Talk:Chloroform

Cultural representation / popular culture

Considering how widely accepted the knocking out with chloroform trope is, I think it should have its own section. This isn't a thing of past, the trope is still widely used in fiction and even sexualised. ⲔⲖⲞⲢⲠⲒⲔⲢⲒⲚ (talk) 16:07, 15 December 2023 (UTC)

sourcing for inadvertent formation

The only source for the inadvertent formation section is an industrial handbook which talks about the theoretical chemistry. Crucially, there is no sourcing for a medical case study or autopsy report or news article or anything that actually proves this has ever occurred in real life as a true accident. For a number of chemical reasons I feel this reaction is unlikely to occur in real-life conditions.

When done purposefully with consumer-grade reagents this reaction is run at 0* C or slightly lower in an ice bath for about an hour with stirring using an excess of alcohol to avoid chlorinated byproducts. A reaction normally done cold, over a modest period (though not long by reaction standards), with stirring, and precise stoichiometry, and a reaction run a short time, at room temperature, without a stir bar, quite likely under diluted conditions Like being poured in a toilet bowl, with slapdash mixing and ratios are not comparable reactions. I firmly feel the as-it-would-be-in-real-life reaction conditions would be unlikely to produce an amount of chloroform that could become hazardous if indeed it produces any appreciable amount at all and any chloroform so produced would be diluted into the reagents and side products such that it would not be volatile.

As a result unless quality sources which prove this has actually happened in a real life situation involving a real person and not simply a theoretical warning in a book for industrial chemists (the current citation), a PSA which is unsourced, urban legends, or apocrypha the entire section ought to be removed. 2601:246:5D80:A0C0:95BE:4F0D:74BF:518E (talk) 12:04, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

The section can likely be re-written to better reflect that almost all possible inadvertent formation methods produce a negligible amount of chloroform. ECHA has a fairly thorough overview in its risk assessment of chloroform linked here. Reconrabbit 20:26, 28 January 2024 (UTC)

The Sodium Hypochlorite article has it worse. It outright says that you'll get cancer if you mix bleach and acetone. ⲔⲖⲞⲢⲠⲒⲔⲢⲒⲚ (talk) 14:38, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

Oral LD50 missing

Any reliable source for oral LD50 of chloroform? ⲔⲖⲞⲢⲠⲒⲔⲢⲒⲚ (talk) 04:32, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

Sigma-Aldrich gives it as 908 mg/kg. Appropriate for inclusion? Reconrabbit 16:17, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

FischerSci here gives 3 different oral LD50 values:

• Oral, mouse: LD50 = 36 mg/kg; (suspiciously low)

• Oral, rat: LD50 = 695 mg/kg;
• Oral, rat: LD50 = 1250 mg/kg;

Different online sources give different values.

ⲔⲖⲞⲢⲠⲒⲔⲢⲒⲚ (talk) 04:53, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

This concern is reflected in the ECHA risk assessment: There may be better means of risk characterization. Document states "mean lethal oral dose" is ≈ 45 g. Reconrabbit 17:04, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

What happened if we inhale chloroform

Tell pls 2409:4088:CEBC:2086:0:0:740A:1614 (talk) 15:35, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

Depends on the concentration inhaled. Smelling it is fine and doesn't knock one out as in the movies. I have seen people work with chloroform without a fumehood and ventilation. Most people would experience dizziness and sleepiness after inhaling high concentrations for a short time. Loss of consciousness comes later. 176.88.39.125 (talk) 05:27, 28 November 2024 (UTC)

Jean-Baptiste Dumas commentary under "History" is given in GERMAN

Jean-Baptiste Dumas was a French chemist, but his commentary under "History" is shown in GERMAN (with English translation) rather than his native language, FRENCH. Seems a bit odd and inconsistent. Chemists were known to LEARN German, so that they could more easily read the many research papers published in German, but brief research indicates Dumas WROTE in French, and his paper was TRANSLATED into German in a second (later) publishing. ~2026-86552-1 (talk) 16:07, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

I agree. The Oxford English Dictionary provides the original quote as "La formule..correspond à un chlorure d'hydrogène carboné, qui est l'équivalent de l'acide formique anhydre..C'est ce qui m'engage à la désigner sous le nom de chloroforme." which it attributes to the journal Annales de Chimie et Physique, page 120, published in 1834. The original journal can be found here in Gallica .Penguin112358 (talk) 03:02, 18 July 2026 (UTC)