Why Is Silica gel So Dangerous?

Question

Ok I am super-curious so I decided to open a silica gel pack and dump it in the sink. I slashed water on it and they started crackling. are they okay to touch? what happens if you eat some?

Answer 1

INDRODUCTION

Silica gel is a granular, porous form of silica made synthetically from sodium silicate. Despite the name, silica gel is a solid.

Silica gel is most commonly encountered in everyday life as beads packed in a semi-permeable plastic. In this form, it is used as a desiccant to control local humidity in order to avoid spoilage of some goods. Because of poisonous dopants (see below) and their very high absorption of moisture, silica gel packets usually bear warnings for the user not to eat the contents. If consumed, the pure silica gel is unlikely to cause acute or chronic illness, but would be problematic nonetheless. However, some packaged desiccants may include fungicide and/or pesticide poisons. It is not known whether these would be labelled specifically. Food-grade desiccant should not include any poisons which would cause long-term harm to humans if consumed in the quantities normally included with the items of food.

PROPERTIES

Silica gel's high surface area (around 800 m²/g) allows it to absorb water readily, making it useful as a desiccant (drying agent). Once saturated with water, the gel can be regenerated by heating to 120 °C (250 °F) for two hours. Some types of silica gel will "pop" when exposed to enough water

HAZARDS

Alone, silica gel is non-toxic, non-flammable and chemically unreactive. However, some of the beads may be doped with a moisture indicator, such as cobalt(II) chloride, which is toxic and may be carcinogenic. Cobalt (II) chloride is deep blue when dry (anhydrous) and pink when moist (hydrated).

Crystalline silica dust can cause silicosis but synthetic amorphous silica gel is non-friable, and so does not cause silicosis. A chemically similar substance with far greater porosity is aerogel.

Answer 2

Silica Gel Dangers

Answer 3

Silica Gel In Water

Answer 4

I did research on whether or not silica gel was poisonous, because I wanted to use a bunch of the silica gel beads as an abrasive method to clean out a bottle that was dirty. I added a bunch of silica gel beads and a bit of water into the dirty bottle to be cleaned, I put the lid back on and tilted the bottle back and forth and used the beads as a way of scraping the inside of the bottle clean. This did work well, but I found that upon adding water to the silica beads, quite a few of the silica gel beads cracked, this was from the silica gel beads absorbing water fast. The silica gel beads are designed to absorb moisture slowly from the air. The result of the silica gel beads breaking, were tiny slivers of sharp silica, so even if silica gel itself is not poisonous, eating them could be dangerous, because some of the silica gel beads will shatter into sharp pieces, and could cause cuts in the digestive tract, so avoid eating silica gel beads.

Answer 5

RE:
Why Is Silica gel So Dangerous?
Ok I am super-curious so I decided to open a silica gel pack and dump it in the sink. I slashed water on it and they started crackling. are they okay to touch? what happens if you eat some?

Answer 6

Hazards

Alone, silica gel is non-toxic, non-flammable and chemically unreactive. However, some of the beads may be doped with a moisture indicator, such as cobalt (II) chloride, which is toxic and may be carcinogenic. Cobalt (II) chloride is deep blue when dry (anhydrous) and pink when moist (hydrated). This is one reason most silica gel packets are labeled as dangerous or poisonous when eaten.

Is silica gel dangerous ?

Non-indicating (white) silica gel is non-toxic and non-flammable, it is very inert with a very high melting point.
It is very much like sand and thus can safely be sent by any means of transport.

Self-indicating (blue) silica gel has been reclassified by the European Union and as of 01/07/2000
has been classified as a toxic material. More here.
New safe self-indicating silica gels are available.

read this:
http://www.geejaychemicals.co.uk/faq.htm
http://www.geejaychemicals.co.uk/cobaltchloride.htm#SELF-INDICATING%20(BLUE)%20SILICA%20GEL.

Answer 7

Silica gel, is there to absorb water vapor.
It has a high affinity for water.
The crackling you heard was likely the
crystals splitting from rapid water absorbtion.
The pure substance is safe to touch,
- but don't go eating it, there might be other
unknown chemicals in the mix.

Answer 8

its not dangerous for your health..its just a moisture absorber. Silica gel is non-toxic, meaning that it is not poisonous if eaten.

Answer 9

cobalt chloride and other chemicals present in the silica are poisonous and dangerous the European Union considers it toxic and dangerous. Only the U.S. allows their citizens to ingest and touch these chemicals. Silica obsorbs water. we are water. ever get dehydrated? get sick? On its own silica should not be ingested, let alone the cobalt chloride and other chemicals present in the mix. Wash your hands after touching the packets.

Answer 10

if u eat some silica gel, it can absorb water in your body