# Am I poisoning my self?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-poisoning-my-self/24189>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 30, 2000, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-poisoning-my-self/24189 "2000-06-30T17:57:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Aceospades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-poisoning-my-self/24189/1 "2000-06-30T17:57:20Z")

</div>

I regularly eat ice chips at work ( I know all the dentist are cringing right now). I also read the newspaper all the time. my question is does the ink that rubs off on my hand and then rubs off on the ice chips that I eat poisonous?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-poisoning-my-self/24189/2 "2000-06-30T18:05:10Z")

</div>

I don’t think so. The ink that most newspapers use these days is soy-based, which is why it smudges so easily. In a bind, you could probably eat newspaper for sustenance without any serious health concerns other than probably a bad case of constipation.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tcburnett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@tcburnett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tcburnett)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-poisoning-my-self/24189/3 "2000-06-30T19:52:48Z")

</div>

What is your job description? Eating ice and reading newspapers sounds like good work if you can get it.

The ink in newspapers isn’t poisonous. But I really doubt that much of it transfers from your hand to ice chips. The main reason news isn’t printed on ice is that the ink won’t stick.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2000, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/am-i-poisoning-my-self/24189/4 "2000-06-30T22:47:52Z")

</div>

Quite possibly. One of the early symptoms of ink poisoning is the tendency to split a single word into two words. 😉  
Peace,  
mangeorge (I did it to _myself_)