Toxicity Of Potassium Permanganate

Potassium permanganate is not used as a nutritional supplement or a drug. You are most likely to encounter it in a chemistry lab or if you work in a water treatment plant or as a prop technician in films. Exercising appropriate caution is necessary, because potassium permanganate is dangerous to handle.

Toxicity

Two measures of toxicity are the LD 50 test and the lowest published lethal dose. An LD 50 is the lowest dose required to kill 50 percent of test animals. The oral LD-50 of potassium permanganate in rats is 1,090 mg per kg body weight. The lowest published lethal dose relies upon reports from accidental deaths. The lowest published lethal dose involved a woman who died after ingesting 100 mg/kg orally.

Chemistry

Potassium permanganate consists of a positively charged potassium atom and a negatively charged permanganate moiety. The molecular weight of this compound is 158.03 g/mole. The purple-black crystals dissolve easily in water to make a deep purple solution. This sweet, odorless compound is a powerful oxidizer, meaning that it take electrons from substances.

Safety Precautions

The risks associated with handling potassium permanganate can be minimized by common sense safety precautions. Wearing safety goggles, gloves, a synthetic apron and a respirator approved for dust and vapor reduces the likelihood of accidental inhalation or skin contact. Exercising extreme caution when handling potassium permanganate around other chemicals is critical because it causes explosive reactions.

Explosive Reactions

Potassium permanganate reacts easily with sulfuric acid to form the explosive manganese heptoxide. It also reacts dramatically with hydrochloric acid to release chlorine gas. Glycols and glycerin also produce exothermic, or heat producing reactions. You should never play with potassium permanganate in chemistry lab because the results can be very unpredictable.