Can you clean artificial grass with bleach?
Cleaning artificial grass with bleach is extremely dangerous, have you ever heard of ammonia? You’ve probably come across it’s a major component of many chemical reactions. Ammonia is also a threat to animal respiratory systems. Characterised by its strong odour, ammonia is irritable even at very low amounts. It has been found to cause major upper respiratory problems in animals. 
How Ammonia forms On Untreated Latex Artificial Grass
Whenever dogs wee on the artificial grass, the urine runs inside holes and crevices in the ground and soaks into the latex grass backing. The accumulated dirt and urine attracts microorganisms such as bacteria, which move in to feed on the urine. Bacteria contaminates these areas and feeds on the urea in the urine. Bacteria is infamous as a decomposer, and decomposing urea leads to the production of ammonia. Toxic ammonia pockets will then form around the garden.
Ammonia is a major threat for dogs and other animals. The ammonia present on latex artificial grass can, at its very least cause coughs and irritate animals’ respiratory systems. At its worst, ammonia causes severe respiratory tract problems inside dogs to the extent that operations may be required.
Bleach and Ammonia: The Combination you must never try
Bleach and ammonia are two very common chemicals. Both are present inside and outside the house, and although they are irritants on their own, when mixed, they are extremely dangerous to pet health. When mixed together, the two chemicals form toxic vapors that are also harmful to humans. The primary toxic material made from mixing bleach and ammonia is chloramine vapour that can transform into hydrazine if the conditions permit. Chloramine belongs to a notorious group of irritants which affect the respiration system. Hydrazine, on the other hand, is a much more harmful irritant that can cause a number of diseases such as edema, nausea, headaches, and even seizures.
How you may mix the two chemicals?
Although the chemicals are never mixed intentionally, there are two ways it can be done unintentionally. The first is by mixing cleaning products together. This is mostly ill-advised, especially by the manufacturers as it can result in harmful reactions and may produce chloramine vapors.
The other way the chemicals can be mixed is by using chlorine bleach to clean artificial grass and other organic matter. The chlorine disintegrates the organic matter and ends up forming ammonia which reacts with bleach.
Chemicals made by mixing bleach and ammonia
The following substances can be formed when the two irritants are mixed. All of the following substances are toxic apart from sodium chloride and water:
- Water
- Sodium Chloride, common salt
- Hydrazine
- Ammonia
- Hydrochloric acid
- Chlorine atom
- Chlorine gas
- Chloramine
- Sodium Hypchlorite
As mentioned, the above products are toxic and very harmful to both dogs and humans.
Possible Chemical Reactions when Mixed
The products created from the mixing process can combine further and form a number of other chemical compounds. Bleach decomposes to form hydrochloric acid whuch adds chlorine to the mix and combines with ammonia to form chloramine. Depending on the situation and the environment, the chloramine can combine with sodium hypochrlorite to form hydrazine. To sum up, it is clear that the chemical reactions are a chain that produce one harmful irritant after the next.
What to do if ammonia and bleach mix
Since the mixing of these two substances creates very harmful chemicals, it is best to take action as soon as you realise. Here are some steps to protect yourself from harmful effects:
Leave the garden as soon as you can
Remove yourself from the site of mixing as soon as you can and get help. If you’re not quick, you may get exposed to the vapors.
You should trust the experts to take care of the situation in the best way possible.
Move away any affected people
If someone has been exposed to the fumes and vapors, you need to move them away as quickly as possible.
If you follow these steps, you can avoid any major health complaints and side effects.