Chemist here: all the reds are correct but it would take so much time to explain why so many of the greens are super concerning. Every time I see this reposted it’s so concerning…I should just spend the 17 minutes and save a copy pasta response of everything horribly wrong with this.
Edit: page 1 on the SDS for pure sulfur.
I’m pretty sure that licking pure magnesium would make your tongue explode too.
I would not be willing to lick calcium, too
Definitely not licking pure lithium, sodium, or any of the alkali (s-block) metals. My tongue is wet. That shit explodes in water, yo.
I wonder if you’d get a sort of leidenfrost effect limiting the extent of damage.
I’m not going to test that though.
The LD 50 for sulfur is 2000 MG per kilogram body weight. So you’d probably be fine licking it. You can’t just go off the msds.
You are absolutely fine licking sulfur, it is not going to do anything. In case of a solid block you are not even going to taste anything. Also what the fuck, sulfur is not poisonous, that MSDS is bullshit.
My degree is in bio but if I’m remembering my coursework correctly, this is the legend that’s supposed to be on it.
If someone’s licking any of the transuranic elements I’m not sticking around to watch.
Some stuff should simply not exist in a lickable quantity.
I see we’re continuing the trend of scaring literally everyone when a scientist gets excited.
From my elementary knowledge of chemistry:
I had to go looking for Mercury and Lead and sure enough they look about right.
Column 1 reacts with water so you bet that’ll hurt. Hydrogen needs a boost to start reacting with oxygen so no naked flame is recommended.
Anything in column 7 are desperate to rip electrons away from molecules so yes, permanent damage to your tongue and mouth.
Uranium is alright if you lick it once. A guy ate uranium cake once on TV.
The ‘Please reconsider’ lot seem to be a good way to die a horrible death by radiation.
Tc I believe is technetium which is radioactive and emits gamma rays, perhaps not soluable so stays in your body and you become gamma-man.
Elemental mercury isn’t very bioavailable so licking the surface of a pool of mercury isn’t going to hurt you much if at all. (Assuming you just do it once). Plus the density of mercury is going make it hard for you to slurp up a significant quantity the stuff anyway.
If you want to know about the horrible potential for mercury to mess you up look for stories about dimethyl mercury exposure. Its the fat soluble varieties that give mercury it’s reputation.
The story of the professor who was studying dimethyl mercury is terrifying
:( oh no now I must search for it
Chubbyemus take on it was pretty good
Ahh good old chubbyemu. I did read it from Wikipedia though, I found it really sad and tragic
Oh yeah just lick the carbon. It’s probably fine.
It is. Activated carbon is used to treat diarrhoea, you basically swallow a chunk of carbon that absorbs any moisture it comes across
Don’t lick carbon nano tubes or buckyball. Also in general carbon powder can be a particulate inhalation issue.
The table is about licking specifically. It’s not a breathability table. Just so that is clear.
I assume if it’s getting anywhere near your mouth you’d also be breathing it but aside from that, ingestion is also a nogo.
The ingestion/breathability table might be more restrictive. Like, elemental Sulfur is
perfectly fineno actually it’s not fine— but probably unpleasant to lick. Contact dermatitis likely but not life threatening—just one lick, ok; promise no more? ;)Breathing elemental Sulfur is also going to result in contact dermatitis -inside the lungs. Which is going make a really bad day.
Activated carbon is also used in water treatment to remove taste/odours and many organic pollutants.
“organic pollutants” are made of carbon too
Not moisture but reactive molecules. (I mean, many forms probably do still absorb a good bit but) I forgot the exact chemistry but “activated” means chemically reactive. It binds with all sorts of reactive molecules, like toxins and many other things.
Diarrhea is also mostly carbon.
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The carbon being pure is not the basis for my joke
Have you never licked a diamond before? You’re missing out.
Tastes like a campfire.
I’m no chemist but - can you lick a gas?
Edit: pick
Define “lick”.
Too distracted by the misspelling in the title
you can always answer how likable they are?
Mid at best. There’s a lot of stuff you don’t want anywhere near your mouth on there.
Since the green isn’t labelled “yes you can” I stopped reading…
I mean, technically you can lick any of them…
(Once)
lol You don’t need a table to tell you whether or not you should like an element. Like ‘em all! Also, whoever made the pic misspelled “like” as “lick”. jsyk.
What’s wrong with licking osmium? I know if heated in oxygen it will form osmium tetraoxide which is toxic, but a solid chunk of elemental osmium I thought was inert and I could keep it in my mouth all day if I wanted ( I do).
Lead should be red
Idk, just licking it once shouldn’t do much harm, right?
Given the choice between licking mercury and licking lead, 96% of respondents answered with lead.
Apologies for the random percentage and quoting fictional data.
There is no identified threshold or safe level of lead in blood” [AAP 2016]
https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/leadtoxicity/physiological_effects.html
I’d call that “you really shouldn’t” for an adult, and for a baby I’d tell them to “please reconsider” for sure
It isn’t safe at any dose but the amount of harm from licking it once is definitely rather small. Probably safer than having a couple of alcoholic drinks or a single cigarette.
I have a toddler and I hope to dear god there’s no lead about. She will lick anything.
The inside of your mouth is on the outside of your body and so is the rest of your digestive tract, safely (well) isolated (unless it’s permeable) from your bloodstream. As a first approximation, our bodies are toruses. Just licking something is really not much more intimate than touching something unless it’s sugar which can be taken up right there on the spot. (At least glucose can and there’s enzymes in salvia don’t ask me for details).
All that said the Romans used lead(II) acetate as a sweetener and while definitely a bad idea, they didn’t all immediately keel over either. You’ll almost certainly be fine.
Pure water OTOH… you’ll burn your mouth because osmotic pressure tearing cell walls apart before the stuff dilutes to have a sensible amount of minerals in it. The tissue there is used to sudden violent cell death and heals quickly so no biggie, if you survived a too hot pizza you’ll survive water. Also, do eat that pizza to have enough minerals to replenish everything.
Metallic Mercury is absolutely no problem. They used it to treat congestion back in the day.
that yellow and that green are problematically close
