Poison Control Called as Woman Accidentally Cleans With Deadly Chemical Mix

A video of a couple calling poison control after their granddaughter made the mistake of mixing vinegar with bleach has gone viral online.

User @silkalmondmilk_ers explained on TikTok that she combined the two chemicals, which can be used separately for cleaning, while she was tidying up the kitchen—and accidentally created a deadly gas.

The caption on the video read: "I accidentally cleaned the kitchen with bleach and vinegar and now we're all stick in the same room on the phone with poison control."

In the clip, the couple, another woman, a dog and @silkalmondmilk_ers are huddled together in a bedroom while waiting for the situation to resolve. The TikTok user responded to concerned commenters who said the family should leave the house by explaining that they had to stay inside due to a snowstorm. However, she said that the windows in the room were cracked open for fresh air.

She captioned the post with a joke: "My grandparents were just gassed to be spending time with us. #christmasspirit #stupidity."

Since being shared on December 26, the post garnered 2.5 million views and was liked 286,700 times.

Many of those who commented on the post were concerned that the woman had mixed the two products together while others wondered how she found herself in that situation.

TikTok user K0ncursus said: "Do not clean with bleach and vinegar. Noted."

A commenter named Chloe wrote: "Everyone's like 'now I know not to mix bleach and vinegar' but you shouldn't be mixing any chemical with bleach, like that's just common sense."

And sonofbooey commented: "I saw this and went down a bleach and vinegar rabbit hole."

Can you mix vinegar and bleach?

According to the household product website Grove: "You should never clean with these two ingredients combined. Mixing chlorine bleach, which contains sodium hypochlorite, with any type of acid like vinegar creates chlorine gas, a dangerous chemical that's deadly in high volumes."

Grove said some people believe that mixing the two products "can create a better disinfectant" as they are combing two products that can be used for cleaning into one. But, "while it might seem like you'll be intensifying your cleaning power by using both at the same time, it's never safe to mix bleach and vinegar, even in small amounts."

The American Association of Poison Control Centers reported more than 6,300 exposures to chlorine in 2016. This made it the most common inhalational irritant in the United States that year.

It added about 35 percent of exposures to chlorine gas were attributed to the mixing of household acid, which can be found in vinegar, with hypochlorite, found in bleach.

Newsweek reached out to @silkalmondmilk_ers for comment.