History Main / PoisonIsCorrosive

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' magazine #98 article "Chapter Approved". Most Space Marines have an implant named Betcher's Gland that creates a highly acidic contact poison. The Marine is able to [[SuperSpit spit the poison at opponents to damage and blind them]].

* Vesicants (blister agents) are poisons that are not normally corrosive to nonliving matter, but corrode and burn flesh, leaving nasty chemical burns and blisters. Typical examples are mustard gas and [[AlienKudzu giant hogweed]] sap. It should be noted that the sap of various hogweeds creates burns when it comes into contact with UV light - chemicals in the sap can make one's skin hypersensitive to sunlight - a condition known as phytophotodermatitis. To make things worse, same condition can be caused by celery, various citruses, rues, wild carrots and other similar plants.
* Chlorine gas is poisonous to inhale, precisely because it's a strong oxidizer. Iron will burn in chlorine. Fluorine is an even more powerful oxidizer. Both are extremely dangerous in many forms because they are capable of oxidizing things which have already been oxidized - and some fluorine compounds can be used to set asbestos on fire. Metal-fluorine fires are impossible to extinguish until the metal or fluorine runs out. [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Chlorine trifluoride]] is used to process uranium and to make computer chips. It is worse than the pure halogens. It ''sets sand on fire'' -- and often produces chlorine, fluorine, and hydrofluoric acid as byproducts of melting and burning its way through things. You handle it by keeping it inside specially-prepared metal containers. If the stuff gets loose, it will spontaneously react "with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers".

* In ''[[ComicBook/{{Asterix}} Asterix and Cleopatra]]'', the Special Iced Arsenic Cake make by Artifis is so toxic that the batter AteTheSpoon -- ''before'' he added the acid.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII''. Marty gets poured a free shot of whiskey by a bartender that wants to make sure he knows what they serve in his bar. Strong stuff all right-the bar top smokes from the overpour. Marty wisely leaves it alone. (while not billed as poison, one shot of the same whiskey puts Doc on the floor.)

* ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers''

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''

** Acid and Acid Spray both lower the opponent's special defence drastically (Acid Spray is guaranteed to do so) which is supposed to represent the corrosive aspect. Gets kinda gross with gastric Acid - literally stomach acid that negates the opponent's ability. There are no actual acid Pokemon, as all Poison types are variations on piles of sludge/garbage or animals with poisonous features (like snakes).
*** Gulpin and Swalot, due to being [[ExtremeOmnivore giant stomachs]], could be said to be acid Pokemon, as there is no other reason for them to be poisonous other than their acid-spitting abilities, which constitutes poison in the Pokeverse. However, they do learn sludge, filth, and gas based moves as well, but these are probably to round them out as Poison-types, rather than leaving them with three attacks.

* The ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' card Poison the Well shows someone carrying water in wooden pails, but where it has spilled out it's eaten holes in the ground. Apparently it's acid poison that only dissolves dirt.

* "Toxic Waste" in ''[[VideoGame/LEGOAdaptationGame LEGO Batman]]''. Instakills everyone who steps in it, except for a few specific characters with immunity to poisons.[[note]] Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Bane, Killer Croc and SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker.[[/note]]

** One of the most insidious things about H[[subscript:2]]S is how it quickly numbs your ability to smell it, you may think that you've escaped to an area with fresh air when in reality you are still breathing it in. As such workers in environments where exposure can easily occur from leaking equipment (such as in oil refineries) are required to wear personal H[[subscript:2]]S detectors on them at all times.

** One of the most insidious things about H[[subscript:2]]S is how it quickly numbs your ability to smell it, you may think that you got to an area with fresh air when in reality you are still breathing it in. As such workers in environments where exposure can easily occur from leaking equipment (such as in oil refineries) are required to wear personal H[[subscript:2]]S detectors on them at all times.

** One of the most insidious things about H2S is how it quickly numbs your ability to smell it, you may think that you got to an area with fresh air when in reality you are still breathing it in. As such workers in environments where exposure can easily occur from leaking equipment (such as in oil refineries) are required to wear personal H2s detectors on them at all times.

* While not explicitly described, the poisonous fog in ''Film/CatchingFire'' causes intense, immediate pain on contact, pain that lingers until the fog is washed off in water. This makes it somewhat similar to a blistering agent, though a water-soluble one (which makes very little sense).

** Salandit and its evolution, Salazzle, play this completely straight with their ability, "Corrosion". It negates Steel-types immunity to poison, and lets it poison them and other Poison-types. However, it doesn't allow them to use Poison-type ''attacks'' on Steel-types.

A fairly common trope, where any particularly potent poison is incredibly corrosive as well. This is often used to let a hero identify an attack as poisonous without actually getting poisoned. Alternatively, it can be used to show just how strong a poison is (somehow) by having it dissolve the spoon being used to mix it.

* ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': When the commissioner's poisoned highball glass gets knocked over it starts eating a hole through his desk.
** Although in this case, it's reasonable to assume that the commissioner's whiskey ''was'' actually spiked with acid, not poison.

* ''Film/CurseOfTheGoldenFlower'': Never actually stated to be poison, but normally you don't try to make people drink acid.

** Salandit plays this completely straight with its ability, called "Corrosive". It negates Steel-types immunity to poison, and lets it poison them and Poison-types.

* Blight in ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' is all over the place. Some disease-based attacks such as Plague Grenade cause it, but so do poison-related ones like Poison Dart and a select few like Digestion that imply corrosive activity. [[DemBones Animated skeletons]] are especially weak to blight, while [[PigMan the swine folk]] are said to resist it due to their filthy living conditions, implying a strong immune system[[note]]which generally isn't very effective at deterring corrosive agents[[/note]].

