It is safe to touch it. But touching it will make it stick to your hand, so make sure you wash your hands before you eat anything..
Subsequently, one may also ask, is thermal paste toxic to skin?
Not only what you mentioned, thermal pastes (some of them at least) are toxic - avoiding skin contact is healthy. Isopropyl alcohol, rubbing alcohol, is probably the best solution to this problem. You're already going to be using it to remove thermal paste and its relatively non-toxic for topical use.
is thermal paste carcinogenic? long term it acts as a carcinogen (well, long term as in more than 4 hours). The place you bought the thermal paste should have warned you about the dangers, they apply for that special toxic disposal permit for a reason. This is all 100% true and you are going to get cancer.
Beside above, is thermal paste toxic?
heres a serious answer I googled: I wouldn't recommend eating it but even the entire tube of thermal paste likely won't have any adverse effects on you. The components normally used in thermal gels are not all that toxic, the worst likely being gallium and Aluminum, which is considered to have a low toxicity level.
How do you clean off thermal paste?
Wipe away most of the thermal paste that you can and then use 99% Pure IPA to clean away any residue. Avoid using rubbing alcohol, which is just 70% IPA. I like to use KimWipes as they leave very little lint.
Related Question Answers
Can I touch thermal paste?
anytime I remove a heatsink I clean out the old paste and add new paste to it. As far as touching it, as long as you didnt really remove any, that shouldnt cause any problems.What is thermal paste made of?
Thermal grease consists of a polymerizable liquid matrix and large volume fractions of electrically insulating, but thermally conductive filler. Typical matrix materials are epoxies, silicones, urethanes, and acrylates; solvent-based systems, hot-melt adhesives, and pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes are also available.What is thermal paste used for?
Thermal paste is a very high heat conductive paste that is used between two objects (usually a heatsink and a CPU/GPU) to get better heat conduction. It fills in all those microscopic imperfections on the heatsink and CPU/GPU that can trap air in them and cause a loss in the heatsink's performance.Do I need to clean old thermal paste?
You should clean leftover pieces of old thermal paste from cpu. You can use pre-applied thermal paste on new cooler. Or, if you choose, you can also clean it and use your custom thermal paste (if you have it).Can you apply too much thermal paste?
The point of thermal paste is to provide a medium to increase the thermal conductivity between your CPU and the base of the heatsink. If you put too much, it actually acts as an insulator, which is the exact opposite of what you want. In the worse case scenario, you can overheat and damage components.Can I use rubbing alcohol to remove thermal paste?
2 Answers. Regular 'rubbing' alcohol, often shown as 71% or less, doesn't remove thermal paste very well, it also contains other items, such as water, which could cause corrosion if not completely cleaned up. Rubbing alcohol designated 90% or higher can be used.Can I use alcohol wipes to clean thermal paste?
You can use isopropyl alcohol to remove remaining thermal paste from a CPU surface, but you want to make sure you are using a lint free cloth/paper to do this. You can use isopropyl alcohol to remove remaining thermal paste from a CPU surface, but you want to make sure you are using a lint free cloth/paper to do this.Can I use nail polish remover to clean thermal paste?
Isopropyl alcohol would work well, even in 91% concentration a Nail polish remover contains acetone but also a bunch of other stuff you don't want as a residue on your heatsink. It's better to use 91% IPA even if it is 9% water by volume, dry it off gently and dust off lint after removing the old paste.Can you use hydrogen peroxide to clean thermal paste?
Hydrogen peroxide is good for killing organic stuff(which is why it hurts when you put it on a cut) but it probably won't do much more than water in this situation. Isopropyl alcohol is like $. 50/bottle and it'll clean better than H2O2 will(and it'll evaporate a lot faster).Does thermal paste expire?
It depending on the solvents used in the making of the compound which may dry over the years, and not the thermal paste. This is not a reason to get stressed as the paste is still going to do its job, even when the inner substances are dry! So, there is no reason to replace the dried thermal compound.Do I need to replace thermal paste after removing heatsink?
Yes, clean the old stuff off the chip and the heatsink and then reapply. Yes. The reason is that when you remove the heatsink, the seal between the chip and heatsink is broken that was previously made by the thermal paste. The old thermal paste will not be able to conduct as much heat as the new paste. 
