OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

259939 Mark Pfeifer <markpfeifer@i...> 2016‑08‑25 Re: The speed of rust?
Most any packaged consumer good you buy now seems to have tiny silica desiccant
packets in it.

The inter webs tell me they really do suck up moisture. The FDA says they are
GRAS. Not that I place much credence in the FDA for my overall health . . . but
they are pretty reliable to the level of “eat this and die”. Well at least until
it comes to certain pharma products, but now I’m getting off list charter . . .
.

Wikipedia says the silica contents of these packets are non-reactive with metal
until temperatures go over 300 degrees . . . there’s more to it than that, and
it’s only some metals even at 300F, but when I saw 300 degrees I stopped
reading. I have no plans to cook a silica souffle in my Stanley 5.

So there appears to be no downside to these. One of my offspring works stocking
shelves and (at my request) collected me a whole box full of them instead of
tossing them out with the packaging. I’ve started putting one in the mouth of
every plane. I can’t say it’s having any impact at all but somehow it makes me
feel better. And the bottle of muriatic was double bagged and moved out of the
shop today.

Would it be in poor taste to quote The Exorcist in a rust context?

MPf.

Recent Bios FAQ