What TOXIC chemicals have a superficial resemblance to semen, in terms of their appearance and texture?
I need the information for a story I’m writing.
Other related questions, in case anyone has the answer:
How many different Haz-mat teams (presumably connected to fire departments) would a large city have?
What are some examples of readily-available chemicals which would necessitate the calling in of a Haz-mat team if they were spilled in a public place?
Recalling a prank perpetrated in my 3rd form science class (not by me) involving a cutaway model of the male reproductive system - thick bleach.
Probably not toxic enough, though.
Si
Rubber cement, stirred with a little white paint.
How toxic? Maybe white caulk.
Rotten egg white
There’s quite a few insoluble or partially soluble toxic white powders that could make up a nice translucent white paste. I would suggest heavy metal oxides or salts e.g. lead, mercury, antimony, arsenic or thallium oxides or salts. The only one I’ve actually had experience with is antimony trioxide, which is white, makes a nice paste but isn’t a very effective oral poison. Mercury oxides are coloured and some of the others also may be, you’ll have to research them. The classic poison arsenic oxide is a white powder, but I don’t know whether it’ll make a convincing semen paste.
Something more readily available is caustic soda, sodium hydroxide. What form of toxicity were you hoping for?
Common but nasty hazmats could include fume-producing agents such as HCl, bleach, hypochlorite, volatile flammables such as gasoline, acetone, nitromethane, out and out poisons such as pesticides. But in my view you can’t beat a dump truck of asbestos or mixed hospital waste (on its way to the incinerator?) for getting a big chunk of cityscape cordoned off and surrounded by guys in silver space suits…
snerk
It really doesn’t need to be white - the main qualifications would be for it to be viscous, slimy, translucent - it could be merely clear with some white streaks, or completely clear as long as it is slimy and viscous.
Wouldn’t semen be toxic in large enough quantities?
Semen with a dash of arsenic?
Quick death or slow death? I assume you want about a teaspoon to be lethal. Is flavor important?
Heavy metals will be a very slow death, and easily detectable based on symptoms. Despite that, even after detection, heavy metal poisoning is basically untreatable.
Do you want something that is actually likely to be found, or can it require a sophisticated lab.
Paint stripper gels.
The reek of dichloromethane would likely trigger a call to the hazmat team.
It’s not terribly toxic, but there are reports of prolonged exposure causing heart attacks.
The chemical would preferably be something powerful enough that it would necessitate the calling in of a Haz-mat team in fully-encapsulating suits.
So you want a hazardous substance that is obvious in every way but the way it looks. A little dimethylmercury in just about any substance would require a hazmat team, but they wouldn’t call one in until people started having symptoms. By that time it would be too late.
You could have ethanedithiol in just about any substance as well, and that would get a hazmat team out there pronto. On the otherhand, it is hardly lethal, even if the stench could kill.
Semen with a dash of plutonium?
Or polonium.
Anthrax or ricin in a suspension maybe?
Yes, but those things won’t get a Hazmat team in there unless they are already aware of their presence. They need a reason to suspect a problem first. They don’t test semen for ricin unless they have a reason to suspect it. Even so, I’m not sure that ricin is worth a hazmat team. With all the notariety, I suppose anthrax would be worth a hazmat team if they ever tested for it in the first place. For that mater, semen contaminated with the smallpox virus is even better.
Along the same lines as ethanedithiol, phosphines smell even worse and are actually toxic. Trimethylphosphine, might not last long, but if you add some weight and make it dimethylisobutylphosphine you could have a long lasting toxic smell that has a hazmat team at the site in an instant. The trouble is that that “fluid” cant be aqueos since phosphines will react with water. The bulkier phosphines will have enough lifetime in the air to last a while though.
With phosphines, it’s a balance between really stinky but not lasting bery long to hardly smelly at all and lasting forever.
How about semen with mutant sea monkey eggs, which when irradiated by ultraviolet light will grow to 7 feet tall and just start ripping your face right off your fucking head, making loud shrimpy noises like SQUEE SQUEE SQUEE?
You know what, never mind, I’m gonna use all this material myself.