Eating Thermal Paste

[Loagster]

Hello!

So yesterday I was working on a computer, and got some thermal paste on my hands. I washed it off with soap and water, big deal. Then, when dinner was done I got my hamburger and fries. When I was done eating, I saw thermal paste on my finger. Being a bit scared, I washed it off. I went to bed a few hours later and... There's thermal paste on my hand! I think it's all gone now, but I just want to make sure I'll be okay.

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, Loagster said:

Hello!

So yesterday I was working on a computer, and got some thermal paste on my hands. I washed it off with soap and water, big deal. Then, when dinner was done I got my hamburger and fries. When I was done eating, I saw thermal paste on my finger. Being a bit scared, I washed it off. I went to bed a few hours later and... There's thermal paste on my hand! I think it's all gone now, but I just want to make sure I'll be okay.

You won't die. Can you please list the exact thermal paste in question?

 

It's certainly not good for you, and depending on the type, could cause serious long term health issues if you consume a lot of it. But a tiny bit on your fingers once will probably have no lasting harm.

[crosstiger]

People have eaten wors. You’ll be fine

[chrisholland03]

It would be different if you like squirted a tube in your mouth.  I've definitely had worse - like the time I tried to siphon gas (I burped unleaded for months afterwards) or all of those paint chips I ate as a baby.

[Shog]

3 minutes ago, chrisholland03 said:

It would be different if you like squirted a tube in your mouth.  I've definitely had worse - like the time I tried to siphon gas (I burped unleaded for months afterwards) or all of those paint chips I ate as a baby.

Nice first post here, welcome to the forums.

[mariushm]

The majority of thermal pastes are made of materials that don't hurt you in small quantities. A bit of paste on your fingers is definitely in the extremely small quantity. You're good.

 

If you're really paranoid, type in Google the name and model of your thermal paste and add "MSDS" at the end (which is short for Material Safety Data Sheet) which are documents that enumerate toxic elements in substances or products.

 

Toxic not necessarily to humans, can be toxic for animals or plants. For example most thermal pastes use Zinc Oxide in large percentage (Arctic Silver Ceramique 2 uses 70-85% , Arctic Silver 5 uses up to 40%) which is harmless for humans (in extreme cases you may get some skin irritation) but can be very toxic for fish and aquatic plants (plankton, algae etc). Definitely don't throw your thermal paste in an aquarium.

 

Some pastes like Arctic Silver 5 may use Boron Nitrite which is slightly more toxic - it's not a good idea to swallow big amounts of it (way more than what was on your skin) and if you get it in your eyes, you're supposed to wash your eyes with water for about 20 minutes.

[minibois]

You'll turn blue. Well, if you ate a lot of it. Really you'll probably be fine.

[Loagster]

Yeah it was Arctic Silver 5. The MSDS for AS5 seems fine, no i'm not too worried. Thanks! This is what I looked at BTW: http://www.arcticsilver.com/PDF/thermcom/AS5_MSDS_3.pdf