Secretly Incredibly Fascinating - Silica Gel Packets

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedian Siena East ('NDND' Youtube channel, UCB) and comedian/podcaster Rivers Langley ('The Goods From The Woods' podcast) for a look at why silica gel packets are secretly incredibly fascinating. Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week's bonus episode.

Silica gel packets, known for do not eat, famous for beef jerky. Nobody thinks much about them, so let's have some fun. Let's find out why silica gel packets are secretly incredibly fascinating. Hey there, folks. Welcome to a whole new podcast episode. A podcast all about why being alive is more interesting than people think it is. Being alive is more interesting than people think it is. My name is Alex Schmidt, and I'm not alone, because Sienna East and Rivers Langley are my wonderful returning guests. Sienna East is a comedian, writer, actor, filmmaker.

She's also part of the cast of the NDND YouTube channel, which is a whole group of native performers doing funny and awesome tabletop role-playing games together. And Sienna last appeared on this podcast on the episode about libraries. Rivers Langley last appeared on the episode about blood types. And Rivers has his own entire wonderful podcast going on. It's called Goods from the Woods. He's the host of that and is also a wonderful stand-up comedian. Also, I've gathered all of our zip codes and used internet resources like native-land.ca to acknowledge that I recorded this on the traditional land of the

Canarsie and Lenape peoples. Acknowledge Siena and Rivers each recorded this on the traditional land of the Gabrielino-Ortongva and Keech and Chumash peoples, and acknowledge that in all of our locations, native people are very much still here. That feels worth doing on each episode, and today's episode is about silica gel packets. That's a patron-chosen topic, many, many thanks to Jonathan Smukler for pointing out this desiccant, pointing out this thing that makes stuff dry around it. As we'll discuss, it's something I never, ever, ever think about. And I'm so glad I got to think about it now.

So please sit back or stand at that counter and get an extra packet of beef jerky, right? Because it's delicious and it's on theme. Either way, here's this episode of Secretly Incredibly Fascinating with Sienna East and Rivers Langley. I'll be back after we wrap up. Talk to you then. Sienna Rivers, it is so good to have you on the show. And I always start by asking guests their relationship to the topic or opinion of it. So either of you can start.

But how do you feel about silica gel packets? You know, people should look me up if they don't know me. If you're just hearing my voice, I don't know if I come across as a beef jerky guy. But look me up. You can tell by looking at me. I'm a beef jerky guy. And as a child uh the brand was called oh boy oberto that was the good stuff people are all about the jack links now

no jack links no oh boy oberto was the bomb growing up uh and right at the bottom uh after i ate the beef jerky in under 30 seconds uh right under the bottom right there at the bottom after I ate the beef jerky in under 30 seconds, right under the bottom, right there at the bottom, there's that little pack and it says, do not eat. But I was a hungry child, Alex. I was always hungry. And though I never did it because I, you know, I was, you know, a Boy Scout. I was a Boy Scout.

One of the points of the Scout law is obedient. So I did not eat it, but I thought about it. I'm really glad you didn't eat it. One thing we'll get to a little later is why people should not eat it. That's for you. Yeah. No, no, I get it. I mean, I, as a child, also had a bit of beef jerky, but also, like, whenever I saw the packet, and I never understood, like, it would be, like, not just in food, it's in all sorts of things.

But it scared me so much because I was really worried I would eat it not like I was like oh no what if I accidentally eat this like a gel packet and so I was really but I was always the kid is really worried that I was going to do like like um I remember someone's like oh don't mess with the end of the little plug that plugs your guitar into the amp I remember one time I was like I really want to stick this in my mouth but I shouldn't but what if I did and those were like the kind of thoughts that went through my head as a kid like you know it's like don't don't put that thing in your mouth and like all of a sudden i'm like oh my god what if i accidentally swallow a battery that was another concern i had growing up or a magnet i was really where i was gonna eat a magnet i was really where

i was gonna need a battery the silica gel packet just things i feared i would eat my my big my big one was always looking the other one that came to mind as soon as i heard this topic i immediately thought of the jerky and then just it also made me think of looking at that that tag on a mattress that says do not remove under penalty of law like they're gonna arrest you for taking the tag off your mattress and so those are those are the two big folk you know those were no-go zones as a as a child you don't eat the silica gel don't take the tag off the mattress the greatest laws yes yeah those were the two that's that's why people went to jail in my mind as a you know seven-year-old like oh they must have they must have taken the tag off the mattress or you know

yeah both those things if they didn't tell you to not do it i would never even consider it but because there's such a clear especially the mattress one where it's like the cops are gonna get you like are they i i was i was just gonna leave this on there and put my sheets over it i don't care what that's good though yeah i have briefly had the thought why don't i eat it and folks don't eat it but i i'm really glad patron jonathan smookler picked this topic because not only is this something i never actively think about but i realized that i like go out of my way to throw these out fast like as soon as they're in a thing i'm like if it says do not eat it's probably a deadly poison and just into the trash immediately alex i'm not gonna it says do not eat it's probably a deadly poison and just into the

trash immediately alex i'm not gonna lie to you i did as soon as i heard the topic i did go to youtube hoping to find some unexplored tide pod-esque challenge of uh you know gen z youtubers eating silica packs and i was deeply disappointed gen z what are you doing let's there's not as many uh silica gel pack challenges as i'd like that doesn't make any it doesn't make any sense i would never like a like a tide pod looks soft it's colorful like it's got so many alluring qualities silica gel packets is a bunch of little plastic bought little plastic things. And another little plastic thing, all look hard and it's just poison. And I'm like, that doesn't seem, but, but a Tide Pod, like I wouldn't do it, but it looks like, and I know they were doing it to like prove something, but there is a, there is a tasty looking factor to a Tide Pod. That's true.

