Corrosive substance or slowly over days or years, e.g. the rusting of iron in a bridge. Sometimes the word caustic is used as a synonym for "corrosive", but "caustic" refers only to strong bases, particularly alkalis, and not to acids, oxidizers, or other non-alkaline corrosives. At low concentrations, a corrosive substance is called an irritant, and its effect on living tissue is called irritation. At high concentrations, a corrosive substance causes a chemical burn, a distinct type of tissue damage. Corrosives are different from poisons in that corrosives are immediately dangerous to the tissues they contact, whereas poisons may have systemic toxic
Chemical substance them, it is sometimes difficult to draw the line between a mixture and a compound, as in the case of palladium hydride. Broader definitions of chemicals or chemical substances can be found, for example: "the term 'chemical substance' means any organic or inorganic substance of a particular molecular identity, including – (i) any combination of such substances occurring in whole or in part as a result of a chemical reaction or occurring in nature". In geology, substances of uniform composition are called minerals, while physical mixtures (aggregates) of several minerals (different substances) are defined as rocks. Many minerals, however, mutually