Bromides were widely available over the counter in some countries all the way through to the s, appearing originally, for instance, in the American headache and hangover cure Bromo-seltzer. Potassium bromide was increasingly replaced by phenobarbital, which has the advantage of working almost immediately, where treatment with potassium bromide can take weeks or even months to reach full potency.
All sedatives have some potential side effects, but potassium bromide also has the problem that it is hard to quantify the dosage, as it remains in the bloodstream for as long as twelve days after consumption. In many countries it is no longer prescribed. As far as the vet is concerned, though, potassium bromide is still a useful addition to the medicine chest to control epilepsy in dogs, though not for cats, in which it can produce a dangerous reaction in the lungs.
It is particularly valuable where a dog has liver damage, as unlike phenobarbital, it does not rely on the liver to be processed. As we have seen, from its early role in reducing the impact of epilepsy, potassium bromide was linked to the reduction of sexual passions.
The same story was put about in France for doctored wine and in Poland for passion-reducing coffee. It seems likely that the three contributory factors to the bromide myth were the early suggestions of the link of epilepsy to overactive libidos, as an explanation for the effects of exhaustion and anxiety in the stresses of war and, perhaps, psychologically as a boost for the troops, by suggesting that they were such rampant males that they need a little calming.
We will never know for certain if potassium bromide was secretly added to the tea of troops. While it seems a little far-fetched, early mental medical practice was anything but ethical, and the First World War was a time when the rights of the troops were given little consideration.
Science writer Brian Clegg, reducing tensions there with the chemistry of potassium bromide. Next week, a favoured scent. Something you associate with cricket is the smell of freshly cut grass. Pitches are cut and rolled just before a match takes place. When you smell new mown grass, the molecule that is responsible is a six-carbon molecule called cishexenal. But hexenal - responsible for the aroma of freshly cut grass - makes Simon Cotton think of cricket. A DNA researcher tells the story of how humans have shaped the evolution of living things on Earth.
Getting bromine liquid or gas on your skin could cause skin irritation and burns. Liquid bromine that touches your skin may first cause a cooling sensation that is closely followed by a burning feeling. Swallowing bromine-containing compounds combinations of bromine with other chemicals would cause different effects depending on the compound.
Swallowing a large amount of bromine in a short period of time would be likely to cause symptoms such as nausea and vomiting gastrointestinal symptoms. Showing these signs and symptoms does not necessarily mean that a person has been exposed to bromine. Long-term health effects of exposure to bromine Survivors of serious poisoning caused by inhaling breathing in bromine may have long-term lung problems.
People who survive serious bromine poisoning may also have long-term effects from damage done by what is called systemic poisoning, for example, kidney or brain damage from low blood pressure. How you can protect yourself, and what to do if you are exposed to bromine First, get fresh air by leaving the area where the bromine was released.
Moving to an area with fresh air is a good way to reduce the possibility of negative health effects from exposure to bromine. If the bromine release was outdoors, move away from the area where the bromine was released. Go to the highest ground possible, because bromine is heavier than air and will sink to low-lying areas. If the bromine release was indoors, get out of the building. Removing your clothes: Quickly take off clothing that may have bromine on it.
Any clothing that has to be pulled over your head should be cut off your body instead of pulled over your head. If you are helping other people remove their clothing, try to avoid touching any contaminated areas, and remove the clothing as quickly as possible. Washing yourself: As quickly as possible, wash any bromine from your skin with large amounts of soap and water.
Washing with soap and water will help you and other people from any chemicals on your body. If your eyes are burning or your vision is blurred, rinse your eyes with plain water for 10 to 15 minutes. If you wear contacts, remove them and put them with the contaminated clothing. Do not put the contacts back in your eyes even if they are not disposable contacts. If you wear eyeglasses, wash them with soap and water. The thickened brines then flow through a series of chemical works that extract potash, magnesium metal and chlorine from the salts - and bromine.
Much of this toxic end-product is then shipped all over the world in gigantic lead-lined tanks - Ilan insists they have never had a spillage. Yet, as hazardous to human health as elemental bromine is, it is actually the products it goes into that have caused the real alarm.
The earliest use of bromine was in medicines. Some bromide salts, notably potassium bromide, were found to be natural sedatives, and were prescribed in the 19th Century as a remedy for epilepsy.
However, they had a curious side-effect. They dampened the libido, which only reinforced the common misconception at the time that epilepsy was brought on by excessive masturbation.
This side-effect also lies behind the urban myth that bromide was added to the tea of prisoners and World War I soldiers in order to reduce sexual urges. For most of the 20th Century, the main use of bromine was something now known to have been seriously damaging to public health. When lead first started being added to petrol to improve engine performance, it was found that deposits built up, eventually clogging the engine. The solution was to add brominated chemicals to the petrol.
As the fuel burnt, the bromine combined with the lead, producing lead bromide. This readily passed out through the exhaust, but of course then proceeded to spread the poisonous heavy metal throughout our cities.
Leaded - and brominated - petrol is no more. What do you do? You just run! This is the story of flame retardants. A fire is a self-perpetuating chemical reaction in which the high temperature encourages fuel to combine with oxygen in the air, further raising the temperature in the process. Bromine disrupts this chemical reaction. Because the bromine is itself so hyper-reactive, in effect it queue-jumps the oxygen and re-bonds with the fuel, rendering it inert.
Brominated flame retardants crop up in a surprising number of places. From a bag, Anat produces, Mary Poppins-style, a series of products - white beads that are mixed into the plastic casings and circuit-boards of TVs and computers, fluffy yellow pillow stuffing that refuses to catch fire, and blue polystyrene bricks that are used as cavity wall insulation in homes.
Well, take for example, polybrominated diphenyl ethers PBDEs , which used to be widely used to prevent materials from melting.
No longer. It is set to be banned in the EU next year, after an academic study in Texas in found that tiny amounts of the stuff were getting into some supermarket foods. The retardants are organic molecules - an entirely different class of chemical from bromide salts - that can take years to decompose. And although they should be tied up inside plastics and other materials, when they do get free they tend to accumulate through the food chain - meaning top predators such as humans face a particular risk of these chemicals slowly building up in our bodies.
This highlights an unavoidable problem for the chemicals industry - much of what they do is still a learning process, and it often takes many years for the long-term risks inherent in a particular product to emerge.
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