But there's no written warning. See, once there's a warning on it, then, becomes uh you know the uh the unattainable fruit the forbidden fruit that is a tide pod that's right i guess maybe silica gel packets don't have that vibe because tide pods are sold directly to consumers like they want us to buy it so it's colorful enjoyable but like silica gel it's just industries buying them like there's there's no dressing it up to make it fun so that's probably why that's probably the deal they have a useful function where the the technical term is like a desiccant it's something that keeps foods dry such as beef jerky and and a lot with a lot of foods if they're kept dry they last longer don't like get mold or

bacteria on them so quickly so they are a thing, but we never think about them. Never comes up. I recently, I didn't look it up, but I did talk about it with my mom recently because my brother got shoes and I was like, why do they, it's like a week ago, two weeks ago. I was like, why do they put poison in the food and in the shoes? I don't understand why it's in both of them. And she was like, it keeps things dry. And I was like, oh, okay.

Because they were some of the pair of shoes? Yeah. Okay, yeah. To keep the shoes dry, I guess. And I was like, I don't understand it. This just seems like too much. They're just throwing poison at things just to test us now. I was very frustrated.

It's a conspiracy. Yeah, don't let the internet get a hold of that one. And with the safety, normally these episodes start get a hold of that one that's uh well and with the safety i normally these episodes start with a set of stats and numbers i want to go with a big takeaway first takeaway number one silica gel packets have all those do not eat warnings because they are a choking hazard it turns out that's the main reason. I'm not a doctor, I'm not a nutritionist. There is a vague chance of some kind of chemistry or poison reason that

they would be bad for you. But the main reason that warning is on there is that people could choke on it, including adults. Yeah, I read that as well, that it's a choking hazard thing. And I'm like, if you are a child, you know, that might choke on this, you're not able to read. Do not eat. And if you're an adult that's choking on this, you're eating too fast. That's true. It is literacy dependent. Yeah. Once again, I didn't Google any of this um so i found

out that it dries you out uh and when i my mom said that i was like obviously you don't eat it because it dries out your whole body and you die and so until this very moment i didn't know it was a choking hazard i thought it would just yeah i don't know just turn me into a little dried up yeah yeah that's that's that's how you get mummified that's that's how the that's how the that's how the egyptians mummified actually they just filled the pharaoh with uh silica gel sienna that was my exact belief about these before researching i thought it like it either turns you into one of those mummies from like peru where it's just a dried out husk or or it makes your face look like that one simpsons episode where they eat straight from the lemon tree or the turnip tree.

And then the guy's face just like converges into itself from the sourness. That was my belief about these things. But it turns out you could just choke on it because the silica inside is very, very hard and can obstruct your throat. So that's why. Again, don't eat them. As the kid who was like, I'm afraid of eating it. Of course I squished them as hard as I could between my fingers to see how hard they were. That's why I'm saying they're not appetizing. It's like eating little pebbles or sand. That's almost

exactly what you're doing. It's it's silica is essentially sand. It's a similar chemical structure and composition to sand. Oh yeah. So there's no reason to eat it. Like there's truly no benefit. And then there is a risk of choking on it. So the warning is correct. Like it's a good idea to not eat it. And the main sources here, there's a piece for Popular Science by Bridget Reid Morosky and then expert interviews from Discovered Magazine and Women's Health Magazine. Because they all say that silica gel packets are like

officially considered non-toxic because they just do not interact with the human body chemically unless a really strange thing happens or you eat like thousands of them or something the u.s national capital poison center officially says they are non-toxic yeah i read one thing where there was a lady whose kid ate one and she got freaked out obviously and called poison control and they were and they basically told her like this is our most common call really oh that makes sense yeah that was uh what she said the when she called her local poison control they They told her this happens all the time. It's fine. Just, you know, wash, wash the mouth out as best you can and it'll be okay.

I'll bet. Yeah. Cause that's who I would go to. I would be like, oh, my child ate one of these. They've been poisoned. And then they would tell me your, if your child didn't choke on it, they need to poop it out and they probably will. That's, that's the next steps.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're really nice and practical at poison control i've had to call them twice this year so they're great oh yeah okay i'm glad it all worked out sienna that's good we're here tape them all right shout out to poison control for all their kindness and support i want to start running free ads for them or something. Yeah. They just do a good thing. Right. Like I had taken a bunch of the placebo birth control pills. I put them a

bunch of my mouth as a bit and then they melted in my mouth. And so I had taken, and then I realized there was iron in them. And then I found out about iron poisoning and then I called and they looked up the type of birth control I had, uh, what the percentage of the iron was, how much iron I'd really taken. Um, and they were like, well, why? And I was like, it was like a bit, I didn't know they'd melt in my mouth. I was putting them under my tongue. I was going to get them all there and there as a bit. And they're like, yeah, don't do that again, please. And I was like, okay. But like, and you're sure like nothing's wrong with you. And I'm like, no, no. It was just like, you know how you always skip taking them.

