Deserted Plastic Bottles Could Be 'Drano Bombs'?

Right here at Snopes, we’re all too aware of baseless, fearmongering posts on Facebook. Typically, nonetheless, these rumors even have advantage.

Again in 2010, we investigated a claim that selfmade bombs – made out of standard drain clog remover Drano and aluminum inside a plastic bottle – offered an actual hazard to the general public. Extra just lately, social media posts warning in regards to the phenomenon have been as soon as once more circulating on Facebook and in our mailbox in mid-September, 2024. One significantly standard copypasta learn as follows:

Children are placing Drano, tin foil, and a little bit water in plastic drink bottles and capping it up – leaving it on lawns, in mail packing containers, in gardens, on driveways and so forth. simply ready so that you can decide it up intending to place it within the garbage, however you may by no means make it!!! If the bottle is picked up, and the bottle is shaken even just a bit – in about 30 seconds or much less it builds up sufficient gasoline which then explodes with sufficient drive to take away some your extremities. The liquid that comes out is boiling sizzling as effectively. Do not decide up any plastic bottles that could be mendacity in your yards or within the gutter, and so forth. Take note of this. A plastic bottle with a cap. A bit Drano. A bit water.

A small piece of foil. Disturb it by transferring it; and BOOM!! No fingers left and different severe results to your face, eyes, and so forth. Please make sure that everybody that won’t have electronic mail entry are additionally knowledgeable of this. Share this with everybody

The warning was certainly true; dozens of official police notices and information clippings over time have reported on these selfmade bombs posing an actual hazard to anybody who by accident comes into contact with them. “Drano bombs,” as they’re generally identified, have the facility to sever fingers, trigger second and third diploma chemical burns, and induce blindness. 

Since at least 2010, native police stations have encountered Drano bombs in individuals’s front lawns, on playgrounds, and on sidewalks. In 2012, a safety alert went out to all 76 police precincts throughout all 5 of New York Metropolis’s boroughs. “These units, typically known as ‘Drano bombs’ or ‘bottle bombs,’ are exploded by mixing available family merchandise in plastic containers,” it learn.

Drano bombs have severely injured many individuals consequently. For instance, in 2017, one such gadget severely burned a 12-year-old woman in Harlem, New York, when she kicked the article on a playground, considering it was solely a bottle of soda. “My major concern is to get the phrase out so, being conscious of this new chemical bomb these youngsters are creating copying off YouTube,” her mother said.

In 2018, we posted the next video on X, additional illustrating how in depth this public security concern was.

Reality Examine: Are individuals leaving Drano bottle bombs in unsuspecting residents’ yards?

Full Report: https://t.co/6KV4TCqPq2 pic.twitter.com/o9lcODCj6k

— snopes.com (@snopes) June 17, 2018

Most just lately, a series of explosions in Ohio in August 2024 appeared to have been brought on by Drano bombs, in response to the Streetsboro Police Division, nonetheless the official outcomes from the lab had not been reported as of this writing.

“It seems like a Drano bomb, however we aren’t bomb specialists, so the lab truly has to inform us what it was made out of,” police chief Tricia Wain stated. “The closest factor we will describe it as is a Drano bomb, which sadly is fairly straightforward to construct.”

On one online forum, a responder to a query relating to the potential hazard of Drano bombs defined that sodium hydroxide – the lively ingredient in Drano, generally often known as “lye” – reacts with aluminum to provide hydrogen gasoline.

(stackexchange.com)

In sum, Drano bombs have been extensively documented, are very actual, and are very harmful. As we reported in 2010, police suggest:

1) In the event you discover a soda bottle or every other bottles, look at it fastidiously earlier than you contact it or get close to it. If it exhibits indicators of swelling, or melting in any approach, DO NOT TOUCH IT! Name 911 and allow us to reply to maintain it.

2) In the event you discover a soda bottle that has any liquid in it, DO NOT TOUCH IT! Name 911 and allow us to reply to examine it / get rid of it.

Sources