[Corvettaholic]

Are matchheads mostly red phosphorus, sulphur, or both? When I was in basic training, we would eat/lick a couple matchheads from our MRE's, and supposedly when we started sweating (which was often in missouri) it would keep bugs away. Will your body sweat out stuff like that and act as a natural bug repellant, or was it all psychological?

[Limpet Chicken]

Strike anywhere matches are a mixture of phosphorus sesquisulfide, sulfur and either a chlorate (or more probably) a perchlorate salt, the potassium salt I think.

The safety matches are similar, the red phosphorus is on the striking pad, i'm not too sure of the composition on the heads, but there is often some sulfide of antimony in there I believe.