You're like, these don't mean anything. I was like, F you mom. And you know, stick them on your mouth. Like I'm like, I'll, I'll do my medicine. Right. Um, and they were like, okay. You're the third YouTuber that's called us today. I not a YouTuber.

I wonder if, like, the most common call they get is somebody ate a silica gel packet, and then the second most common call is bits, you know? Like, I was doing jokes, japes, funny things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ooh, I now really do want to talk to a Poison Control Center person. I think just for a comedy podcast, that's perfect. Like, all right, just, just sit back and just hit me with it. What's the weirdest stuff? Well, it's not always bits.

Sometimes you think baking sodas, it absorbs the stinks in your fridge. Right. And so I was curious, it would be stinky. So I stuck it directly up to my nose and sniffed it in the hole. Then I realized that's just what snorting is. Then I had to cut poison control. They said it was fine, especially if there wasn't anything around it. They said, don't do it again.

And they said, why'd you do it again? I'm like, I wanted to know if it was stinky. I was just trying to smell it. Yeah. They said, it's just going to dry out your nose. It's going to burn a little bit, but you're fine. And I said, okay. Yeah. I'd also like to think you've made their day. Like every,

if I was working at poison control, every time I get to tell somebody it's fine. Great. That's a good part of my day. It's going good. Fantastic. Yeah. It's fine. Now let's talk about you. What is, what's your whole deal? Yeah. Yeah. talk about you what is what's your whole deal yeah yeah well and also we have a expert interview here about this from a it's a usc pharmacology professor uh and his name is distracting his name is roger clemens and if people are baseball fans that's one of the most famous baseball players of all time his name roger clemens but uh women's health interviewed this pharmacology professor named roger clements he says a silica gel packet is quote non-toxic is not absorbed or digested passes through the gut and is subsequently eliminated end quote and so that's why there's

also like zero health benefits to this like your body is just not interact there's like there's not absolutely zero nutrients you're gonna get or whatever there's none of that you're just eating like an industrial form of sand which is just dumb don't do that yeah i did you because i like i said i was looking for youtubers that were eating it and the closest i found was some guy who in the description, it says, I ate the silica gel packet. I was like, oh, I found it. Click. And it was just him. He opened up one of the packets and spread it out on the table and then poured water onto it. And it started reacting exactly like pop rocks, because what it is, it's like the the beads are extremely porous you know

silica and so the water like rushes in and it literally starts like like sounds like bacon frying uh when you put it on there and then he proceeded to eat exactly one little pebble of it and that was it i was like oh come on man what are you doing no guts no glory but uh yeah i imagine that the reaction would be uh pretty uh freaky when you put it on your tongue if it starts going pop rocks on you so it might not be poisonous but it would at least uh you'd remember it you'd remember the experience boy that yeah that guy medium click baited you he did eat one but it doesn't count really uh it's not a packet back literally at one yeah yeah and because that's right silica we'll talk more about the the chemistry later but the basic

version is that it's a chemical combination of silicon and oxygen uh and then a super porous version is the one that gets put in these packets. And so, you know, it does a thing called adsorbing water, and then it can also adsorb other stuff. But the main danger is not that that will massively dehydrate your body, especially because there's just not that many pellets in a packet. Popular science says the real concern is the size of the beads of silica. It's pretty easy for a child to choke on the packet or the beads within it. They also say some beads are large enough for adults to choke on too. So you don't get mummified. It's just like you're putting very solid things that even if the fluids in your body are getting

thrown at them, they don't break down. They just take the fluids in and can choke you. Wait, wait, like it gets bigger. Like that's when it chokes. Cause it's getting the wetness in your throat and it gets bigger. Is that what you're saying? Or am I just being dramatic? Okay. No, that's a good question. It doesn't get like bigger. And that's actually part of what's freaky about it. It like has pores already that will just, uh, it's called adsorb the water and just take it in. But they won't get like 10 times as big or something, no. There's a vague possibility of dehydration if you have a ton of it. If you also inhale a bunch of silica dust, there's a lung disease called silicosis.

But again, these aren't likely with the little packets, you know. Yeah, that's a big thing in mining. It's called white lung. So there's black lung with coal. White lung is, yeah, silicosis. Because when you have to drill down through all those layers of rock to get to whatever you're mining, a lot of silica dust comes out. So that's a big thing in mining. And this is also a big thing that people mine. There are mines just to get silica it turns out silicon and oxygen are very common throughout the earth's crust and so there's just a ton of silica in

the world sand is broken down silica we're sort of surrounded by it and you don't want to breathe it in but if you're eating these packets again you're not risking that thing you're just putting it into your body instead of inhaling it yeah so sienna don't snort it yeah it's no baking soda yeah i've always wondered what they smell like but i won't i won't take them out of their little plastic enclosure in my head that's what keeps me safe from them they're in that little plastic bag and i'm like thank god they've been trapped like you know when you trap like a demon or a ghost or something. Yeah. Well, and the other other thing with all this is Discover Magazine talked to a few experts about desiccants in general.

