It's real simple- make sure you have airflow in, and airflow out. The only way it would be really dangerous over short term and limited use would be to a VERY confused drug addict who stuck it in thier pipe. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> As I said in my first post to this thread, don't let it get into your food, either the fuel, the residue, or contained fumes, and you'll be fine.

MSDS at Zen Stoves for triox.

Basically, the concern is becuase one of the ingrediants in triox is metaformelahyde. It IS cancerous, and it can cause liver or kidney damage, but you'd have to eat a triox bar for it to have a statistically significant risk. (And you'd get really, really sick from some of the other stuff in there before the liver and kidney damage killed you.) You suck in more metaformeldahyde mowing your lawn. Your kids get more exposure from the exhaust filtering up through the floor of thier school bus. You'd really have to depend on it for years to cook every meal before you say an increase in exposure that you can blame on the trioxe if you use it properly.

Short term, it is a skin irritant. Handle it as little a possible, don't chew on it, and keep it out of your eyes. Don't expose it to strong oxidizers, like strong hydrogen peroxide or potassium permanginate solutions, or to strong acids, as it may spontanously combust.

Long term, it isn't made for long term use. Try not to suck in the fumes, but if you do, it is honestly in the car with bad exhaust catagory.

If you are worried about everything in your kit that could be toxic, you'll have no kit. You can drown in two inches of water. You can choke to death on a survival ration. You can smoother under a survival blanket. Just be smart about your gear. And make sure your kids know it isn't a toy, teach them how to either use it or don't touch it.

PS, by contrast, hexamine tabs not only contain paraformeldahyde and thus release formeldahyde fumes when burn, the same as triox, they also release ammonia. That it does so is part of why hexi is twice as hot as triox.

THERE IS NO WAY to make a long term, shelf stable, solid fuel that isn't based on organic beeswax and organic sawdust that is going to be free of these. Oh, and the organic beeswax probably will have some ammonia in it (bee pee), and if the organic sawdust is from an evergreen or ceder it will have some kind of formeldahyde-family compound in it (scares off the bugs). That's the long, short and blunt of it.