# I Burning Your Magnesium! Is This Hazardous? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 28, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755 "2009-12-28T01:28:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/1 "2009-12-28T01:28:22Z")
I got my kids a chemistry set for Christmas and we started off with the extremely scientific and technically challenging experiment of burning the little magnesium ribbon to see the intense white flame. I got a good close look at the smoldering, powdery remnants as the ribbon burned out. The next morning I woke up with red, puffy and slightly peeling skin all over my face. It was very similar to the kind of burn you get on a sunny day at the ski slopes. I didn’t have any respiratory symptoms except possibly a very mild sore throat, and had no vision problems. (The light can be bright enough to damage your eyes if you stare at it for a long time.) Could the magnesium combustion have burned my face? I looked up a few internet articles and it seems the bright, hot flame of burning magnesium can be enough to cause minor burns from the radiant heat. A couple of sites said the magnesium oxide dust and smoke can get into your skin and cause irritation. But none of the sites seemed all that definitive. They were more like, “This could theoretically happen.” I didn’t feel a lot of heat, and the burn/rash didn’t show up until the next day, so it took some time to develop. But that happens to me (and maybe everyone) with regular sunburns. Anyone out there done this experiment with similar results? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/2 "2009-12-28T01:37:58Z")
Burning magnesium produces magnesium oxide, the process of which can release harmful amounts of UV light, which could account for your symptoms. Your sore throat could be explained by metal fume fever. Disclaimer; IANAD, nor do I play one on TV, so see a physician if you need serious medical advice. > [@](#): > > Magnesium oxide is easily made by burning magnesium ribbon which oxidizes in a bright white light, resulting in a powder. However, the bright flame is very hard to extinguish and it emits a harmful intensity of UV light. Inhalation of magnesium oxide fumes can cause metal fume fever.[8] > **[Magnesium oxide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_oxide)** > > Magnesium oxide (MgO), or magnesia, is a white hygroscopic solid mineral that occurs naturally as periclase and is a source of magnesium (see also oxide). It has an empirical formula of MgO and consists of a lattice of Mg2+ ions and O2− ions held together by ionic bonding. Magnesium hydroxide forms in the presence of water (MgO + H2O → Mg(OH)2), but it can be reversed by heating it to remove moisture. > Magnesium oxide was historically known as magnesia alba (literally, the white mineral from Magn... More on the health effects of magnesium oxide: > [@](#): > > Breathing freshly generated magnesium oxide fume can irritate the eyes and nose. It can cause metal fume fever triggering symptoms such as headache, cough, sweating, nausea, fever, oppression in the chest and leucocytosis (increase in the number of white blood cells in the blood). The symptoms of metal fume fever might not become manifest until 4-12 hours after exposure and may last for 24 hours. Metal fume fever is not believed to have permanent effects. No chronic (long-term) health effects are known at this time. [http://www.npi.gov.au/substances/magnesium-oxide-fume/health.html](http://www.npi.gov.au/substances/magnesium-oxide-fume/health.html) ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/3 "2009-12-28T01:38:50Z")
IMHO, you got a radiation burn from the white hot flame of the burning Mg. I don’t know how much UV might be given off by that flame, but I’ll bet there was some. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/4 "2009-12-28T01:41:14Z")
I hadn’t heard of people being burned by the radiant energy from a magnesium ribbon. Although, looking at one closely while burning it is a good way to cause eye damage, it is very bright, the hand book should have suggested you look away. Then again, what fun is that. There’s also the possibility you have a chemical burn from the product magnesium oxide, it’s pretty fluffy, as I recall, and might have gotten on your skin. For that, I do have a citation: > **[Magnesium and Thermite Poisoning: Practice Essentials, Pathophysiology, Etiology](https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/833495-overview)** > > Two major types of metal incendiaries exist, those that are magnesium based and those of the thermite/thermate type. Incendiary metals are usually encountered in the military or industrial setting but can also be encountered in other applications due... Now for my question, I was sure by now that all the fun chemistry sets, with real chemicals in them were long since gone. Where did you get this cool one? Who makes it? And what other goodies are in it? _EDIT_ Yeah I’m a little slower. But I still what to know where this chem set is from. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/5 "2009-12-28T02:04:16Z")
