a week, and again, should not have other fish that same week.
This advice, however, is for adults. The recommendation for children and pregnant or nursing mothers is that, ideally, they should avoid tuna altogether. If they eat it at all, they should especially avoid white tuna, and stick to one can of chunk light tuna. It’s still recommended, however, that children and young mothers (as well as other adults) include a regular amount of low mercury fish in their diets, instead of just consuming beef and poultry products for fear of mercury poisoning.