Key Points

Fire

• Not combustible but enhances combustion of other substances.
• Oxidising agent
• Reacts violently with organics, phosphorus, potassium hydroxide and sulphur, causing fire and explosion hazard.
• Emits toxic fumes of chlorine when heated to decomposition. Reacts with water to produce hydrochloric acid and chloric acid.

Health

• Highly irritating via inhalation or ocular exposure
• CHIP: Very toxic, corrosive and oxidising
• Inhalation causes irritation of eyes and nose with sore throat, cough, chest tightness, headache, ataxia and confusion. Dyspnoea and stridor due to laryngeal oedema may follow. Pulmonary oedema with increasing breathlessness, wheeze, hypoxia and cyanosis may take up to 36h to develop
• Ocular exposure causes pain, blepharospasm, lacrimation, conjunctivitis, palpebral oedema and photophobia

Environment

• Dangerous for the environment
• Inform Environment Agency of substantial incidents

 

All sections are available to download in PDF format.

• Incident Management (PDF, 131 KB)
  Chlorine Dioxide - Incident Management
  Added/updated: 24 May 2011