Yeah, that’s what I want to know! I thought they were all cutesy wutesy not-dangerous crap nowadays! (I want one. Real bad.) ---
**Author:** ![TurboNuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@TurboNuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TurboNuke)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/6 "2009-12-28T04:00:10Z")
Magnesium oxide is the same stuff thats in Milk of Magnesia I think. So it is doubtful that exposure to it would cause the problem. Your symptoms sounds like the UV burns I’ve gotten while welding without a hood. So UV exposure IMO. Edit: Googling shows that it is magnesium hydroxide in Milk of Magnesia. It was a chemistry website that I read recently that said it was magnesium oxide, not sure if it makes a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/7 "2009-12-28T04:37:19Z")
Thanks for the replies. For the curious, [here](http://www.thamesandkosmos.com/products/chem/c20002.html) is the chemistry set I bought. It has maybe one fifth of the really interesting compounds you got in the chemistry sets of my youth (1970s). I remember making potassium nitrate and combining it with charcoal and sulfur to make some really crappy black powder. It went off with sort of a fizzling zing when I lit it. Good thing I wasn’t smart enough to fully dry the potassium nitrate or I’d have burned my house down. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/8 "2009-12-28T04:56:25Z")
> [@TurboNuke](#): > > Googling shows that it is magnesium hydroxide in Milk of Magnesia. It was a chemistry website that I read recently that said it was magnesium oxide, not sure if it makes a difference. Magnesium Oxide + water = Magnesium Hydroxide It’s hard to believe that burning a small amount of magnesium will be enough to cause UV burns, but magnesium fires can cause UV burns so I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/9 "2009-12-28T17:21:02Z")
In my town, there was a fire in a magnesium recycling plant a couple years ago. The police and fire departments evacuated several square miles of homes downwind. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/10 "2009-12-28T23:00:55Z")
> [@WarmNPrickly](#): > > Magnesium Oxide + water = Magnesium Hydroxide And in general, living tissue provides a nice handy supply of water for this reaction, although the MgO won’t care two hoots whether losing the water is good for said tissue. If you hop down the “Alkaline Earth Metals” column of the periodic table to magnesium’s more reactive brother, calcium, you get to a rather less pleasant reagent of this type, [quicklime](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_oxide). ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/11 "2009-12-28T23:39:41Z")
That is right, but mostly I was pointing out that milk of Magnesia is just as well described as made from Magnesium Oxide as Magnesium Hydroxide since it is an aqueous solution. I suspect MgO is a very good desiccant, and fairly irritating, but I didn’t look up the MSDS. ---
**Author:** ![Bisected8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a4c791/32.png) [@Bisected8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bisected8)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/12 "2009-12-29T11:20:22Z")
I’d somehow doubt that a single piece of magnesium ribbon would cause that much damage. I met my old secondary school chemistry teacher the other day and he was fine despite burning it in front of the class at the drop of a hat. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/13 "2009-12-29T21:07:25Z")
> [@Bisected8](#): > > I’d somehow doubt that a single piece of magnesium ribbon would cause that much damage. I met my old secondary school chemistry teacher the other day and he was fine despite burning it in front of the class at the drop of a hat. And I’m sure his pupils were fine despite sneaking rolls of it home with them in the evening (as I’m sure _all_ Dopers did ;)) ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/14 "2009-12-30T18:24:20Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > And I’m sure his pupils were fine despite sneaking rolls of it home with them in the evening (as I’m sure _all_ Dopers did ;)) Yep. Combine a few 20 foot rolls, and the some weather balloons from Edmund Scientific’s catalog (filled with hydrogen), and you have some dandy UFO sightings all across the county. “You see officer, there was this bright light that turned into a fireball. I think it crashed over there!” Good Times. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-burning-your-magnesium-is-this-hazardous/522755/15 "2009-12-30T21:24:49Z")
Good times indeed, I only burned a few centimetres in Dad’s garage ☹