Create Toxic Fluorine Gas Using This Foolproof Method

*Proof-You're-A-Fool Method

Mar 15, 2024

Introduction: Catalyst for Catastrophe

I came across a video on X (formerly Twitter), which had been cross posted from TikTok, the scourge of the Internet—where someone was claiming if you boil tap water, the fluoride contained within magically transforms into fluorine. The way in which I use the word "magically" should give you an indication of where this article is heading.

The TLDR; for those who are not terribly interested in the science and "magic" behind why this is total BS is, NO, this just isn't how it works and if it was we'd be in a world of trouble.

For those of you interested in the why, and how silly this claim actually is, read on! You should totally read on though because it's pretty interesting and I'm giving you the power of knowledge. You can do what you wish with it, my hope is that it encourages you to see BS for what it is out in the wild and learn to flex that, "press X to doubt" muscle we all have innate inside ourselves but for some reason through social engineering we've been taught to suppress. The secondary TLDR; is—if it seems too good OR too bad to be true then it probably is.

Body: Chain Reaction of Folly

The Claims Department

I'm not going to name the "creator" as I think it would be dumb to give them any more undeserved attention.

As some of you may or may not know, after the discovery of its dental benefits in the early 20th century, fluoride has been added to most (don't quote me on such an exact figure) first-world, and likely beyond, drinking water supplies. This has been hailed as one of the crowning achievements of the 20th century, helping prevent tooth decay of an untold number of people. The achievement is not without its critics, with some people raising concerns over the ethics of essentially medicating everyone without their permission. Sort of like suing the lifeguard for undrowning you, saving your life, that kind of thing. I can see their side of it as well, and part of me understands their complaint. Then you have the turds like the one who prompted me to write this. The ones who are so far off the deep-end they've fallen off the edge of the universe—if only that were possible. Okay, the claim I hear you crying—what is it? Their main claim is that boiling water turns fluoride—the dental hero of the 20th century and beyond, into fluorine—a toxic yellow gas. Does this claim have any basis in reality? Short answer: no. Long answer: nooooooo. Sometimes I wonder where these crackpots get such outlandish ideas—then I remember the Internet is a thing and the most valuable currency is attention, more valuable than Jumbonium, and inversely as rare. Unfortunately the Internet has ruined a whole generation of people, likely more—what even is a generation now anyway?

Why exactly is this claim complete nonsense? Well I'll tell you for why.

Pretend you have some “special” salt, and you put this salt into some water, but only a tiny amount, like a really tiny amount. Voilà! This is now a metaphor for fluoride in water. Simple, right? Well not so fast bucko. This salt can't exactly exist on its own, it has to be “with” some other element, such as water. Our special salt friend doesn't like to swim alone, and needs some floaties to help out. These floaties end up in a partnership such as Calcium Fluoride (CaF²) or Sodium Fluoride (NaF) in order for things to go along swimmingly. It is tough to break up these partnerships, so tough that boiling water would be nowhere near enough. I got rid of my chemistry textbooks years ago so I don't remember how to get the exact figures for calculating the bond dissociation energy. Let's just stick with the scientifically accurate value of “boatload” more than water boiling. Which, from memory is 100 calories per gram of water (1cm³), to get it from 0°C to 100°C. Hopefully these nice, clean metric numbers don't give my U.S. readers a conniption, because I don't feel like converting them. A thousand apologies (621.4 apologies for my U.S. readers).

Can we prove it? Probably, I'm not a chemist. If I was a chemist, I'd say it would look something like this:

\(H_2O (l) \rightleftharpoons H_2O (g)\)

What's all this then? This is the chemical reaction (AKA an equilibrium equation) that occurs when we boil water. It simply shows that water goes from a liquid to a gas. Fun Fact: everything (pretty much, as far as I’m aware) exists as one of three forms, solid, liquid or gas. Water has the ability to take on all three forms. Fluoride doesn't undergo a chemical change from being a little soluble buddy sitting in boiling water, therefore it's not part of the equation.

Fluorine, I Hardly Bond Her!

As mentioned earlier, Fluorine is a toxic gas. Let's use a nifty table to summarise the differences between Fluoride and Fluorine.

