“Desiccant” in food or snack packaging has become the chief culprit of children’s blindness!
According to a report in Shihua Daily, a paediatrician in Shanghai shared a case in which an 8-year-old boy was blind in his right eye, and the murderer of this tragedy was the food desiccant that every household had!
According to Sina News, the mother of Coco (not real name), an 8-year-old boy, said that her son had just returned home from the mid-term exam on the day of the incident, and she went to the supermarket to buy many snacks he liked.
When she got home, Coco sat on the sofa while eating snacks and watching cartoons. She was busy cooking dinner in the kitchen. Unexpectedly, after about 15 minutes, she heard Coco’s scream in the living room. When she looked at it quickly, she was dumbfounded! She saw Coco, covering his eyes, crying loudly and rolling painfully on the ground. A beverage bottle that exploded and deformed tumbled to the ground, and water was everywhere on the floor!
Although it took only 20 minutes to send Cocoa to the hospital for emergency treatment, Cocoa’s right eye was completely destroyed. After examination, the doctor said that Cocoa’s right eye was eroded by alkaline liquid, and the whole eyeball was dissolved, resulting in lifelong blindness.
Cocoa revealed that when he finished eating snacks, he found a small bag in the packaging bag. He didn’t know what was in it, so he picked it up and played with it. First, he picked it up and sniffed it with his nose. Then, for fun, he put the small bag in a drink bottle with water. He didn’t expect it to explode as soon as he put it in! At that moment, Coco felt that something had entered his right eye, and it burned badly, and then his eyes were out of sight. And the “small bag” is the food desiccant.
Desiccant explodes when it touches water.
In fact, some practical tests have confirmed that after pouring food desiccant into a closed mineral water bottle and adding clear water, the bottle exploded more than 1 minute later, and the bottle cap was blown up to fly 4 meters away. It is reported that quicklime desiccant is commonly used in food. The main component of quicklime desiccant is calcium oxide, which will react with water to generate calcium hydroxide and release a lot of heat.
Because the moisture content in food packaging bags is extremely low, the desiccant usually does not change significantly. However, if the lime desiccant is put into a plastic bottle with water, the plastic bottle is usually large with a small mouth and relatively closed, which will lead to a rapid expansion of the air in the bottle, and may explode when it exceeds the pressure resistance of the bottle.
At this time, calcium hydroxide has been generated when quicklime meets water, which is a highly corrosive alkaline liquid. When it splashes on the surface of the human body with the explosion of the container, it will cause different degrees of damage!
Doctors reminded that when giving children snacks, they must take out the desiccant and keep it away from children. Once the desiccant enters the eyes, it should be washed with clear water immediately and sent to regular hospitals for treatment.
It turns out that when the desiccant touches the water, it will happen so horribly! Everyone must pay attention!
