Sodium azide kills virus

Immediate signs and symptoms of sodium azide exposure People exposed to a small amount of sodium azide by breathing it, absorbing it through their skin, or eating foods that contain it may have some or all of the following symptoms within minutes: Clear drainage from the nose gas or dust exposure Cough gas or dust exposure Dizziness Headache Nausea and vomiting Rapid breathing Rapid heart rate Red eyes gas or dust exposure Restlessness Weakness Skin burns and blisters explosion or direct skin contact Exposure to a large amount of sodium azide by any route may cause these other health effects as well: Convulsions Low blood pressure Loss of consciousness Lung injury Respiratory failure leading to death Slow heart rate Showing these signs and symptoms does not necessarily mean that a person has been exposed to sodium azide.

What the long-term health effects may be Survivors of serious sodium azide poisoning may have heart and brain damage. How people can protect themselves and what they should do if they are exposed to sodium azide First, get fresh air by leaving the area where the sodium azide was released.

Moving to an area with fresh air is a good way to reduce the possibility of death from exposure to sodium azide. If the sodium azide release was outside, move away from the area where the sodium azide was released.

If the sodium azide release was indoors, get out of the building. If leaving the area that was exposed to sodium azide is not an option, stay as low to the ground as possible, because sodium azide fumes rise. If you think you may have been exposed to sodium azide, you should remove your clothing, rapidly wash your entire body with soap and water, and get medical care as quickly as possible.

Removing your clothing: Quickly take off clothing that may have sodium azide on it. Any clothing that has to be pulled over the head should be cut off the body instead of pulled over the head. If you are helping other people remove their clothing, try to avoid touching any contaminated areas, and remove the clothing as quickly as possible.

Washing yourself: As quickly as possible, wash any sodium azide from your skin with large amounts of soap and water. Washing with soap and water will help protect people from any chemicals on their bodies. If your eyes are burning or your vision is blurred, rinse your eyes with plain water for 10 to 15 minutes.

If you wear contacts, remove them and put them with the contaminated clothing. Do not put the contacts back in your eyes even if they are not disposable contacts. If you wear eyeglasses, wash them with soap and water. You can put your eyeglasses back on after you wash them.

Disposing of your clothes: After you have washed yourself, place your clothing inside a plastic bag. Avoid touching contaminated areas of the clothing. Anything that touches the contaminated clothing should also be placed in the bag. If you wear contacts, put them in the plastic bag, too. Seal the bag, and then seal that bag inside another plastic bag.

Disposing of your clothing in this way will help protect you and other people from any chemicals that might be on your clothes. When the local or state health department or emergency personnel arrive, tell them what you did with your clothes.

The health department or emergency personnel will arrange for further disposal. Do not handle the plastic bags yourself. If someone has ingested sodium azide, do not induce vomiting or give fluids to drink. Also, if you are sure the person has ingested sodium azide, do not attempt CPR using mouth to mouth breathing. Performing CPR on someone who has ingested sodium azide could expose you to the chemical.

When sodium azide is ingested, it mixes with stomach acid and forms the toxic gas, hydrozoic acid. If a person who has ingested sodium azide is vomiting, isolate and stay away from the stomach contents vomit to avoid exposure to the toxic gas.

Do not pour substances containing sodium azide such as food, water, or vomit in the drain, because the drain can explode and cause serious harm.

Seek medical attention right away. How sodium azide poisoning is treated Sodium azide poisoning is treated with supportive medical care in a hospital setting. To receive email updates about this page, enter your email address: Email Address. What's this? Sodium azide is included in a dropper bottle and is placed on a paper test card in the home test kits. It is not on the swab used in the nasal cavity to gather a specimen for testing. Therefore, someone would have to drink all of the reagent in forty-eight 48 COVID test kits to reach 0.

Kelly Johnson-Arbo r, co-medical director and medical toxicologist at the National Capital Poison Center , spoke to Lead Stories via telephone on January 10, , and confirmed that the amount of sodium azide in a COVID home test kit is "well below the toxic level for an adult. The home test has about 1 cc of reagent in it. That means there is only. It is a very very small amount. And it is likely that exposure to a couple of drops is not going to cause serious toxicity. Children could have a reaction from a lower dose but they are not going to be administering the tests and they should not be handling the liquid.

It's likely that a larger amount is well below the toxic amount for an adult. Both options are free, expert, and confidential. Learn more about the alliance here. Alexis Tereszcuk is a writer and fact checker at Lead Stories and an award-winning journalist who spent over a decade breaking hard news and celebrity scoop with RadarOnline and Us Weekly. As the Entertainment Editor, she investigated Hollywood stories and conducted interviews with A-list celebrities and reality stars.

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, deceptive or inaccurate stories or media making the rounds on the internet. Spotted something? Let us know!