Question: What day to day substances have you found tobe harmful, if there are any? What should we do to protect ourselves against being harmed?

Andrew Maynard answered on 15 Jun 2010:

Hi elmo97,

I mainly look at really new stuff, and stuff that you won’t find in too many products yet (like carbon nanotubes). But there’s quite a lot known about how dangerous a lot of day to day substances are. I was going round the house earlier in response to a previous question, and came across things like petrol, bleach, drain cleaner and paracetamol, which can all be fatal if you get exposed to enough of them. So the dangers are there. The trick of course is knowing how to use these – and other substances – safely.

How do you do that? It depends on the substance, but it always helps to read the instructions (and follow them), and prevent yourself from becoming exposed to the substance – either on your skin, in your eyes, breathing it in or eating it.

Even if you are using a very dangerous substance, you can usually use it safely if you make sure you aren’t directly exposed to it (unless you are working with something that’s explosive of course, but then the rules are different!).