What Are the REAL Effects of Inhaling Chloroform?

HeyHomie · January 19, 2003, 2:25am

I’ve seen this device used in movies from time to time: somebody soaks a cloth in chloroform, holds it over a person’s mouth and nose, and the person is instantly unconscious. This technique was generally used to facilitate anesthesia or to facilitate kidnapping.

What really happens when someone inhales chloroform? Can it kill you? How long do its effects last? How do you revive somebody rendered unconscious by it?

TIA

psychonaut · January 19, 2003, 3:08am

Chloroform begins to act within a few seconds of inhalation, provided the method of delivery has sufficient concentration and the user takes a deep enough breath. First your extremeties begin to go numb; next your vision and hearing begin to fail. Complete unconsciousness sets in a few seconds later, provided you keep breathing. Recovery generally occurs as soon as the chloroform is removed, though it may be a few minutes before the user feels completely normal. In my estimation, it’s certainly possible to facilitate kidnapping with chloroform, provided one is strong enough to hold the cloth in front of the victim’s mouth and nose until they are forced to breathe. Chloroform has a very pungent, sweet smell, so even an unsuspecting victim might vaguely realize what’s happening, hold their breath, and resist.

As for whether it can kill you, yes, it can. One of the reasons it’s no longer used as an anaesthetic today is that people put under sometimes wouldn’t wake up. I imagine the cause of death would be heart and/or respiratory failure. Chloroform is also a suspected carcinogen, so repeated use or even long-term exposure to trace amounts may get you in the long run.

raygirvan · January 19, 2003, 6:06pm

Chloroform is also a suspected carcinogen

And it’s liver-toxic.

Speaker_for_the_Dead · January 19, 2003, 6:11pm

Does Ether do the same thing?

mnemosyne · January 19, 2003, 8:30pm

MSDS for diethyl ether:
http://www.fishersci.ca/msds.nsf/0/0D0E3338A6D3EC19852566F10006974F?open&Highlight=2,diethyl,ether

MSDS for chloroform:
http://www.fishersci.ca/msds.nsf/0/3633CC92CC9B1F5E852566F100044F1F?open&Highlight=2,chloroform

psychonaut · January 20, 2003, 5:57am

Pretty much, but it has the additional disadvantage of being highly flammable.

Bongmaster · January 20, 2003, 7:53pm

Hmmm, so much for using that to help get to sleep at night…

Jake_S · June 17, 2012, 9:10am

Not to mention chloroform is a biological solvent so it will cause severe irritation/melting of the victims face.

beowulff · June 17, 2012, 1:58pm

Which explains why zombies look the way they do…

johnpost · June 17, 2012, 2:22pm

zombie or no

what is a biological solvent?

no it won’t.

AaronX · June 17, 2012, 2:30pm

I don’t get it. Why would someone register just to post false information in an old thread?

running_coach · June 17, 2012, 2:33pm

Because he doesn’t know about Yahoo Answers?

Steophan · June 17, 2012, 2:53pm

How is zombby formed?

Darth_Panda · June 17, 2012, 2:57pm

According to Wikipedia, chloroform is a solvent and it can cause some people to break out in sores after contact. Not exactly face melting, but there you have it.

eta: brains

Lasciel · June 17, 2012, 4:05pm

Fingernail polish remover is a solvent too, and there are always warnings on it about possible skin irritation, but I’ve never seen it affect anyone poorly. I suppose if would be more likely to have a negative effect on mouth and nose and eyes tho. Still, melt your face off? Pish.

Face melting indeed. What a weird zombie.

Ruken · June 17, 2012, 6:16pm

I have spilled a small amount of chloroform on myself. No melting occurred.

Senegoid · June 17, 2012, 7:36pm

I spilled a small-to-medium amount of Klonopin on my brain once, which reduced same to a molten puddle. Others have reported similar results.

md2000 · June 18, 2012, 6:00am

I recall an interview with one of John Wayne Gacy’s (adult??) victims, where one of the results of his assault was that he inhaled too much chloroform and ended up with liver damage. Apparently he reported this to the police and they did nothing much…

md2000 · June 18, 2012, 6:04pm

From Wikipedia:

In March 1978, Gacy lured a 26-year-old named Jeffrey Rignall into his car. Upon entering the car, the young man was chloroformed and driven to the house on Summerdale, where he was raped, tortured with various instruments including lit candles, and repeatedly chloroformed into unconsciousness.[115] Rignall was then driven to Lincoln Park, where he was dumped, unconscious but alive, and managed to stagger to his girlfriend’s apartment. Rignall was later informed the chloroform had permanently damaged his liver. Police were again informed of the assault, but did not investigate Gacy. Rignall remembered, through the chloroform haze of that night, Gacy’s black Oldsmobile, the Kennedy Expressway and particular side streets. He staked out the exit on the Expressway where he knew he had been driven until—in April[116]—he saw Gacy’s distinctive black Oldsmobile, which Rignall and his friends followed to 8213 West Summerdale. Police issued an arrest warrant,[117] and Gacy was arrested on July 15. He was facing an impending trial for a battery charge for the Rignall incident when he was arrested in December for the murders.

Malice · June 18, 2012, 11:26pm

In high school back in the 80s we conducted a few experiments on this subject with chloroform from the bio lab, and I can confirm psychonaut’s clinical description of the likely effects.

Another possible consequence of smothering someone’s face with a chloroform-soaked cloth is that the victim may vomit immediately. Cholorform is a sickeningly sweet smelling, ice-cold feeling vapor that feels like a lungful of wrong.

Inhaling a little will make you pretty loopy in about 10-15 seconds. Inhaling a lot will put you on the floor about as fast. As long as you’re not given more, you’ll be up in a minute or two, and clear-headed in a few minutes more. After that, you can expect nausea and headaches. And, of course, possible liver damage.