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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Probably being silly but think I may have poisoned myself!

7 replies

sillybillycleaning · 29/03/2025 20:21

Like the title says, I’m probably just being silly but last Sunday I needed to do a deep clean. We’ve got an elderly dog who is incontinent and I decided to wash all his bedding pads etc. I took them in the garden and covered them in a bleach cleaning product as well as a carpet cleaning product, I scrubbed it with a broom and then used my jet wash to wash it all. I wanted to try and save it rather than buying new. Once washed I put it over our bath to dry as it was raining outside. The next day it stank of damp so I decided to throw it and had to get new stuff. 24 hours later I started to feel a bit rubbish, couldn’t put my finger on it but just felt a bit off. Since then I’ve had a horrible chesty cough and am coughing up mucous, however I have no symptoms of a cold or other illness just a chest pain and the cough. Now I’ve just read that it’s apparently poisonous to add bleach and ammonia based cleaning products like carpet cleaner (there would have also been anemia on the dog stuff from pee) and I’m panicking! Please talk me down.

OP posts:
MargaretThursday · 29/03/2025 20:25

If you'd poisoned yourself then you'd have been ill last Sunday evening, and be better by now.
Poisoning would be sharp at the time, but not ongoing. You've just got a bug.

MrsBubblegum · 29/03/2025 20:31

I agree, you would have felt ill sooner. Probably straight away.
If you were outside and using lots of water, mixing those products shouldn't be too bad. I wouldn't do it again though 😊

TheMimsy · 29/03/2025 20:41

chlorine gas is visible and generally disperses within a few minutes - hours depending on how ventilated an area is - outside it would have dispersed quite fast.

The bleach fumes themselves can make me nauseous but that’s within a few hours and gone the next day.

never ever mix any bleach product with anything ever again please!

I managed a chain of retail shops and had to ban it in them all due to folks mixing it and having to evacuate several stores over the years. Lots of headaches and paperwork.

Dilbertian · 29/03/2025 20:48

You'd have known about it immediately. The danger of mixing bleach with another cleaner is that chlorine fumes may be released. Had you breathed chlorine (or ammonia fumes, for that matter) you would have been coughing and spluttering immediately, and your eyes would have been burning and watering.

You have not poisoned yourself. Not with the cleaning products, anyway. You're probably just ill, picked up some mild virus.

Spondoolies · 29/03/2025 20:48

Our carpet cleaner makes me like this, more asthmatic/wheezy though. I only use a tiny amount for spot cleaning now and banned DH from using it for the full carpet.

Comeoutside · 29/03/2025 21:14

Not quite what you are asking but I just wanted to say that when I had pneumonia the only symptoms I had was feeling a bit rubbish but not awful, chest pain and a mucousy cough - I only got breathless walking upstairs. I even had 2 different doctors listen to my chest and say it was clear - an x-ray showed both lungs full of infection.

It'll be coincidence that you've used these chemicals and now picked up an illness but just keep an eye on your symptoms. If possible take a proper rest day tomorrow and you'll probably be feeling much better.

sillybillycleaning · 30/03/2025 07:54

Thanks everyone! Thought I was probably just being silly and I was! I am asthmatic (fairly newly diagnosed) so I think it might be my asthma or a bug

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