My current project involves poisoning worm plates with paraquat (methyl viologen). This reagent is extremely toxic, to the point of lethality, and I suspect that it can go through latex gloves. Does anyone have previous experience in handling paraquat? Also, are there any alternatives that function similarly to cause ROS in the worms? Thanks for your help - I’m a bit scared of this stuff : )
bear in mind that the oral ld50 for paraquat in human is ~~ 35 mg/kg; so for a 60kg human, you are talking more than 2g. Absorption through the skin is normally pretty inefficient in aqueous solution, so for dermal absorption you would need to apply a lot more than 2g.
So my analysis would be that if you are in any danger whatsoever of being poisoned, you are wasting an awful lot of paraquat ! ;D