The residue created in this process contains Urea fomaldahyde, which is a known carcinogen, and Red phosphorus, which can be potentially harmful. The smoke you see is the red phosphorus vapourising caused by the heat produced through friction. However, it should be pointed out that red phosphorus can revert to white phoshorus under frictional heat. White phosphorus is highly toxic!
Formaldahyde is used for embalming. It changes cell structure permanently. It's ok for dead people but not for the living.
Cell deformity can cause cancer. If you have to try this experiment please wear latex gloves.

Your really effin smart lol

I never really thought that I am smart, most people usually have the opposite opinion of me. But it's nice to be appreciated from time to time. You're really so kind!

thanks for letting us know good trick tho

For a character from "Idiocracy".
Stupid is as Stupid does. lol

read the subject

Plenty of things do cause cancer,. Carcinogens are everywhere, little free radicals and chemicals lurking around just waiting to change a tiny part of one of your DNA chains. But most carcinogens are man-made and we can avoid over exposure to them, which is why I wrote a warning to this impressive 'smoking fingers' trick. Your fingers aren't going to rot and fall off, but that brain tumor or Hodgkins desease that you might die of has to come from somewhere. Let's hope it doesn't happen.

this goes to prove that smoking is bad for you.

after watching the vid i wanted to try it out but upon reading your comment i dont feel like to do anymore

thanks

The red phosphorus on the side of the matchbox evaporates because of the heat,
and when the vapors condensate on the cold tap, they convert into white phosphorus,
which is indeed highly toxic, especially if you rub it into your skin. :P

Wha the fuck is up wit the tarzan music ??? lol

you could cut those nails before the next video

But thanx for noticing.

haha XD

I thought I was the only one who would comment on the nails...:-P

But hey shanuea, learn the lesson - try to be smarter by knowing what you are actually doing before you try to be smart with some fancy "discoveries" - or at least you should put a toxic sign on the video.

Man, people like you make peoples day funny, good for u bud

smells like bigfoots dick and it sux to try to get it off ur fingers

Ever smelled Bigfoot's dick? If you have, I don't remember you. Oh, yeah. You were that lost hiker who needed money for a phone call. Very bad BJ. But what did I expect for a quarter? I'm hurt you don't like our spodie.

Looks like an awful lot of wasted water to me

Do you know those envelopes that are self sticking? The ones with a coating on each flap that doesn't feel sticky but they stick to each other. When you peel one open in a dark room you get this faint blue neon glow as the glue adhesive seperates. Thought you might be interested

You can also do that with bandages. Open it in the dark and you can see a faint green-blue neon color/glow also

Yes, I often put bandages on in the dark too. Sometimes they look a right mess when I switch the light on, sometimes completely missing the wound or even getting the wrong limb! :)

same thing happens with gaff tape in the dark, peel it off the role and it glows or sparks or whatever

with a sugar cube, squeeze it with pliers and it will glow, and when i breaks it will have a flash!

with wintergreen life savers, the wintergreen life savers will spark in the dark when you chomp them. It has to do with the mint oil or something.

but I don't know what chemical is involved in there.
All I know is that it doesn't work with all kind of auto-adhesive enveloppes...
Whatever, it's cool !

would you open an eenvelope in the dark?

Unfortunately I have no answer! God knows why I was opening an envelope in the dark. Maybe I didn't want to read it. Maybe I'm not as normal as I thought.

Do the smart asses who have no idea what experimentation is get the plus comments, but the logical people who know that it's for interesting experiments/general knowledge seem to get negative to their comments? Is this site governed by a million internet trolls? 0_o

Why yes, yes it is. :)

the figure was 3 quarters of a million internet trolls run this sight. I think there's a few Goblins too but nobody seems to care about them

.

mmhmm

Because it's just a cool thing to do. You get to see a glow... Besides that there is no point

Id like to try that..

I tried this trick and once the residue was on my finger I didnt rub them together for about 20 minutes. It still worked like a charm.

Maybe about 10 minutes, but thats just a guess.. anyone else know???

i would say 11 mins.. just to be on the safe side.

it doesnt hurt, and i think you should wait for it to start drying, but it works pretty much straight away.

The fumes it creates when burning is probably not good to inhale. But I dont think having a small amount on your finger then washing it off straight away is harmful.

I though it was save the cheerleader, save the world har har. (snort)

why not just put the plug in the drain?

Say, if he bathed in it afterward that would be putting the water to good use. If you plug the drain and then pull it right afterward, the water is still essentially wasted. Waste later is still waste.

Just a suggestion btw, not any judgement.

If you read my post near the top you will see that the residue contains red phosphorous. This isn't toxic, the smoke you see is red phosphorous vapourising due to heat. There are other nasty chemicals in this residue, mainly Urea formaldahyde which is a toxic resin used as a binder in this compound and will be left on the skin. White phosphorous is highly toxic and at some stage, when heated, red phosphorous can turn into white phosphorous. It's an impressive trick however.