Slime – anti-stress or danger? How the children’s favorite can harm the body

In any Russian school – be it in Moscow or a small town in the region – one of the popular forms of entertainment among teenagers besides smartphones are slimes. What are they? They used to be better known as lickers. Toys made of viscous liquid that can be crumpled, pulled, thrown, poked with fingers, left to spread out on the table and then re-shaped.

What is a slime and what is it for?

If directly translated from English, slime is slime. But not the classic nasty slime, like, for example, jellyfish. It is quite non-classical, possessing the properties of non-Newtonian liquid, which can hold on vertical surfaces and does not leave traces. It’s also silky, soft and pleasant to the touch.

You can do almost anything you want with slime lizzies. True, if you pull them too hard in different directions, they can tear. But if the slime is made correctly, this rarely happens. What’s a little anti-stress? Poke your finger, throw it on the wall, hit it with your fist – let off steam and calm down.

Lizuns can be used as a dust collector. This is generally a natural process for such a toy, but many people use them to collect dust purposefully – clean the surface of the table or keyboard. Of course, after such manipulations, slimes do not live long.

Children mostly just crumple, pull or simply stroke the slimes. But most importantly, they can make them with their own hands.

Where did slimes come from?

Slimes were born in 1976. The first lizard was bright green in color, because it consisted of guar gum. But they never became popular in the 20th century. Whether because the Internet and advertising technologies were not so developed, or people were less stressed.

In the XXI century, slimes have experienced a real boom. Today they can be made from the most common ingredients: water, PVA glue, sodium tetraborate, boric acid, contact lens solutions. You can use toothpaste, shampoo, liquid soap, glitter, starch, salt, even oil and hand cream! Home chemical experiments sometimes result in masterpieces.

Among teenagers and adults there are real masters who make slimes and earn money from it. And anything you can make money from is popular these days. Sold and ready-made kits for slimes, but, as already mentioned, you can use and those components that are at hand.

Slimes come in different types: fluffy, batters, glitter, galaxy, iceberg and all sorts of others. Some are beautifully shiny, others resemble butter – they literally can be smeared, the distinctive feature of the third is the crust on the surface.

Are slimes safe?

Manufacturers of slimes put on the packages labeled “safe for use”.
And this is indeed true. If you do not take slimes in your mouth, do not bite them and do not try to “squeeze” out of them all the inside.

But such toys have one peculiarity. As an activator – a necessary component to create a slime – usually used compositions containing boron. And this can lead to contact dermatitis on the hands and not only. Perhaps such a problem occurs in those who are prone to allergies in any of their manifestations.

To say that slimes are absolutely safe or, on the contrary, pose a danger to children and adults is hardly possible. The truth, as usual, in the middle. After all, on any goods, especially those related to toys, indicated the permissible age and precautions. If everything is observed, there will be no danger. And compliance with all the measures is the responsibility of adults.