Bromide

Roth needed to find something that wasn't so risky, perhaps a slightly less heinous toxin.

And that brought him to a substance called bromide, which has been around since the 1900s as a medicine.

People who ate the sodium bromide, they entered what's called the bromide sleep.

And those of you who are old enough will remember a bromo seltzer.

Bromo Seltzer is a friend in need when you've got a headache.

To test for halide ions, chloride, bromide, or iodide, add acidified silver nitrate solution.

Chloride gives a white precipitate of silver chloride.

Bromide gives a cream precipitate of silver bromide.

Biodide gives a yellow precipitate of silver iodide.

Remember, white, cream, yellow, going down the halide group.

Potassium is the positive cation.

Bromide is the negative anion.

And they're very, very strong.

But you can make really cool crystalline solids.

You're exactly right.

Bromide, I think, is a bigger problem than fluoride, although fluoride is a huge problem.

But fluoride's very difficult to measure.

Dr. Abraham and I couldn't get the measurements of- Fluoride interacting with iodine, but we got the measurements with bromide interacting with iodine.

Um, it's a known carcinogen.

Um, it's, you know, terrible substance w- when we're talking about iodine.

Bromide, you know, when I mentioned the size of the halides, bromide was right behind iodine.

It's, it's the closest to the size of it.