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it's not iron filings.  they rust, primarily turning to red ferrous oxides
which are not magnetic.  black sand is usually magnetite, which really
doesn't oxidize further.

----
Earl Stirling
Swiss Army Knife
e x p l  O  r a t o r i u m
3601 Lyon St
San Francisco CA 94123
+1.415.353.0401


On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 11:24 PM, Suzanne Mallery <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
>
> *****************************************************************************
>
> I assume the sand just has iron filings in it?  If so, you can find the
> MSDS
> for iron filings by doing a search on those words.  It seems like the main
> difference between sand boxes and this type of exhibit is that you're
> presumably encouraging people to use a magnet to concentrate the iron
> filings.  Technically iron filings are somewhat toxic if ingested or
> inhaled, although the doses seem to be a bit uncertain.  If a very little
> kid swallowed or inhaled a lot of filings they might be able to do some
> damage, but that seems fairly unlikely.  The MSDS describes them as
> "slightly hazardous" if inhaled or ingested or with eye or skin contact
> (the
> eye and skin contact is just from the potential for mechanical abrasion,
> but
>  I'm not sure that's really much different from regular old sand).
>
> Suzanne Mallery
>
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