Table 1. Basic Properties of Fluoride and Fluorine

\(\begin{array}{llc} \hline \text{Property} & {Fluoride (F^-)} \\ \hline \text{Nature} & \text{An ion of fluorine} \\ \text{Charge} & \text{Negatively charged ion} \\ \text{Reactivity} & \text{Relatively stable and} \\ & \text{less reactive} \\ \text{Presence} & \text{Commonly found} \\ & \text{in water and toothpaste} \\ \text{Use} & \text{Used in dental care to} \\ & \text{prevent cavities} \\ \text{Toxicity} & \text{Generally safe in low} \\ & \text{concentrations} \\ & \text{high concentrations can} \\ & \text{cause fluorosis} & \\ \hline \text{Property} & {Fluorine (F_2)} \\ \hline \text{Nature} & \text{A diatomic molecule} \\ \text{Charge} & \text{Neutral as it's an} \\ & \text{elemental molecule} \\ \text{Reactivity} & \text{Highly reactive and corrosive} \\ \text{Presence} & \text{Not found naturally;} \\ & \text{produced in labs} \\ \text{Use} & \text{Used in chemical manufacturing} \\ \text{Toxicity} & \text{Extremely toxic and} \\ & \text{dangerous to handle} \\ \end{array}\)

Table 2: Physical and Chemical Properties of Fluoride and Fluorine

\(\begin{array}{llc} \text{Property} & {Fluoride (F^-)} \\ \hline \text{Physical State} & \text{Usually part of a} \\ & \text{compound; not} \\ & \text{free floating in} \\ & \text{environments} \\ \text{Boiling Point} & \text{Dependent on the} \\ & \text{compound it's in} \\ \text{Melting Point} & \text{Dependent on the} \\ & \text{compound it's in} \\ \text{Atomic Number} & \text{9} \\ \text{Atomic Mass} & \text{19 u (for the flourine atom} \\ & \text{in fluoride} \\ \text{Electronegativity} & \text{Very high, but less than} \\ & \text{elemental fluorine} & \\ \hline \text{Property} & {Fluorine (F_2)} \\ \hline \text{Physical State} & \text{Gas at room temperature} \\ \text{Boiling Point} & {-188.12°C\space-30.626°F} \\ \text{Melting Point} & {-219.67°C\space-363.41°F} \\ \text{Atomic Number} & \text{9} \\ \text{Atomic Mass} & {38 u ({\text{for}\space} F_2\space \text{molecule)}} \\ \text{Electronegativity} & \text{Highest of all elements} \\ \end{array}\)

Maybe She’s Born With It, Maybe It’s Fluorine

How do we get Fluorine? Does it occur naturally? How toxic is it, actually? Can you use it to blow up balloons at your children's birthday parties? Let's reveal all in this undercover sting operation.

We should tackle the most difficult-to-answer question first—how do we get Fluorine? And it just happens to be the first question, how convenient. Okay, to answer the question in the quickest way possible for all those TikTok-addicted yobbos—with great difficulty. Now bugger off back to TikTok (how glad I was that ‘TikTok’ is not included in the default dictionary on my phone) and let us read-y type folk get back to having more than a goldfish of patience. Oh, you didn't realise ‘goldfish’ was a countable noun? Learn something new every day, don't we? We'll break it up into steps.

How Do We ‘Get’ Fluorine?

Go to an op-shop1 and get the following:
1. A lab coat with as many stains as possible
2. Up-end everything in the store until you find the oldest, mustiest, most oversized safety goggles possible (they should be so unbelievably scratched you couldn’t hope to see a thing through them, even if you tried)
3. Pair of rubber gloves—it’s mandatory that they look like they’ve survived a minimum of three school science fairs and one nuclear fallout event (you can ask at the front counter, they’re trained to answer these types of questions)
4. A rusty old kettle—the more vintage it is, the more “authentic”, and it should be one of those kettles that whistles like it’s wearing a hardhat and a wife-beater2 (it’s okay, I’m Australian, I can say that)
Now we have our specialised kettle and mad scientist attire, it’s time for the ingredient collection:
1. First we need some Fluorite—let’s head on over for a quick trip to South Africa, take a left at some sandstone and head straight for those granitic pegmatites3, yep those ones, no not those—the ones a little bit to the right, no, no, you’re other right—there you go, start digging
2. Pop down to the corner store and get some highly concentrated acid—I hope you’re not too attached to your eyebrows
3. Visit old mate Frankenstein for an electrolysis machine
Time to slap it all together:
1. Gently mix the fluorite and the highly concentrated acid we collected earlier (the tricky part here is waving all the hydrogen fluoride gas into the kettle—it’s like herding Schrödinger's cats)
2. Now with huge hubris, cacophonous cackling and maniacal mayhem, attach the electrolysis machine electrodes to the vintage kettle you bought earlier
3. Turn that baby on and watch the magic of science separate the hydrogen and fluorine gases from the hydrogen fluoride gas
4. If the kettle is the right vintage it will be old enough to safely contain your newfound toxic floaty gas molecules