** [[http://scp-wiki.net/scp-955 SCP-955 ("Mr. Sillybug").]] If an example of SCP-955 is threatened or startled it will spray a corrosive mucus up to several meters away. The mucus contains a neurotoxin that causes severe pain on contact with flesh.

** The venom of species of snake contain enzymes that kick-start the digestive process. These hemotoxic venoms and myotoxic venoms cause tissue degradation, such as breaking down the muscles around the heart killing their prey.
*** The Seps, [[http://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast270.htm a small serpent described in a 1st Century CE bestiary]], had venom which could dissolve flesh and bone, making this Trope OlderThanFeudalism.

* Hydrofluoric acid is very corrosive and highly toxic. It can diffuse through skin and spread fluorine around, creating all kinds of havoc -- mainly by precipitation of calcium fluoride. It gets the calcium from your bones. In other words, it melts your bones from the inside out.
** It'll also take calcium from your blood, which is ''even worse''. Losing calcium from your bones weakens them. Losing calcium from your blood slows or stops your heart. Direct skin contact with even a small amount of hydrofluoric acid is rarely survivable without prompt treatment. Treatment that you're unlikely to get, because the human body also needs calcium to ''transmit pain signals'', leaving many victims entirely unaware that they've even been exposed until it's too late to do much more than say "poor bastard" and start making funeral arrangements.
*** Treatment for HF exposure is to soak the exposed skin in a calcium-rich solution immediately. That way, the HF goes for that calcium rather than the calcium in your bones and bloodstream. And you'll still want to go the hospital.
* Some poisons, most notably arsenic sulfides, will tarnish a silver spoon (due to the sulfur, not the arsenic). This led to some royal families using silver spoons to detect poison.

* Vesicants (blister agents) are poisons that are not normally corrosive to nonliving matter, but corrode and burn flesh, leaving nasty chemical burns and blisters. Typical examples are mustard gas and [[AlienKudzu giant hogweed]] sap.
** It should be noted that the sap of various hogweeds creates burns when it comes into contact with UV light - chemicals in the sap can make one's skin hypersensitive to sunlight - a condition known as phytophotodermatitis. To make things worse, same condition can be caused by celery, various citruses, rues, wild carrots and other similar plants.
* Chlorine gas is poisonous to inhale, precisely because it's a strong oxidizer. Iron will burn in chlorine. Fluorine is an even more powerful oxidizer. Both are extremely dangerous in many forms because they are capable of oxidizing things which have already been oxidized - and some fluorine compounds can be used to set asbestos on fire. Metal-fluorine fires are impossible to extinguish until the metal or fluorine runs out.
** [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Chlorine trifluoride]] is used to process uranium and to make computer chips. It is worse than the pure halogens. It ''sets sand on fire'' -- and often produces chlorine, fluorine, and hydrofluoric acid as byproducts of melting and burning its way through things. You handle it by keeping it inside specially-prepared metal containers. If the stuff gets loose, it will spontaneously react "with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers".
** Bromine is also a halogen, like the two elements above. It is a weaker oxidizer than chlorine and fluorine, but it's a liquid, which means it is normally much more concentrated and more easily absorbed by skin. It is toxic, corrosive and easily evaporated, which means your lungs are also in danger, just like with the two halogens above.

* The synthetic [[DrugsAreBad narcotic]] [[http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/krokodil.asp "krokodil"]] (disturbing image warning). So called because the skin around the injection site often becomes dry and flaky, like the skin of a crocodile, because it is so [[HollywoodAcid acidic]]. (It's made by cooking up codeine with [[NoodleImplements gasoline, turpentine, and hydrochloric acid, just to name a few things]].)[[note]]It's cooked up usually by Russian heroin addicts who can no longer afford/easily acquire heroin. Hence the mishmash of rather unsavory ingredients. Conversely, since codeine-containing medications are much more tightly regulated in the US, and heroin is much more widely available/affordable, it's not likely for krokodil use to catch on in the US.[[/note]] This stuff can result in flesh just rotting and corroding right off, right down to the bone. For more absolute horror, it is ''incredibly'' addictive, which means that using it once may prevent you from stopping even as your skin rots off. Most krokodil users don't live more than 3 years after they start using it, and those that do survive and manage to stop are often permanently disfigured. Note that the corrosivity of krokodil comes from the [[WhatAnIdiot half-assed chemical technology]] used by the uneducated, unskilled addicts. The pure desomorphine alkaloid that can be extracted from raw krokodil has no such effects, it's essentially the same thing as heroin. One of the problems of krokodil use is that the high just doesn't last very long, forcing users to just keep cooking and injecting it again and again, exacerbating the damage.
* Similar to the above, long-term methamphetamine use can damage teeth, cause skin lesions, and so on. These effects are generally not the result of pure methamphetamine -- they are from the corrosive chemicals used to produce the methamphetamine that were not removed from the final product. (Methamphetamine itself, however, is neurotoxic and can cause nervous system damage.)
* Also likewise, prolonged cocaine use through snorting can cause damage to the inside of the nose, including the dissolution of the nasal septum. Part of this is because cocaine is a potent vasoconstrictor, and part of it is because powdered cocaine is in the form of a hydrochloride salt and its dissolution can cause the freed hydrochloric acid to get to work on the user's nasal tissue.
* Cashew nuts shells are saturated with skin-irritating, phenolic oil. Which is only corrosive to skin, not metal, as some people claim for cheap shocks. And one of its numerous uses is in medicine. (Thus says Paracelsus: Everything is poison, and nothing is, for it's the dose that makes a poison.)