And one kind of positive thing about silica gel is it is theoretically non-toxic. And apparently there are other desiccants that get used that are toxic. And so sometimes people have like consumed one of these, but it turns out it's not silica gel. It's a different one, such as calcium oxide. Apparently a patient with dementia consumed calcium oxide and chemically burned their mouth. There's also a chemical called cobalt chloride. You just don't want to consume desiccants in general.

And silica gel packets are one of the safer ones, which is why you see them in food so much. I don't like that there's unsafe ones. This is news to me. Yeah. I guess there's a lot of like poison talk. I hope that's not a bummer to people. But that's like the biggest thing I know about these packets is that it's a small white object that says do not eat in huge letters. And I was like, well, why?

Like, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. It's important to tell the people about poisons. Like, you know what? You can't take bleach and toilet cleaner and mix them. It will not clean your toilet faster. You will have to leave your house.

I've heard about that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Bleach and degreaser. That's uh yeah that's that's classic uh restaurant faux pas you know it's like oh i got a mop bucket i'm supposed to mop the store and you'll have bleach you'll have degreaser and if you're supposed to mop up you're like well bleach is hardcore degreaser is hardcore i'm gonna put them both in this mop bucket and then all of a sudden yeah you've uh everyone has to leave the store hungry howie's pizza 2005 only made that mistake once

i was 18 years old yeah mopping up oh boy listen sometimes we make it at 18 sometimes we make it at 28 because we go this is is intense. Time to be strong. And no, it's not. You have to go. You have to get out of there. So I think it's important to talk about poison because we got to know. Yeah. We are surrounded by industrial chemicals in life.

It's just going on. Got to know. Yeah. Very important. And yeah, and so I hope that clarifies things for people. Again, don't eat these. And Mental Floss mental floss says if nothing else there's no taste uh like they didn't have their reporter eat it but reportedly it tastes like nothing and in an unpleasant way they compared it to like postage stamps but even less enjoyable so so yeah just don't bother don't don't don't

mess with it you don't even look oh sorry no you go for it because my wrong takeaway is just that it's suspicious that he didn't taste it and they're like and don't worry it doesn't taste like anything like now i'm curious but i don't know where you're going oh no i was just gonna say they don't even trust us to lick postage stamps anymore the postage stamps are now just self-adhesive yeah true yeah they're like yeah i think yeah you know seinfeld freaked out too many people they're like uh-uh yeah you know seinfeld freaked out too many people they're like uh-uh yeah i was about to say don't you think that's seinfeld's fault they killed someone licking postage stamps well it was envelopes but i think they're just getting

out of the licking game in general on a mass scale like people don't like this anymore anyway uh what a what a world that we're all like on the verge of putting things on our tongues and in our bodies that are chemicals and don't do these what what foods have y'all seen these in because it occurs to me that like jerky and like pepperoni like cured meats seems to be like the most common thing which again back to the like the the choking hazard thing it's like those are not things that you just like dump into your face necessarily like i'd see if they had them in if they had them in doritos or something sure but it's like i don't know how many people are just guzzling down a bag of you know genoa salami yeah i've seen them in vitamins which is another

thing that you are being real slow with yeah yeah this is one of the time foods you know yeah yeah i last saw them in shoes and so there's no real choking hazard there yeah yeah i don't think people eat these accidentally very often i didn't come upon anything like that it's usually somebody's like forget the warning i'm going for it yeah yeah yeah which that that is like the youtuber mentality why did these people not film this activity you say youtuber mentality but before youtube i knew guys who were like i'm gonna snort snort a pixie stick so that always has been an energy yeah yeah matt mcclanahan yep 2003 i saw it i saw it with my own eyes yeah it wasn't a pixie stick though it was a smarties he ground down smarties and did a rail did a gate did a gator tail of smarties in journalism class nonetheless we were we weren't there for that we were supposed to be reporting on the hard-hitting issues of Auburn High School.

But he's over here cutting up, being a clown, snorting Smarties. Never has the name Smarties been more ironic. Right, folks? Weird juxtaposition. All right. Off of that, we're going to a short break, followed by the big takeaways. See you in a sec. I'm Jesse Thorne. I just don't want to leave a mess. This week on Bullseye, Dan Aykroyd talks to me about the Blues Brothers,

Ghostbusters, and his very detailed plans about how he'll spend his afterlife. I think I'm going to roam in a few places. Yes, I'm going to manifest and roam. All that and more on the next Bullseye from MaximumFun.org and NPR. Hello, teachers and faculty. This is Janet Varney. I'm here to remind you that listening to my podcast, The JV Club with Janet Varney, is part of the curriculum for the school year. Learning about the teenage years of such guests as Alison Brie, Vicki Peterson, John Hodgman,

and so many more is a valuable and enriching experience, one you have no choice but to embrace because, yes, listening is mandatory. The JV Club with Janet Varney is available every Thursday on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. And remember, no running in the halls. Well, and with the rest of this topic, there's another takeaway coming, but I want to do a whole set of fascinating numbers and statistics. That's usually the top of the show. And this week, that's in a segment called I've heard there were statistics chords that david played to math some more but you don't really count up numbers do you do do do do do do do it goes like this one two three four five six 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. And that name was submitted by Kathleen Estrada.

