Looking at this article, there’s only millimolar concentration of ammonia in feline urine (mean 118mM, range 16.9-292 mM). I’d be very surprised if anyone was able to generate significant quantities of chlorine gas by mixing bleach with cat urine.
It actually makes sense; if cat urine contained ammonia the smell would be gone once you washed your cat’s impromptu litterbox, since ammonia is both volatile and highly soluble. And yet it keeps stinking - this hints that there’s something else there producing that ammonia by decomposition. (Probably proteins. Cats eat a lot more protein than we do.)
Note: chlorine gas is the one that leaks from an open bleach bottle, and gives it a distinctive smell. The ones created by reacting bleach with ammonia are chloramines, considerably more poisonous.
Isn’t chemistry all a matter of scale though? I admit it’s not my field
I mean, if the cat pees on the rug and you clean it up right away, that’s probably not a big deal. I imagine it’s a different story if you’re cleaning out a hoarder’s cat colony in a poorly ventilated area and don’t dilute the bleach because you wanted something stronger
I don’t think there is enough ammonia in human urine to create chloramine, considering bleach is widely used for cleaning toilets and bathrooms. Let alone cat urine.
Friendly reminder that using bleach to clean cat pee can fucking kill you and your cat
I mean, I’d be kind of surprised if it did kill you, but ammonia and bleach mix to make an extremely toxic gas
Looking at this article, there’s only millimolar concentration of ammonia in feline urine (mean 118mM, range 16.9-292 mM). I’d be very surprised if anyone was able to generate significant quantities of chlorine gas by mixing bleach with cat urine.
Thanks for sharing this data - it’s great.
It actually makes sense; if cat urine contained ammonia the smell would be gone once you washed your cat’s impromptu litterbox, since ammonia is both volatile and highly soluble. And yet it keeps stinking - this hints that there’s something else there producing that ammonia by decomposition. (Probably proteins. Cats eat a lot more protein than we do.)
Note: chlorine gas is the one that leaks from an open bleach bottle, and gives it a distinctive smell. The ones created by reacting bleach with ammonia are chloramines, considerably more poisonous.
Isn’t chemistry all a matter of scale though? I admit it’s not my field
I mean, if the cat pees on the rug and you clean it up right away, that’s probably not a big deal. I imagine it’s a different story if you’re cleaning out a hoarder’s cat colony in a poorly ventilated area and don’t dilute the bleach because you wanted something stronger
So you’re saying there’s a chance.
I don’t think there is enough ammonia in human urine to create chloramine, considering bleach is widely used for cleaning toilets and bathrooms. Let alone cat urine.
Is it good on hotdogs and pretzels?
I hear that the hot new trend is subway surfing