drano test for gender of baby: dangerous?

[abuse_angel]

someone i know is suggesting that her friends do this home test to determine the gender of an unborn baby. i am wondering if it could be dangerous.

drano test
STEP 1
You will need a urine sample of about two to three ounces. How this urine sample is procurred is up to the participants. Have fun with it, be creative, we don’t care, just don’t injure anybody. The urine sample must be fresh - preferably the first of the morning.

STEP 2
Take the test materials outside. With the Drano in the glass or jar, carefully pour the urine sample on top of the Drano. You will want to have about equal amounts of urine and Drano.

STEP 3
Observe. If the really nasty-smelling concoction you now posess darkens to a brownish color within the first 10 seconds, IT’S A BOY! If it just sits there for more than 10-15 seconds, IT’S A GIRL. In either case, IT’S GOING TO SMELL REALLY BAD, AND YOU’LL WANT TO HOSE IT DOWN FAIRLY QUICKLY!

it seems pretty stupid to me to be playing with chemicals while pregnant, but i don’t know for sure that it’s actually dangerous. do any of you know?

[Briny_Deep]

Sounds dangerous, but I’ve heard it accurate fully 50% of the time.

[Larry_Mudd]

You do know what happens when you mix a base (lye) and an acid, (uremic acid) right?

Same thing, regardless of the gender of the foetus.

A prank. It would have been less irresponsible if they claimed that it was a drug test or something.

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Snopes is your friend.

This canard has been enthralling women for decades. Though widely believed and vigorously defended by its proponents with anecdotal data about how the test worked for all the women they knew, there’s nothing to it. Mixing Drano with urine will not predict the sex of an unborn child any better than will hanging a dead chicken from the flagpole and watching to see which way the wind riffles it. However, unlike the dead chicken method (which imparts no further ill effect other than to cause the neighbors to question the chicken swinger’s sanity), breathing the fumes of the Drano-and-urine mixture may well harm the expectant mother. In other words, if you must play at “predict the baby’s sex,” do it another way.

[Squink]

A 1:1 mix of Sodium hydroxide (drano) and water will boil quickly even without the addition of an acid. If you foolishly put together the mixture in a narrow mouthed container or graduated cylinder you stand a good chance of creating a geyser of boiling lye:eek:

[waterj2]

Yes, but will the geyser of boiling lye be able to demonstrate whether it’s a boy or girl?

[abuse_angel]

so i can safely tell people that this girl is nuts and not to try it, right?

[hammerbach]

*Originally posted by abuse angel *
**so i can safely tell people that this girl is nuts and not to try it, right? **

No, tell them she’s wrong and give them correct information with a cite. Possibly she’s only enthusiastically misinformed, not crazy.