Thank you, Kathleen. We have a new name for this. Every week, please make a massillion whacking bad as possible. Submit to SifPod on Twitter or to sifpod at gmail.com and the the first numbers here these are all about the chemistry of silica gel packets first number is three because three is the number of atoms in silica this is going to be the most chemistry full bit turns out silica is a common name for the compound silicon dioxide which is one silicon atom and two oxygen atoms. But it's like all around us, that one compound gives us everything from the mineral

quartz to quartz ground down as sand. There's a bunch of it in the crust of the earth. There's silica gel packets around us. It's a super common chemical combination. I'm glad you explained it because you said three atoms and i was like there's no way that three atoms is the size of a silicon gel you can't see them but when they're together i was like that can't be it he's he's got to have the real answer right right it's a molecules i remember stuff yeah yeah and i couldn't find like solid estimates for it but the world economic forum says oxygen and silicon are the two most common elements on earth and the journal science says 12 of the earth's crust is made of quartz specifically which is again this compound

silica so the the main thing to know is that it's all over the world and a little bit of it gets turned into silica gel packets who's counting yeah i think like geologists but they're really guessing with a lot of the specific amounts of this because the earth is vast and yeah we can't just like put a stethoscope to it and check you know like it's it's pretty hard to figure out uh those geologists literally counting grains of sand on the beach the other number with that is less than one percent because there's a whole silica mining industry like like you're saying rivers there's white lung from breathing in too much of it but when done safely it's fine and less than 1% is the amount of silica mining that goes towards silica gel packets. Popular Science interviewed Robert Gooden of the U.S. Geological Survey. And he says there's a huge amount of industrial sand mining in the world. And over 60% of it goes into the oil and gas industry. Like they use it for fracking and for other things for those processes and then about 10 of it gets turned into glass because like sand gets heated and worked and turned into glass that's how we

get mirrors and then a tiny tiny tiny amount of that gets made into these little packets for drying out stuff people are not eating as much pepperoni as they used to you know as pepperoni rates decline silica silica industry is hurt it's weird i was just doing an episode about american cheese and we were talking about how due to the growth of pizza about a third of the cheese americans eat is just the cheese on pizza so i like that we're also thinking about the scale of pepperoni in the world that's fun it's fun to make it to it i am now getting hungry i don't i'm alex you've done it again i'm gonna go scale of pepperoni in the world that's fun it's fun to be into it i am now getting hungry i don't i'm alex you've done it again i'm gonna go buy some pepperoni and not eat the silica pack in it don't do it they said the reporter didn't taste it but he swears it's not

tasty that's right but yeah then uh if people remember the mirrors episode, we talked about how most mirrors are a silica glass substrate and then silver as a backing for reflectiveness. So there's silica like all around us. And then a very porous version with a lot of holes in it for fluids to go into gets used for the silica gel packets. Do people not use it or did they not ever use it for boobs and butts sitting here being like is it also on boobs and butts yeah this that basic like compound or things related to it are all over everything like we could tape for hours and hours about how silicon and silicone are around us. Yeah, it's just going on. Shout out boobs and butts.

Good stuff. Shout out to boobs and butts forever. And the next number here, this is a really extreme use of silica gel packets. The next number is 1898. And that's because the year 1898, more than 100 years ago, that is when a baker in England created a wedding cake that is still with us today, thanks to the magic of silica gel.

Because the Philpott Bakery in Hampshire, England, according to Atlas Obscura, they opened in 1898 and made a display wedding cake. And then they have just constantly preserved it mainly with silica gel. And it's believed to be like the oldest wedding cake in the world that we still have. Oh, oh, my God. Oh, it looks pretty foul to me. It's very beige, but it's there.

Why? Oh, my Lord. Why do this? Oh, that's awful. That is truly. Oh, don't do that to cake, man. Cake is my favorite. That's a that's a that's a crime against cake.

Yeah, it reminds me of Great Expectations. Miss Taversham. She's sitting alone in her house with her wedding cake. That's that's just that's depressing and gross. This is England, right? That's a rare rare that's a that's a rare combo depressing and gross is rare i like that and yet is england at rivers i thought of great explanations too yeah like saving wedding stuff for decades and decades in a messed up way it's just vile yeah well it makes sense with england because like they don't have anything good.

Like they like stole everything from the world and they put it in a museum and they're like, what do we got? Oh, my God. Just save this cake forever. We'll have the oldest cake. Right. And so that's what they had to do. They got to step it up. They don't have they took the obelisks.

They don't have anything. Yeah. Speaking of Egypt, like it's basically a mummy and it's being kept dry in the fashion of a mummy this cake in a way that is unnatural to me and i either you would think it would drive people away from your bakery but they're just putting it out there for everybody to see what did that explain how they have this cake like why it wasn't eaten in 1898 or they just made it to be preserved yeah they alice obscure says they made it for the window to be displayed and then i guess i guess they just like for generations now have been keeping it dried out

with a steady rotation of new silica gel because silica gel will also just fill up with moisture and then it's it runs out of room and so they're constantly replacing the silica gel on it to keep it going okay i was thinking somebody ordered it in 1898 and they might show up any day and just be like i'm here for my cake yeah mr havisham just swings through like he's got the ticket like a dry cleaner like okay ready we got married after all so uh cake yeah yeah yeah she's uh yeah she's cool she's cool now it's you know it took me 130 years but you know we did it greatest love story ever told yeah well and this this ancient cake basically uh it's also been through a lot because for example world war ii happens between 1898 and now i was just about to say this cake survived the blitz yeah apparently a bomb exploded pretty nearby and it got a crack in it, but otherwise it remained structurally sound.

