as for Dry Ice harming you – if you’ve held it in your hand you know that it can cause “burns”. Trapped in the stomache with no escape route I can easily see it chilling a spot enough to cause permanent damage, as in the scar Ferret Herder mentions.
Liquid Nitrogen would be worse. the Leidenfrost effect is temporary, and eventually, especially if confined, the gas barrier breaks down, and damage to the tissue is more certain than with dry ice. When I was in grad school I watched guys “gargle” with liquid nitrogen. I didn’t emulate them because I was worried about swallowing, and about the temperature differential cracking my teeth. (According to my office mate people he knew who “gargled” LN2 did later find they had microfractures in their tooth enamel).
So don’t let your mummy baby swallow dry ice, or gargle with liquid nitrogen.
I hear its da bomb to put some dry ice in your mouth and then take a swig of some white russian. Kinda like the suck on a lime then take a swig of tequila thingy, only cooler.
And please do note that the article about a similar incident, cited by Cal, took place at Worcester PolyTech. That’s right, in Worcester, Massachusetts. sigh
No, really, we are very smart up here for the most part…
‘These special science classes are too dangerous for our pwecious widdle angels who were not being supervised and instructed sufficiently for them to understand that this was a bad thing. Being told not to breathe or taste it was not enough warning, as swallowing the dry ice is something else entirely. We will be petitioning the school board to take away these dangerous classes and suing the teacher and school for willfully endangering our youth.’
Next year: ‘We’re going to protest at the next school board meeting about why science scores on the state competency test are down overall at the school. Why can’t these teachers instruct our students properly?’
2 Adult supervisors, 24 kids and no one noticed these three, daring each other to drink, or drinking?
Perhaps they failed to understand they were, giving school children, potentially harmful materials. And were supposed to be actually supervising, not just ‘telling’ them what not to do, but actually overseeing that they follow those instructions.
I’d like to hear what the two supervisors have to say for themselves.
I wouldn’t blame the adults. If it’s just one teacher and you’ve told them, “Don’t do x y z,” then often it’s just a matter of the kids doing it because they think they know better. I remember in 3rd grade science (not exactly a science lab but we had basic science classes) we once were given a bunch of substances (some of it was stuff like salt and sugar and there was other non edible stuff) and told to describe it. Just to practice getting in the habit of being all scientific, and we were told over and over don’t eat it and I remember guys at my table eating the stuff and daring each other to. I never did because I was a dork. Even when they said it tasted like sugar.
ETA: OK, it was two teachers. But still…you’d think that at this age, you wouldn’t have to supervise them like that. It’s not like they’re little kids.
In my high school, we made ethanol by mixing rice, water, and yeast and letting it ferment. Then we distilled the result to about 180 proof.
One of the guys was in the back of the room, cutting it with water and drinking little hits. Pretty stupid, but at least he knew he was basically drinking high school-made vodka, not dry ice.
Hey, MIT students know that dry ice is denser than water, so it doesn’t float. So as long as you use big chunks (small ones tend to get covered in water ice, and then float), it’s perfectly safe. For a given approximation of “perfectly”.
Now dropping dry ice bombs down the center of a 5 story stairwell - that was dangerous. A fraternity brother of mine had to spend a week in Mass Eye & Ear after he held on to one for a bit too long.
Dares are incredibly powerful things to kids- 9th grade biology resulted in R*** M******* eating the dissected earthworm after being dared to eat it (the preservative smell was off-putting let alone the worm). Mr. B****** came back in, saw what he was doing, had him spit out the rest of it and suspended R*** for a week. So it came as no surprise when the next dare was posed during the frog dissection two weeks later, and R*** got caught with the frog leg in his mouth.
There is no greater cause for a young male than to be viewed as cool- and a dare gets you there by leaps and bounds.
