# Would it be dangerous to be in a room with a bunch of cocaine flying around?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-dangerous-to-be-in-a-room-with-a-bunch-of-cocaine-flying-around/585641>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 16, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-dangerous-to-be-in-a-room-with-a-bunch-of-cocaine-flying-around/585641 "2011-06-16T01:15:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-dangerous-to-be-in-a-room-with-a-bunch-of-cocaine-flying-around/585641/1 "2011-06-16T01:15:32Z")

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So I’m watching **Robocop** for the first time since I was a teenager and there’s a scene in a very inefficient cocaine factory. I mean, it was inefficient before Robocop came and blew it all to hell.

So, would having a bunch of coke in the air be hazardous to your health? Would the normal act of breathing dust suspended in the air be like snorting it? Could you OD on it?

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-dangerous-to-be-in-a-room-with-a-bunch-of-cocaine-flying-around/585641/2 "2011-06-16T01:19:08Z")

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That would very specifically depend on how much you inhaled (as well as how much got in your mouth/nose/open cuts and on your eyes). If you ‘absorbed’ a less then lethal amount, it (obviously) wouldn’t be a problem. If the amount you ingested were too much for your body to handle, it would be.

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-dangerous-to-be-in-a-room-with-a-bunch-of-cocaine-flying-around/585641/3 "2011-06-16T18:21:28Z")

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As I understand it, drug dealers usually cut cocaine with icing sugar. The dust in the air is likely to be mostly sugar, and causes a high risk of an explosion, regardless of other health risks.

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**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-dangerous-to-be-in-a-room-with-a-bunch-of-cocaine-flying-around/585641/4 "2011-06-16T20:50:32Z")

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> [@Peter\_Morris](#):
>
> The dust in the air is likely to be mostly sugar, and causes a high risk of an explosion, regardless of other health risks.

That’s what I opened the thread to say. [Dust explosions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion) can be very bad news. [Here’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Georgia_sugar_refinery_explosion) a Wiki article about a sugar dust explosion that wrecked a factory.

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**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-dangerous-to-be-in-a-room-with-a-bunch-of-cocaine-flying-around/585641/5 "2011-06-16T21:54:16Z")

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Well, I think the presence of Robocop is the bigger explosive danger in this specific case.