Safe to use Glycerin Fog Machine filming with kids
- Thread starter ph2003
- Start date
roxics
Veteran
Honestly no. But I have been vaping since 2009 and the fundamentals of vaporizers and fog machines are the same. Both typically use propylene glycol (PG) or glycerin (VG). Fog machines mix with water to my understanding.
VG tends to produce more vapor (fog) and some people do have allergies to PG so they use VG instead or at least bias toward it in their mix. That said PG is used in other things like medical inhalers so it's generally deemed safe.
Personally I bias toward PG myself because I have more of a negative reaction to VG. it will be different for different people.
VG tends to produce more vapor (fog) and some people do have allergies to PG so they use VG instead or at least bias toward it in their mix. That said PG is used in other things like medical inhalers so it's generally deemed safe.
Personally I bias toward PG myself because I have more of a negative reaction to VG. it will be different for different people.
I would check the MSDS for the product you are using. Different machines use different formulations. Some are glycol based and others are mineral oil based. Also if you can get it dry ice would make for better cooling to keep the output low than oridinary ice. Also make sure yiou are usung it in a well ventilated area. I would not use it with a child in a small enclosed area such as a garage or small room. Dry ice lowered into water was one of the original methods of producing ground fogs, and even that had its dangers as the CO2 fog produced would eliminate all 02 in its area and could become a hazard if an actor were to lay down and be covered by it. Most modern large volume fog generators use tanks of liquid CO2 or Nitrogen as a coolant for the fog.
cyvideo
Veteran
A water based Hazer like the DF-50 Diffusion Hazer is the safest to use as it meets OSHA standards. If you can hire one of those from your local film hire outfit I'm pretty sure you would be fine. I've used them on a number of shoots and the haze is much nicer than foggers in my opinion for delivering a nice long lasting effect. A real Hollywood standard. No heat up time required either. Like always though check your local municipality health regulations to be 100% sure.
https://lightsguide.com/best-haze-machines/#DF50
Chris Young
https://lightsguide.com/best-haze-machines/#DF50
Chris Young
Except the OP was looking for a ground fog effect, not haze. two completely different things.
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
I would not worry about the fog from a general exposure basis but there are a couple of safety issues that could come up. First as was pointed out dry ice will give you a fog with CO2 in it. As long as peoples heads are above the fog you are fine so that would be my child warning. Little ones crawling around in it would be very problematic. The other "danger" is that CO2 fog is literally fog, it's water condensing because of the cold. As we found in a big battle scene on a stage glycerine fog kind of floats on the CO2 fog that condenses on the stage floor making it very slippery. Not a huge deal if you know in advance.