What is dry ice and why do people cough up blood when they eat it?

Dr. Dinh Tran Ngoc Mai, Department of Nutrition - Dietetics, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, answered: Dry ice is a solid form of carbon dioxide, Vietnamese people also call it by many other names such as gas ice, smoke ice, dry ice, dry ice...

Dry ice is a solid form of carbon dioxide, commonly used

Nowadays, dry ice is widely used. Exported seafood, vegetables, tubers... use dry ice for refrigeration and preservation, helping food stay fresh and preserve longer.

In medicine, dry ice is used in medical facilities and hospitals to preserve vaccines, biological samples, blood, and tissue storage (organs, body parts). In particular, dry ice is also used for embalming.

When used, direct contact can cause burns due to dry ice. Dry ice is very cold. Therefore, if you directly handle this type of ice, skin cells can be destroyed and the skin on your hands will peel due to frostbite.

The carbon dioxide in dry ice can reduce the percentage of oxygen in the air. Therefore, using dry ice in closed spaces can easily lead to suffocation.

In particular, if cold carbon dioxide gas sinks to the floor of a room, it can easily cause many dangerous health problems, especially for weak people such as children, the elderly or animals.

Therefore, in case of accidentally eating dry ice, it can lead to damage to the airway due to frostbite of the airway and oral mucosa, leading to bleeding in the throat and mouth.

To use dry ice effectively, users need to clearly understand its uses and the harmful effects of eating or drinking dry ice by mistake.

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