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Re: Why so many warnings on Dr. Scholl's Freeze Away?

Subject: Re: Why so many warnings on Dr. Scholl's Freeze Away?
From: LurfysMa
Date: Fri, 09 Sep 2005 15:32:30 -0700
Newsgroups: sci.med
On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 19:12:04 -0700, Bob <bbx107@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 08:19:32 -0700, LurfysMa <invalid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 06:39:44 +0100, "Devil's Advocate"
>><enewall1944@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>>"LurfysMa" wrote:
>>>>I just purchased a package of Dr.Scholl's Freeze Away for treating
>>>> common warts. About 50% of the text on the package and in the
>>>> instructions are about how it is NOT to be used on anything that is
>>>> not CLEARLY a wart.
>>>>
>>>> Can anyone explain why this is? What is the danger? What could happen?
>>>>
>>>> I used to work in a chem lab where they had LN2 piped everywhere.
>>>> Whenever I had any kind of a little skin bump, I would get a Dewar and
>>>> some q-tips and freeze that little bugger off. Most of them were
>>>> warts, but I'm pretty sure some were not. Never any problems.
>>>>
>>>> Once in awhile they would turn red for a day or two, but then I'd just
>>>> zap them again and they would eventually scab over and be gone.
>>>>
>>>> Was I lucky or is Dr. Scholl being overly careful?
>
>You sound like a knowledgeable user -- not a typical user. Their
>warning is for the typical user -- and of course is biased by the
>liability mania as Jason suggested.
>
>By knowledgeable user, I don't mean you know exactly what will happen
>in this case, but that you know how to handle LN2 (and probably
>hazardous materials in general).

I guess the question I should have asked is this:

What's the worst that can happen from freezing a small area of normal
skin for 10-30 seconds with a Q-tip soaked in LN2?

I used to live in an area (Rockies) that got very cold in the winter
(up to -30 once in awhile). A lot of people got minor frostbite
including me. I never had a serious problem, but then it was minor. It
just seemed to me that this would be even less dangerous. It's a much
lower temperature (-300F or so), but it's for a very short time and on
a very small area.

So, that's my question: what's the worst that can happen?


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