And then especially since then, the owners have injected it with a glue-like substance to hold it together. So super inedible now, even beyond all the other reasons. But it survived the Blitz because it has been around since 1898 and a bomb went off nearby. It's filled with, so this is like almost like a ship of Theseus like situation. Like at what point does, this is a mound of glue. This is not a cake. This is a little less impressive now. When do we stop calling it a cake?

I feel like a cake is defined by my ability to eat it. It does not sound edible. Right. And the next number here, as far as why they're reapplying it all the time, is about one year. And about one year is the approximate shelf life of a standard little silica gel packet. I'll link a couple articles about basically life hacks you can do with silica gel packets, because I just throw them out. But people have reasonably said, hey, you can use these to keep other foods you have dry and help them last longer.

The one catch with that is that most of them apparently wear out after about a year because they either fill up or they're just not as potent anymore. So they are kind of single use that way. Like you can't use one of these forever to keep something dry. So if it goes bad in a year, like, does that mean it's just like a one-time use thing and we throw it away? Can we recycle it? Like we got, I know it's only 1% of the mines, but can we make it less? Yeah. That's part of people writing these articles. They're like, you don't need to throw it out.

You can dump it in a bag of chips and then it will keep the chips dry and help them last longer. Like that is valid, but it's just the limitation of this tiny packet is eventually it fills with moisture and it's done. And in terms of that storage, here's the next number. The next number is up to 40%. And there's a little bit of a chemistry split in hairs thing here too. But according to Discover Magazine, like whatever the weight of your silica gel is, it can hold 40% of its weight in water. So they're very good at like taking in liquid. And their description of that process, quote, Water from moist air condenses onto the solid parts of silica gel. The droplets accumulate and slowly build up enough to make contact with growing moisture deposits on nearby gel molecules. Eventually, the two merge.

And then the water molecules hold onto each other and the silica gel while filling up the internal structure of each pellet in a packet. And so that means the pouches feel dry, even though they are filling with water. So it's not like a sponge or a towel or something. It's doing a process that I'm going to try to pronounce properly. It's called adsorption, which is different from absorption. And this is a pretty arcane chunk of chemistry, but it's the specific thing that they're doing where they're taking in water and also they don't get wet like a wet towel. I get adsorbed all the time when Facebook shows you like a T-shirt. You're like, dang, I do kind of want that shirt.

And then I buy it. I throw to mid-world advertising immediately like and get adsorbed by casper casper is a mattress cut the tag off who cares uh they don't care oh that that's actually a good pitch for like a you know mattress company like we're the outlaw mattress company we'll let you take the tag off in the store we don't care we're not calling the cops we don't we're no we're no snitching mattress store just tearing it off with their teeth like it's a wrestling promo they're cutting like yeah we're crazy Watch the match. Yeah. But that, I know that's pretty arcane, but it's, it's exactly what they do. And so if you do try to use these, that's how much water they can hold is up to 40% of their own weight. Yeah. I don't know how much the, I've been sitting here. I don't know how much they weigh. I don't know how much 40% of that water is. This just seems like it's getting real complicated.

a lot water is this just seems like it's getting real complicated um yeah it's just a weirder process than i expected and it's explains why i like i never really knew what they did when i was a kid because they don't get wet so they're just almost secretly taking water out of whatever's there because they feel dry too but you would think when they fill up they would feel wet but instead they just remain looking the same and being the same to the touch as a kid you knew they did this this wetness stuff no i didn't know at all i just i was just like what's going on because they felt dry so i was like where are these dry random things i can't eat oh well chuck i wasn't add your own logic kid i was like clearly this is for if animals getting out of poison and kill immediately. And then it's over for them.

Like, I thought it was just like, you know, these guys won't hold dead. I don't think that's really necessary now. But yeah, that's what I thought. That makes about as much sense. Sure. Yeah. Some kind of trap. Like, what rat wouldn't want my beef jerky?

You know, like, gotta kill him. Right. For getting in there. Because he's already gotten in there and he's already touched it, but he deserves to die for that. It's not preventative. It's just punishment. There's one more number here. The next number is

the 1990s. Wonderful set of years. 1990s. That is the decade when... I'm setting the scene. That is the decade when silica gel crystals first got turned into cat litter. And if people have ever used crystal cat litter, not the clay kind, but the crystal kind, that is made of this basically exact same kind of stuff. It is silica gel, And instead of absorbing water, it's absorbing, you know, urine and stuff like that. Yeah, but it's stinky.