In case it needs to be said—4

The moral of the story is that fluorine gas is not a naturally occurring substance and requires specialised equipment and methods to create. The idea that it would be created by simply boiling a kettle is laughable and is scaremongering and misinformation of the highest order. How toxic is toxic? Read on, you jolly oblong.

The Toxicity Of Our City

Have you ever come across one of those people who, no matter where they go or who they are around or interact with, chaos seems to magically “find” them? People who you've never seen argue or say a cross word are suddenly getting angry, swearing like a sailor and arguing up a storm. It doesn't occur to you right away, but after a time you realise they only do this when this one particular person is present. That's the toxicity of fluorine gas. It goes around deliberately causing chaos, the difference is, fluorine gas can't help it, it's literally in its nature. It's one of the most chemically reactive and electronegative elements we've got on this big floating rock we call Earth. This means that it will react with almost anything, doesn't matter if it's organic or inorganic. If it comes in contact with your skin, like in the case of our mad scientist from earlier attempting to wave it into the kettle, it'll cause severe chemical burns. If you inhale it, it'll burn your lungs worse than that time you tried to heckle a comedian and he roasted you the rest of the night. Get it in your eyes, say ‘hello darkness my old friend’. Severe exposure can lead to system toxicity, whereby your internal organs say nighty night and begin shutting down. Fluorine gas is so incredibly reactive it can lead to explosions or ignite when it comes in contact with many substances. It's the reason, “don't try this at home” exists as a sentence. It's pretty toxic.

I'm not one for surveys, can you take it for me?

The Death Of Birthday Parties

Picture this—you've set up a birthday party for one of your children, there's snacks, drinks, decorations, party favours, the whole nine yards. You've hired a clown to entertain, part of what you pay him for is to blow up balloons and hopefully make some balloon animals. The kids are dancing, having fun while you're waiting for the clown to arrive. You hear the ding dong of the doorbell and a weird, oddly familiar rhythmic knocking on the door at the same time. When you open the door, who should be standing there but our very own mad scientist from earlier. He's got his face kind of “painted” vaguely like a clown. You think to yourself, well that explains why he was so cheap, little do you realise that's only the beginning.

After a bit of clowning around, it's time for the balloons. Things have been going relatively smoothly for the most part, except for when he said, the balloons will go off with a bang, with what can only be described as a sinister smile of sorts. He begins setting up the equipment for the balloons—you're not an expert on balloon paraphernalia but something about the equipment just doesn't feel right. The bottle that looks like it contains the gas (usually Helium) for the balloons seems a little too science-y for a children's party clown to be wielding. It has a lot more warning labels on it than the usual flammable one. Half of them look like someone hastily tried to scratch them off, unsuccessfully. Another red flag was when he asked if you had any high current outlets, you didn't know what he meant so you just kinda shrugged and hoped he'd start with the balloons soon because the kids were starting to get a bit ancy. Once everything was finally set up (it seemed to take forever), the mad scientist clown started unpacking the balloons. He proceeded to put the first one over the nozzle on the gas bottle, and slowly started turning the valve handle…

The next morning after awakening in hospital, you realised sometimes being cheap doesn't pay. As soon as our mad scientist clown opened the nozzle and let the gas out, it reacted violently with the balloon material as well as the water in the air, because it was a relatively humid day. Everyone was okay, except for our wannabe mad scientist, who was subsequently shunned from the International Society of Childless Clowns. Remember this story the next time you want to save money on a party clown—I'll leave it up to your imagination as to whether you can use fluorine gas to blow up balloons at your children's birthday parties. Maybe the question is better asked not so much as can you, but should you.

Concentrate On Boiling Fluoridated Water

There is another myth that wasn't explicitly mentioned in the video, we may as well go through it while we're on the topic of fluoride myths. The myth goes that if you boil fluoridated water twice (or I assume more) then the levels of fluoride will become toxic.

First we should establish what level of fluoride is considered toxic to humans. What does toxicity mean, exactly? Humans vary a lot so it may affect some people a lot more than others, and there are many variables such as weight, blah blah blah. That's too much work so we'll pull an estimate and go with that.

