Need help with sodium acetate

[siggma]

Hey, so im working on this project for school and the main idea is to heat up water (or any drink) using chemicals. I was wondering if anyone knows if it would be safe to put sodium acetate (in powder form) into a tea bag and then put it in drinks to warm them up? If this is not safe does anyone know of any alternative chemicals that would work?

 

Thanks

Edited February 3, 2011 by siggma

[Horza2002]

Sodium acetagte is used in the handwarmer where you crack them and they get warm. Sodium acetate itself pretty much harmless...However, in order for it to act like as in handwarms, it needs to be a supersaturated solution, so a tea bag won't be any good because water will leak into it and will just turn it into a solution. You would be best to find some small plastic packages that you could put the supersaturated solution in like ice cubes.