Yeah, I think it's a pretty hard task, all that urine. And yeah, according to vetstreet.com, in the 1990s, the litter industry rolled out these silica crystal kind as an alternative to clay based litter. The biggest advantage is that it is dust free. Like when I when we use our clay kind, it kicks up a lot of dust. But the crystal kind, it just is crystals and it takes it in. We had a crystal one, but then we moved to clay because the crystal is stinky. But also with do you have a do you have a house like we have a little door we have a little top so yeah so it's all mostly we have one cat who's really neat and wants to keep it on there and um one cat who doesn't know what's happening so don't say clean

he's we found her like in the sun as a baby like she doesn't know what's going on but the door is helpful i i had never owned cats until adulthood and i was shocked that both of ours knew how to use the litter i was like okay now that we have this this kitten like how much training is it going to take how how many nights am i going to be up like trying to teach it to use the bathroom and then i just knew how it was amazing i mean they're self-domesticated they they pick this life yeah and yeah yeah they get a little yeah we have two boxes and they're both like hutches with total like roofs on them and yeah it's going great for them but we do not use the crystal kind i i just like uh have honestly started using covid masks as a dust protectant as well when i'm scooping the litter it's pretty good yeah they're useful for masks for like other

stuff turns out you can you can use them all kinds of ways so masks versatile yeah i'm now i'm an advertiser for covid masks which is fine with me uh they're good you should use them yeah i don't have a promo code or anything, but do it. I thought you were going to connect them to the masks. Like germs are wet, stick it in a mask and germs, and then it's double working, but maybe germs aren't wet. There's one last takeaway for the main episode and it is about masks as well. So takeaway number two, as well. So takeaway number two. We have silica gel packets today, thanks to silica gels role in World War One gas mask technology. It turns out yet another thing they can absorb is mustard gas, which is called mustard gas, but actually it's liquid droplets vaporized in air.

So the same way they absorb, you know, like the water in a beef jerky, silica gel was used to absorb the droplets of mustard gas on the Western Front. So you're telling me I could, in fact, mix bleach and degreaser and mop a whole store with that super, super chemical. All I need is a World War I era gas mask. I had the same takeaway. I was like, you just just gotta throw some silica gel packets on the ground you saved everybody right yeah we've we've cracked it we figured it out right we're gonna win world war one today we're gonna do it yeah yeah and i'm gonna go work in a restaurant again you can make mustard gas safely at home now. I'm glad we figured it out.

What if I take that first time in the show when I said I'm not a doctor and just like kept looping it throughout the podcast? Like it's just there's just another track of that on a low volume at all times. Yeah. And this is basically the history of silica gel packets. And the key sources are a piece for Epicurious.com by Matthew Zuris, and a piece for the University of Kansas Medical Center by James Patton, because they talk about how apparently European chemists were familiar with silica gel and what it can do as a desiccant as early as the 1600s. It's been something that people were aware of, and this is just a thing you can mine. You don't have to invent it.

But during World War I, there was a crisis of chemical warfare, because in particular, the German side started using mustard gas. There had been use of chlorine gas before that, but mustard gas, the existing masks could not stop it. And mustard gas is technically a liquid in an aerosol form. It's droplets of liquid suspended in air. And it was horrible. According to the University of Kansas, chemical warfare caused less than 1% of World War I casualties, but it was very devastating it harmed a lot of people it was a psychological and health problem for everybody in the war yeah it's definitely not a way to go out yeah no and some of those like accounts from when they did unleash it is like horrifying because you can see it you know like you could see it coming towards

you and you know yeah you know bend the bend the light of the air and stuff like that so you're just like uh-oh you know it would have been uh yeah bad bad way to go yeah and yeah you could see it because often it was like a yellow or brown color and like long long ago there's an episode of this show about mustard like the delicious condiment that's good but it was this this substance was named at named mustard gas even though it's a liquid and not made from the food mustard because it looked like a gas and looked all yellowy so people were like i'm gonna call it that and i'm busy in the war i'm not gonna check if this makes sense scientifically someone smelled it they had to call poison control they're like all right it's not mustard it's not doesn't taste good

calling poison control with like a pigeon carrying a message like hey hey am i okay fly like yeah and then uh they came up with a gas mask that could effectively filter mustard gas mainly thanks to walter albert patrick who was a chemist at johns hopkins university in baltimore in the early 1910s he did doctoral research on how to produce mass quantities of silica gel industrially so then it's cheaper and then you have a lot more of it and then from there he came up with it as a filtration medium for the gas masks. And it could absorb quantities of the liquid that's in mustard gas, just like water. And so that helped protect a lot of people.

So it's really cool. I'd never heard of Walter Albert Patrick, but he, you know, did a good job. Nice. Three first names. That's crazy. Yeah. You're either a serial killer or you invent something helpful. He could do both.

You don't know. Sorry. You're dead and I don't mean to slander you, Walter Albert Patrick. I'm like, and they never caught him for his crimes till now. We're true crime now. Switch. The show is true crime. Ah.

He left a trail of mummies in his wake. Alright, now I want to see this CSI. Everyone's been mummified. CSI, over a hundred years ago, and it's only crimes from over a hundred years ago. And they just read. Very cold case well and yeah then after world war one like other industries looked into whether this gas mask silica gel could be used for other stuff and then you had the trickle down of the rest of

the use of it today like it went from there to getting used in like shoes and foods and just, just stuff we want to keep dry in such a basic way. But one of its first major uses by, by people using it industrially was world war one. So thank you. World war one. Great. So in order it went cake, world war one chips and shoes for the uses. Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. Cake first. Yeah. Chips and shoes for the uses. Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. Cake first, yeah.

