• Shayeta@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 hours ago

    Doesn’t hydrogen peroxide just degrade into water and oxygen? How is it harmful?

    • isolatedscotch@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      4 hours ago

      when it spontaneously degrades, yes, it turns into tame water and healthy oxygen, but when it touches organic matter (your skin, tongue, mouth, etc) the oxygen directly reacts with the carbon atoms to make CO2, effectively “burning” away your tissues very slowly.

      Usually, you don’t notice that because you use store-bought 3% peroxide, but chemists regularly use the much more powerful 35% peroxide, which gives you nasty burns

      peroxide burn

      also, fun fact, some cells produce hydrogen peroxide as a waste product, so nature has evolved the catalase enzyme to break it down, and that’s why you see bubbling when using it on a scar but not on skin, because that enzyme is only inside you and your blood