Poisonous alkylating agents

Chloromethyl methyl ether is an alkylating agent and very poisonous.Therefore this synthesis must be carried out with rubber gloves under a hood, preferentially in a glove box. 

Many of the reagents that are routinely used as substrates for Sn2 reactions in the laboratory are poisonous and must be used with caution. These compounds have a leaving group bonded to an unhindered carbon, so they are very reactive toward nucleophiles. They are called alkylating agents because they attach an alkyl group to the nucleophile. 

In terms of their mode of action, insecticides fall into seven classes physical toxicants, protoplasmic poisons, nerve poisons, metabolic inhibitors, cytolytic toxins, muscle poisons, and alkylating agents. 

Cytoplasmic, Neurological, and Muscular Poisons, Metabolic Inhibitors, Cytolytic Toxins, and Alkylating Agents... 

Chelating agents for mercury, such as cysteine and penicillamine, have been used as intervention measures to reduce the concentration of inorganic mercury. However, chelation therapy has yielded variable success in cases of alkyl mercury poisoning. Studies of MMM suggest that chelators may reduce brain and blood mercury levels if started within a few days after exposure. Surgical gallbladder drains and oral administration of a nonabsorbable thiol resin have been applied in order to interrupt biliary excretion and reabsorption of mercury by the intestine. 

There is no specific therapy for sulphur mustard or nitrogen mustard poisoning. Perhaps because of this a considerable number of palliative approaches have been suggested. Some lessons have been learnt in this area from the extensive use of alkylating agents as antineoplastic drugs. It will be obvious that a completely satisfactory evidence-based approach is unavailable no clinical trials of alternative approaches have been undertaken. 

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