Let me have a quick look…

Okay, I'm back. Thanks for waiting. After my exhaustive search I discovered there's quite a range in regards to toxic levels of fluoride. It essentially boils down to5:

\(\begin{array}{lrc} {F^-} \space \text{in} \space {H_2O} {\space\text{(ppm)}} & \text{Effect} \\ \hline \text{0.4 - 5} & \text{upset tummy} \\ \text{40 - 80} & \text{dead} \end{array}\)

Like I said, quite a range. Let's split the difference:

\(\begin{array} \text{0.4 + 5} \\ \hline \text{2} \end{array} \begin{array} \text{} & \text{=} & \text{2.7} & \text (\approx{3}) \end{array}\)

\(\begin{array} \text{40 + 80} \\ \hline \text{2} \end{array} \begin{array} \text{} & \text{=} & \text{60} \end{array}\)

\(\begin{array} \text{3 + 60} \\ \hline \text{2} \end{array} \begin{array} \text{} & \text{=} & \approx{30} \end{array}\)

Now we've done all that unnecessary math, we have a number to work with. This is our toxicity baseline. It means if we reach 30 parts of fluoride per million parts of water, for the purpose of this article, will say it's toxic. According to a 2015 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, fluoride concentration in water should be between 0.7- 1.2ppm.6 For the sake of brevity we'll call it 1ppm.

When we boil water a small amount is removed due to evaporation—it turns to steam and goes weeeee into the atmosphere, or onto your hand as you hold it above the kettle—come on you know you have. As water evaporates out of the kettle, the concentration of fluoride technically becomes greater. This is because the fluoride doesn't float up with the water molecules.

How much would the concentration of fluoride increase if we boiled the water for 5 minutes?7

\(\begin{array} \text{C_{initial}} = 1\space{}\text{ppm} \end{array}\)

\(\begin{array}{lcl} {C_{{initial}}} = 1 \space\text{ppm}\space\text{(initial fluoride} \\ \text{concentration)} \\ {V_{{initial}}} = 1 \space\text{liter}\space\text{ppm}\space\text{(initial} \\ \text{water volume)} \\ {V_{\text{new}}} = 0.995\space\text{liters}\space\text{(new water} \\ \text{volume after a 0.5% reduction)} \\ \\ \text{Using the formula:} \\ {C_{\text{new}}} = \frac{C_{\text{initial}} \times V_{\text{initial}}}{V_{\text{new}}} \\ \\ \text{Substitute the values:} \\ C_{\text{new}} = \frac{1 \, \text{ppm} \times 1 \, \text{liter}}{0.995 \, \text{liters}} \\ \\ C_{\text{new}} \approx 1.005 \, \text{ppm} \end{array}\)

\({C{_n}{_e}{_w}} = 1.005\space{}\text{ppm}\)

So what's that as a percentage:

\(\begin{array} \\ \text{Percentage Increase} \\ = \left( \frac{C_{\text{new}} - C_{\text{initial}}}{C_{\text{initial}}} \right) \times 100 \end{array} \)

\(\begin{array} \\ \text{Percentage Increase} \\ = \left( \frac{1.005 - 1}{1} \right) \times 100 \end{array} \)

\(\text{Percentage Increase} \approx 0.5\%\)

Okay, 0.5% increase is definitely not enough to reach toxic levels! Let's figure out how many times we'd have to boil the kettle in order to double the fluoride concentration in the water—not even reach proper toxic levels, just double to 2 ppm. In order to double the concentration of fluoride, we would have to get the water volume to half. For a 5 minute boil, the water volume is reduced to 99.5% of its previous volume, therefore:

\(\begin{array} \\ \text{We want to find the number of cycles} \\ \text{ (n) where} \space(0.995^n = 0.5). \end{array} \)

\(\begin{array} \\ \text{This is a logarithmic problem where} \\ (n = \log_{0.995}(0.5)). \end{array} \)

\(\text{Let's solve for} (n).\)

\(\begin{array} \\ \log_{0.5} \\ \hline \log_{0.995} \end{array} \approx 138\)

Wow—you would have to boil the kettle 138 times to halve the original water volume! Crazy!

How long would that take?

