- The skin-allergy warning on the product comes from its resins. Ytterbium fluoride is not listed as a skin irritant or sensitizer; it is rated a mild eye irritant, the same as our SDS says for IMS crystals.
- Ytterbium fluoride, swallowed, in rats: LD50 above 5,000 mg/kg. For scale, table salt is about 3,000 mg/kg.
- “Once properly mixed and/or cured, the product is safe for its intended use.”
Safety
Inert crystals. Ordinary care.
IMS crystalline taggants are solid-state solutions of rare-earth oxides, halides or oxysulfides. As our Safety Data Sheet outlines, they are inert and inorganic. Here is what that means, how the materials are regulated, and where the same chemistry is already in use.
InertClassified as an inert solid in the IMAT-D Family SDS
InsolubleDoes not dissolve in water
2,410 °CMelting point. Noncombustible
Not listedas a carcinogen by ACGIH, IARC, NTP or California Prop 65
What they are
One family. Hundreds of recipes.
Each crystal is a host, such as yttrium or gadolinium oxide, with a small amount of another rare earth built into it. That small amount is the dopant. Add a little more erbium, or a little less ytterbium, and the crystal glows a different color or answers a different laser.
Hundreds of these variations exist. The regulatory treatment of materials like these has been discussed for many years, because a change in dopant changes how the product performs, but it does not change its environmental or health characteristics.
IMS’s oxide crystals fall under one family: IMAT-D.
The ruby test
A ruby is a doped oxide, too.
A ruby is aluminum oxide with a trace of chromium. A sapphire is the same aluminum oxide with a trace of iron and titanium. The trace element changes the color. It does not change what the stone is.
Rubies are about as inert as a material gets. You still would not eat a spoonful of rubies or rub them in your eyes. Our crystals are the same: inert, and handled with ordinary care.
Already in use
In dental fillings for years.
Ytterbium fluoride, a rare-earth halide closely related to our crystals, is mixed into tooth-colored fillings. The fillings are clear resins cured with light, so on their own they would not show on an X-ray. Ytterbium fluoride is X-ray opaque, so the dentist can see the filling.
These fillings are placed in patients’ teeth, and they are often filed and polished down in the mouth, where the dust is swallowed.
Related materials have also been used in pharmaceutical and food packaging for more than 20 years, primarily in indirect food contact.
- The only hazardous components listed are the dimethacrylate resins.
- “No hazards anticipated from swallowing small amounts incidentally to normal handling.”
Regulation
Regulated by what they are made of.
The global consensus, including under the EU’s REACH regulation, appears to be to treat these materials as solid-state solutions of the inorganic oxides, oxysulfides, fluorides or other compounds that make up the final product.
In practice, a new dopant recipe is handled through the oxides it is made from, not as a new chemical. Each ingredient oxide in the IMAT-D family has its own CAS and EC (EINECS) number, listed in Section 3 of our Safety Data Sheet.
Handling
Treat it like any fine powder.
EyesWear safety glasses. The powder can cause mild eye irritation; if it gets in, flush with water for 15 minutes.
SkinWear gloves. Dust can cause mechanical irritation; wash with soap and water.
AirKeep dust down and the area ventilated. Avoid breathing the powder.
MouthDo not eat it. Wash your hands after handling.
Always follow the Safety Data Sheet when handling these materials. This page is a summary; the SDS is the controlling document.
Need the Safety Data Sheet?
Ask for the IMAT-D Family SDS, or for a specific crystal, and we will send it.
Request the SDS →