Why? Why does the sodium affect us but not the chlorine.
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Table salt NaCl is sodium chloride, a compound made of positively charged sodium ions (Na+) and negatively charged chloride ions (Cl-).
**Chlorine** ***gas*** **(Cl2) is poisonous.**
**Chloride ions, (Cl-) are not poisonous.**
Yeah they’re both chlorine atoms, but their reactivity is completely different in those two states, due to different bonding and electric charges of those atoms. Chlorine gas is made of little units with two neutral chlorine atoms bonded together. Chloride ions are single chlorine atoms, each with a negative charge.
Side note: The sodium ions in table salt (Na+) *also* react completely differently than regular sodium the element (Na) does. Sodium itself is a metal that explodes on contact with water. Sodium ions in salt clearly don’t do that, but they do affect us because sodium ions are also what your nerves and muscles use to send signals and contract. Therefore sodium levels in your body need to be in a certain range and too high/low can cause problems.
Chlorine is highly reactive because it really wants an extra electron, and will try to rip it away from anything it can
similarly sodium really wants yo get rid of an electron
So if you put the two together they are all happy and chlorine gets its electron and now they are perfectly fine as they are and aren’t that reactive anymore
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