Ask A Scientist© General Science Archive

name         Michelle
status       other
age          40s

Question -   I gave a Halloween birthday party for my 4 year-old
granddaughter
last weekend. For a special effect, I put dry ice in the punch. I was
told by my mother in-law, that I made the punch poisonous by putting
dry ice in it. Is that true?  Did I cause any harm to the children by
giving them this punch?  I have heard of others putting dry ice in
their punch, but since dry ice is a chemical, is there any harm in
drinking it? Please email me.  Thanks, Concerned Grandma

Pure dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) in punch is not going to hurt
anybody.  It's the same stuff people breathe out all the time.  If the
dry ice contained impurities, however, they might be dangerous to
drink.

Tim Mooney
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Hi Michelle,

Dry ice is just solid carbon dioxide.  Unless somehow your dry ice had a
lot of contaminants in it, it wouldn't be any more harmful than soda pop
(carbon dioxide dissolved in water).

Don Yee
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I have forwarded this question to a collegue of mine that should know the
answer.  I will get back to you soon.  An idea you might try next time;
place your punch in a smaller bowl so it can rest inside a larger bowl
filled with water.  You can then place the dry ice in the larger bowl,
creating the same effect -- however, the punch does not come in contact with
the ice.
Katie Page
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No, dry ice is just carbon dioxide, the same stuff used to make soda pop
carbonated.  It's just in frozen form.  Breathing an atmosphere containing a
high level of carbon dioxide is harmful, but unless you lock the kids in a
sealed safe with the dry ice punch it's fine.

Richard E. Barrans Jr., Ph.D.
Assistant Director
PG Research Foundation, Darien, Illinois
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Michelle-
      The dry ice in the punch is not poisonous. Dry ice is solid carbon
dioxide. It provides a bit of carbonation, just like in pop. The bubbles in
pop are also carbon dioxide. The danger of course, would be to ingest a
piece. In my chemistry class we actually make root beer by taking 5 gallons
of water, 5 lbs dry ice, 3-5 lbs. of sugar and one bottle of McCormicks's
Root Beer Extract. The sugar is dissolved in the water, the flavoring stirred
in and then the broken up dry ice is added.

Good Luck,

Bob Blaus
York High School
Elmhurst, IL
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I take two exception to the answers given regarding the safety of "dry
ice" spiked Halloween punch.
1. Dry ice, even encapsulated in frozen punch, is quite cold and
could stick to a child's tongue or roof of the mouth, causing a nasty
freeze burn.
2. If an encapsulated chuck of dry ice were accidentally swallowed
intact. It could mean a trip to the emergency room for gastrointestinal
freeze burns and of course:  PV=nRT.

Vince Calder
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