Well, there was at one point in time where mercury was thought to be safe to handle with your bare hands. However it can cause heavy metal poisoning, which stuff like lead can cause... but even worse it's a liquid so it makes it more dangerous as it could enter the blood stream easier.
Bases burn like acids do, but for a slightly different reason. Acids are electron thieves, the rip out an electron from an atom in the compound, and the cation (ion with positive charge) reacts with a base... which happens to be you if you get a strong acid on you like HCl or hydro-chloric acid. However human bodies are slightly acidic, so we react worse to bases... that is they are capable of yanking out our hydrogen (acidic compounds have weak hydrogen bonds, like HCl) atoms from our cells, basically destroying our cells.
Most Organic (as in life bearing) material is acidic, that's why most of your detergents, cleaners are bases. Bases are better at killing life like germs (i.e. lye from soap, bleach etc.). Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH)if you're wanting to know a specific chemical, it's a very powerful base, it's the most used as well.
Is it normal to want to expose myself to deadly stuff?
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Well, there was at one point in time where mercury was thought to be safe to handle with your bare hands. However it can cause heavy metal poisoning, which stuff like lead can cause... but even worse it's a liquid so it makes it more dangerous as it could enter the blood stream easier.
Bases burn like acids do, but for a slightly different reason. Acids are electron thieves, the rip out an electron from an atom in the compound, and the cation (ion with positive charge) reacts with a base... which happens to be you if you get a strong acid on you like HCl or hydro-chloric acid. However human bodies are slightly acidic, so we react worse to bases... that is they are capable of yanking out our hydrogen (acidic compounds have weak hydrogen bonds, like HCl) atoms from our cells, basically destroying our cells.
Most Organic (as in life bearing) material is acidic, that's why most of your detergents, cleaners are bases. Bases are better at killing life like germs (i.e. lye from soap, bleach etc.). Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH)if you're wanting to know a specific chemical, it's a very powerful base, it's the most used as well.