\(\begin{array} \text{138} \times 5 \text{mins} = 690 \text{mins} \\ \end{array} \)

\(\begin{array} \text{690} \\ \hline 60 \end{array} = 11.5 \space \text{hours} \)

I get fed up if I have to boil the kettle twice after I forgot I boiled it the first time. There's no way I'd stand there for 11.5 hours straight, pressing the button every 5 minutes, 138 times in total!

And after 11.5 hours it's still not enough to reach toxic levels of fluoride in the water. Jeez, these misinformation spreaders just can't catch a break!

Don't share this with your mum

Conclusion: Stabilising the Unstable

As we wind down this whirlwind adventure through the realms of chemistry, clownery, and catastrophic capers, let's take a moment to decompress and digest the effervescent potion of knowledge we've concocted together. From the mythical transformation of fluoride to fluorine in our humble kettles to the epic saga of our ostracised mad scientist clown, we've journeyed through a landscape where science meets satire, and truth tangles with tomfoolery.

Let's not forget the core lesson from our tale: the world of science is as vast as it is fascinating, brimming with truths, half-truths, and outright fabrications, especially in the age of internet virality. Our mad scientist clown, with his unconventional experiments and unconventional results, serves as a whimsical warning against the perils of pseudo-science and the importance of skepticism.

In our fictional foray, boiling water didn't unleash a toxic tempest of fluorine gas, just as real-world chemistry assures us. Instead, it highlighted the need for a critical eye and a hearty laugh in the face of absurdity. Whether you're a chemist or a clown, a scholar or a skeptic, remember that curiosity is the compass that guides us through the maze of misinformation.

So, dear readers, continue to question, to learn, and to chuckle as you navigate the ever-expanding universe of knowledge. And, when in doubt, perhaps leave the fluorine experiments to the experts and the clowns to their balloons—lest we all end up in a circus of our own making.

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Thank you for embarking on this peculiar journey with me. Stay tuned for more tales from the frontier of fact and fiction, where we'll continue to unravel the mysteries of the mundane and the marvelous—one debunked myth at a time.

Don't forget to stroll on over to that subscribe button for your regular dose of reality checks and rib-tickling revelations, brought to you straight from the desk of your devoted digital debunker. Until next time, keep your beakers bubbling and your smiles wide, and remember, in the grand theater of life, we're all a bit of a clown.

That's it for now, as always, good luck, stay safe and be well.

Braeden

Extra Bits and Bobs

What I Researched, What I Learned To Write This Article

\(\begin{array}{llc} \textbf{Deep Dive into Chemistry} \\ \hline \text{Researched and explored the nuances between} \\ \text{fluoride and fluorine, understanding} \\ \text{(at a super basic level) their} \\ \text{chemical behaviours and impacts} \\ \textbf{Math Stuff} \\ \hline \text{If I'm going to debunk some ridiculous} \\ \text{claim, I should have the evidence to} \\ \text{prove it, right?} \\ \textbf{Learning to LaTex} \\ \hline \text{I've looked at LaTex a couple of times} \\ \text{over the years, and it never really} \\ \textit{clicked}\space\text{for whatever} \\ \text{reason, but now it did--luckily, as} \\ \text{there are many 'quirks' with Substack's} \\ \text{LaTex editor} \\ \end{array}\)

\(\begin{array}{llc} \textbf{Disarming the Disinformationers} \\ \hline \text{Going through this process really opened} \\ \text{my eyes to how much disinformation there} \\ \text{is out there, especially online--you know} \\ \text{how when you're looking for something it} \\ \text{never seems to appear, and then when it} \\ \text{finally does you start seeing them} \\ \text{everywhere? Yeah it's been like that} \\ \textbf{Creative Articling} \\ \hline \text{Refining my writing and practicing with} \\ \text{different methods and styles} \end{array}\)

References

Op-shop is a charity shop, thrift shop—the place that takes all the stuff you don’t want anymore and people like me come and buy it for a pittance

Alternate name for a singlet

Pictured: granitic pegmatites

Don't actually try this, dummy

Guth, S., Hüser, S., Roth, A. et al. Toxicity of fluoride: critical evaluation of evidence for human developmental neurotoxicity in epidemiological studies, animal experiments and in vitro analyses. Arch Toxicol 94, 1375–1415 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00204-020-02725-2

U.S. Public Health Service Recommendation for Fluoride Concentration in Drinking Water for the Prevention of Dental Caries. Public Health Reports. 2015;130(4):318-331. doi:10.1177/003335491513000408

Based on an evaporation rate of around 6% per hour