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Text message warns people not to use fingernails to scratch off the coating
on scratch tickets because the coating contains a substance called
"Silver Nitro oxide" that can cause skin cancer.
The information in the warning message is untrue. The coating on scratch
tickets is made of specialized latex inks. There are no credible
references to a compound called "Silver Nitro oxide".
There are no
credible medical or scientific reports that suggest that scratch ticket
coating has been linked to skin cancer. There are no credible references
to an organization known as the "Medical Research Authority of the US".
The warning is a hoax and should not be forwarded.
The coating on scratch tickets is not made from a substance called
'silver nitro oxide'. In fact, I could not find any evidence that such a
compound even exists. There are two chemical compounds with similar
names. One is Nitrous oxide,
more commonly known as laughing gas, which has been used as an
anesthetic in medical procedures since the 1840's and is also used in
rocketry and to enhance engine power in motor racing.
The other is Nitric oxide,
a diatomic gas that plays a role as a cell signaling molecule in
mammals and is also used as an intermediate in the chemical industry.
Neither of these compounds is used to create the coating on scratch
tickets. In fact, the coating is created from specialized latex or UV
inks. A technical article about the material used in such coating published on Quora notes:
The material is known as a UV ink. Not the ink that becomes visible under UV light as is referred to on Wikipedia, but an ink that 'dries' under UV radiation.
UV inks are essentially a mixture of colored monomers and oligomers (the individual chemical units that eventually form 'polymers' ) and reaction 'photo-initiators' that become active when exposed to UV radiation. The monomers and oligomers form a viscous liquid, thus serving simultaneously as the 'pigment' and 'solvent' of a conventional ink; they do not need an organic solvent as a fluid base, and do not 'dry' in air like typical solvent-based inks. On exposure to UV light, the initiators set off the polymerization reaction, rapidly cross-linking the monomers and oligomers into a solid 'plastic' polymer, in a process known as 'curing'. This polymerization process also inspired the alternative naming of UV inks as 'latex inks'.
[.....]
The production of scratch-off tickets is a two-step process - a substrate is covered by a thick, smooth layer of UV ink coating, and then printed with a special 'scratch-off' black/silver UV ink (scratch-off inks can sometimes be solvent-based ). An optional third step could involve printing text or images over the scratch-off area, with yet another type of UV ink.
There is no mention of a chemical called silver nitro oxide being used
in these UV inks. Nor are there any credible reports that suggest a link
between inks used on scratch tickets and cancer.
Furthermore, there are no credible references to an organization known as the Medical Research Authority of the US. The closest I could find is the US based Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). But, not at all surprisingly, there is no information on the BARDA website that supports the claims in this hoax message in any way.
Scratch tickets of various types are these days just about everywhere. On any one day vast numbers of people in dozens of countries are likely to be happily scratching away, often using their fingernails as scratching tools.
Furthermore, there are no credible references to an organization known as the Medical Research Authority of the US. The closest I could find is the US based Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). But, not at all surprisingly, there is no information on the BARDA website that supports the claims in this hoax message in any way.
Scratch tickets of various types are these days just about everywhere. On any one day vast numbers of people in dozens of countries are likely to be happily scratching away, often using their fingernails as scratching tools.
So, of course, any credible link between scratch
ticket coating and cancer - even a tenuous one - would have certainly
been widely publicized by the main stream media and medical authorities.
In reality, there is nary a trace of such media or medical reports.
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