Dry Ice Health and safety information
Storage of dry ice and the use of must always be in a well ventilated area. Dry ice, is potentialy more dangerous than even Liquid Nitrogen as if a small amount of this is spilled over your hands for example; the skin temperature will simply boil the Nitrogen away into a gas. However Dry ice will not, if handled without heavy gloves then a nasty burn WILL occur!
Extreme Cold Warning Sign
Never seal dry ice in an air-tight container otherwise pressure will occur due to the released gasses. A normal cool box will be sufficient, but with the lid loosely placed on top. Dry ice does not melt, rather it sublimes back into a gas and if the outside temperatures where at around 23c then frozen carbon dioxide will sublime at roughly the rate of 4.4 pounds per twenty four hour period.
Normal air is 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen and only 0.035% Carbon Dioxide. If the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air rises above 0.5%, carbon dioxide can become dangerous. Smaller concentrations can cause quicker breathing but is otherwise not harmful. If Dry Ice has been in a closed auto, van, room, or walk-in, for more than 10 minutes, open doors and allow adequate ventilation before entering. Leave area containing Dry Ice if you start to pant and breath quickly or your fingernails or lips start to turn blue. This is the sign that you have breathed in too much CO2 and not enough oxygen. Dry Ice CO2 is heavier than air and will accumulate in low spaces. Do not enter closed storage areas that have or have had stored Dry Ice before airing out completely.
Burn Treatment
If the worst has come to the worst and you have burned yourself by improper handling of Dry Ice Treat Dry Ice then treat he same as a regular heat burns. See a doctor if the skin blisters or comes off. Otherwise if only red it will heal in time as any other burn. Apply antibiotic ointment to prevent infection and bandage only if the burned skin area needs to be protected. Do not pack NORMAL Ice around the burn as this will cause even more damage!
Do not play around with Dry Ice, no matter the temptation, below is an image of a nasty incident by a young fool storing Dry Ice in an air-tight Coke bottle! This is what happened when he opened the said container.
A Young Fool receives a Nasty Injury from Playing with DICE
As mentioned above, never store frozen Carbon Dioxide in an air tight container, as the pressure builds up from the released gas will do the above!
A full Data Sheet on the nature of Carbon Dioxide can be found here.
http://avogadro.chem.iastate.edu/MSDS/carbon_dioxide_solid.htm
This writer cannot stress enough the importance of handling Dry Ice in a responsible manner!
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