Antifreeze is EXTREMELY toxic. I recently saw a show on TV about a murder trail where a woman died from anti-freeze poisoning. Anti-freeze can kill in VERY small doses. It is
definitely not something to take any kind of chances with. One of the scariest things about anti-freeze is that it takes a day to kill you and you have no idea you have been poisoned until it's too late. Don't ever
play with antifreeze... and keep it away from your pets too. Thousands of dogs and cats die each year due to drinking carelessly spilled antifreeze in the street.
Let's analyze the situation:
Normally, You heat the water to near the boiling
point and
drop the dry ice in. Along with turning to
fog the dry ice also cools the water down. The water can freeze if the water is not hot enough initially or if your ice to water ratio is too high on ice. In theory the anti-freeze would keep the water from freezing and keep the dry ice
fog lasting longer. However since the water would still be extremely cold I doubt you will see any
fog at these temperatures. The other possible purpose for the anti-freeze would be to allow you to raise the temperature of the water above the boiling
point... and this is where things get VERY dangerous. Fortunately most
fog machines will have a
safety shutoff around 190-200 degrees preventing any sort of high temperatures anyway (and thus preventing any benefit to using Antifreeze in the first place).
If you had a
fog machine that would allow you to super heat the antifreeze rich water things get very dangerous:
1) What sort of fumes does the anti-freeze give off when it is in high temperature water? Will these fumes KILL YOU? Do you absolutely
KNOW you are safe or are you guessing?
2) What happens when the dry ice sublimates to
fog? Will it take particles of anti-freeze with it in the
fog and KILL YOU? Do you absolutely
KNOW you are safe or are you guessing?
3) Is your
fog machine designed to handle water above the boiling temperature?... or will it fall apart and pour super heated water all over the
stage giving everyone 3rd degree burns? Do you absolutely
KNOW you are safe or are you guessing?
There are just far too many dangers involved to make it worth trying. DON'T DO IT. As a
stage technician it is your job to absolutely 100%
KNOW that everyone in the cast, crew, and audience will be safe. If you don't
KNOW, the answer is always NO. We don't take chances with the
safety of anyone.
Get a good
fog machine and follow the instructions and you'll have PLENTY of
fog without endangering anyone.
With that I'm going to close this thread. This isn't rigging or electricity but it's a
very dangerous topic and against the spirit of the TOS. Again, DON'T DO IT...
EDIT: Oops looks like while I was typing Phil
beat me to closing the thread.