Hero cake. So I assume that in the factory where they make the silica gel that everybody has to wear, you know, masks and probably, you know, like a hazmat suit. But even with all of those protections, how much water do those people have to drink every day? Yeah. You know what I mean? You're in the driest place imaginable just cotton mouth galore yeah that's not a factory tour i feel like there's high demand for uh to explore either like i don't know the kids don't want to come oh no i'm sure i'm sure in the one town that makes all of the silica gel packets that's that's what you go to like the kids are in like you know 10th grade and they're like the silica gel packet factory again it's like it's like here with griffith observatory

all the kids go you know three times a year for school except there it's uh you know in whatever oxide springs michigan or wherever they make it the griffith observatory is sick it's got big planets it's got it's got other big planets got rocks and and it's cool it's got space themed stuff and sights. I don't think they've got sights. The silica gel packet factory. Elementary school. I went all the way back. I went with my ex-boyfriend.

I went with my friends. You go. It's cool. There are murders up there, but you just don't go when there's murders. Oh, yeah. I'll think about the murders. Oh, apparently one company is called Sorbco, and it is in Port Washington, New York. So, Alex, that's your neck of the woods, bud. You got to go check it out.

I'm heading down, baby. Yeah. Check it out. Sorbco. Yeah, it's Long Island. Of course, it's Long long island of course it's long island strong island baby we make it we make this silica gel no i was gonna say you get there and they do have the most beautiful sights like maybe it is maybe it's really gorgeous around the factory i mean it yeah i keep hearing how

good montauk is i'm gonna find out like montauk is mostly that. And then also there's a beach. Oh, it's been great. All right. Well, yeah, it looks like it's got a really nice view of the Bronx from there. So there's something. See the silica gel factory. Come for the come for the silica stay for the view of the bronx this this might be too sportsy but wrigley field in chicago baseball stadium it's famous for like

seats on the buildings around it that are tall and can see into it i'd really like it if the silica gel factory had yankees seats like on top of that to look at the yankee stadium like such a good way to see the game uh also constantly you need new bottles of water for some reason don't look into it you're just thirsty probably it's probably hot yeah and and i should add they're located right on long island sound so they're really tempting fate here with uh you know, not having a flood. It's like, yeah, no, this is a good idea. We'll have all the silica gel in place with right next to the water. So they'll solve a flood.

They'll save the whole area. Yeah. Ooh. Zorb Co. Zorb Co. Get on it. Folks, that is the main episode for this week. My thanks to Sienna East for making me feel very seen in terms of my prior theory about silica gel packets. and my thanks to Rivers Langley for diving into all

kinds of things about them, as Sienna did too. Anyway, I said that's the main episode, because there is more secretly incredibly fascinating stuff available to you right now. E if you support this show on Patreon.com. Patrons get a bonus show every week where we explore one obviously incredibly fascinating story related to the main episode. This week's bonus topic is two topics. It's an astounding use of silica to make Mars more habitable, and another astounding use of silica to make Earth more habitable. Visit SIFpod.fun for that bonus show, for a library of more than nine dozen other bonus shows, and to back this entire podcast operation. And thank you for exploring silica gel packets with us. Here's one more run through the big takeaways.

Takeaway number one, silica gel packets have all those do-not-eat warnings because they're a choking hazard. Takeaway number two, we have silica gel packets today thanks to their role in World War I gas mask technology. Plus all sorts of numbers in the middle this week about everything from the chemical composition of the Earth to a weird British wedding cake. week about everything from the chemical composition of the earth to a weird British wedding cake. Those are the takeaways. Also, please follow my guests. They're great. Sienna East is part of the cast of NDND. That's on YouTube. You can just search those letters, N-D-N-D, or follow the show links. Also linking you to her website. That is SiennaEast.com. Sienna is spelled S-I-E-N-A. When you go there, you'll find Sienna's storytelling, stand-up comedy, comedy articles, and so much more. And then Rivers Langley hosts a wonderful podcast of his own. It is called The

Goods from the Woods. Search that name or follow the links. It's pop culture, deep dives on stuff, a lot of Southern stuff, and just a wonderful experience with all kinds of funny people who you're going to enjoy hearing from. Many research sources this week. Here are some key ones. I leaned on a great piece for popular science written by Bridget Reed Morawski, expert interviews done by Discover Magazine and by Women's Health Magazine. They talked to people such as USC pharmacology professor Roger Clemens. I know, he's named Roger Clemens. Beyond that, leaned on Atlas Obscura, the University of Kansas, the journal Science.

Find those and many more sources in this episode's links at sifpod.fun. And beyond all that, our theme music is Unbroken Unshaven by the Budos Band. Our show logo is by artist Burton Durand. Special thanks to Chris Souza for audio mastering on this episode. Extra, extra special thanks go to our patrons. I hope you love this week's bonus show. And thank you to all our listeners. I'm thrilled to say we will be back next week with more secretly incredibly fascinating. So how about that? Talk to you then.