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Last month the popularity of DIY slime had craft stores across the country sold out of Elmer’s glue.
But the trendy art project has a dark side, which one young Massachusetts girl discovered the hard way.
Kathleen Quinn was making the DIY project at a sleepover, and later woke up with a sharp pain in her hands. She said they felt “really hot and tingly” and before long they were covered in blisters.
Her parents rushed her to a local hospital where they discovered that their daughter had second- and third-degree burns from the concoction of borax, water and glue.
The burns were from extended exposure to borax, a key ingredient in the slime. Alarmingly, a scan of a collection of slime recipes showed no warning against the use of borax, though one did suggest liquid starch in case you “did not want to deal with” borax.
Kathleen’s mother said she was thrilled at first to see her 11-year-old daughter focusing her attention on something other than her electronics and social media. “She was being a little scientist,” she told ABC 7.
She knew plenty of other moms who were doing the same arts and crafts project with their children, and no one had ever seen that sort of reaction before. And to be fair, information on borax is pretty confusing.
Technically, it’s rated as non-carcinogenic and a mild skin irritant – and EWG’s Skin Deep Database lists it as a moderate hazard. The high alkalinity of borax is likely what causes skin irritation, but that still only puts it at about the same level as baking soda.
Bottom line is, “Unicorn poop” slime may be mesmerizing, but it’s safe to say it resulted in a less than magical experience for Kathleen, who missed a week of school due to the burns and is sleeping with her hands in splints.
If you’re still in the mood for slime, perhaps seek out a safer alternative to borax, like the blog MomDot recommends, or just leave it up to the professionals at Nickelodeon.
