Gas

toluene

Rocket Fuel

Please do follow some of the links;)

Thanks again guys, you've offered a wealth of info. I do appreciate all your help, I'll now let this thread wither and fade away. See ya guys,
John

As a former chemist, I've played with plenty of organic solvents. We had benzene in the lab, and used it on occasion (great solvent). Toluene on my skin? Sure...pretty frequent. We had it in squirt bottles for cleaning glassware, along with bottles of acetone, methanol, ethanol, and water.

Not ideal for taking a bath in, but this stuff won't kill on contact, and I know quite a few old chemists who used this stuff on a daily basis. Then again bench chemists do have a higher incidence of cancers.

HF otoh...that stuff will disintigrate your flesh right before your eyes. Peptide synthesizers use it to cleave the peptide off the resin. I never like being around that machine.

Some other compounds from the hit parade. Acrylamide is used for DNA sequenccing and protein analysis electrophoresis gels. Potent neurotoxin. Nowadays you buy it dissolved in liquid and mix with buffer to your desired constitution. Or buy premade gels. Back in the bad old days we wieghed out powder...fun stuff floating through the air.

Radioisotopes. We mostly used S35 and P32 (as ATP) for DNA sequencing. Both is especially bad because it is taken up into DNA and spits out hi-E beta particles (P32...S35 is low E beta)...right where you don't want them. And you can't see it...just hear it (with a geiger counter). I hated working with radioisotopes.

DIFP - di-isopropylflourophosphate. We used it in enzyme kinetic reactions. It shuts down serine proteases. Like acetylcholine esterase. You get it in you, you die. It is related to a variety of nerve agents/weapons.

Ahh, memories. Oh wait...was I talking about something?

BTW folks, peptides are what make up all the proteins in your body....

"higher incidence of cancers" -- yeh - it's way higher -- nearly up ther with anatomists and embalmers (formaldehyde).