Dangers of Dry Ice

General Discussion
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I admit to knowing absolutely nothing about dry ice… this is a shock…

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didn’t they use dry-ice onstage during pop concerts etc… ??? in the olden days :thinking:

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They did, and once when I had to play the third apparition in Macbeth for a school play, I was raised through a trapdoor in the stage floor on the shoulders of a sixth former clad only in a loin cloth and surrounded by dry ice.

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sounds like you were lucky… eh ? do they do that sort of thing in schools now ??

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I have no idea as to whether they still use nowadays. As to lucky? I think not as I cringe at the thought some fifty odd years later.

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At least you survived… :crazy_face:

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True, but was I damaged? Do I have PTSD? Should I be suing someone?

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Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide. There is no intermediate liquid stage, so it changes immediately to gas as it warms up. It is this characteristic that makes it useful for stage smoke.
On a stage it can flow away freely and is not a serious health risk.
But if you put a lot of it into a pool, it will form a layer of gas on top of the water and anyone in the pool would be at risk of not being to get enough oxygen to survive.

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Thanls Mike…I can sleep soundly now. What I do remember from all those years back was the very distinctive smell.

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CO2 itself is colourless and odourless - which is one of the reasons why it is dangerous.

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Dry ice most definitely does have a particular smell, an odour, which is slightly perfumed or zesty. It is very distinctive when you are swathed in it. I seem to remember thinking it quite pleasant.

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I agree with Paul on this, absolutely no smell whatsoever. The smell you remember might have been from a smoke machine, different machine/chemicals.

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Whilst I am not going to argue with the experts I maintain that it has a smell and having just ‘googled’ it my basic research indicates that although in theory it does not have a smell, in high concentration it has a ‘zesty, acidic’ odour. It is no doubt this that I remember.

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A story from the USA : https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/01/health/dry-ice-death/index.html

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A high enough concentration to appreciate that “zesty” smell would be lethal in an enclosed space.

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Okay say hello to the dead man walking.

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surely it’s sufficient to now know that Dry Ice can be extremely dangerous… :crazy_face:

let’s not argue about smells and memories… :upside_down_face:

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The fact that you are alive suggests something else was going on.

Either it was not CO2 but a glycerine based stage fogger/“smoke” machine - these work by heating a solution of glycerine in water. The water can have perfume added which might explain your experience.

Or, that you were enveloped in “mist” as a result of immersing dry ice in water - I presume said mist is actually dilute carbonic acid and might well taste “zesty”.

At atmospheric pressure, yes - however it is  possible to have liquid CO2 under high pressure.

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I stand corrected. :upside_down_face:

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