I'd like to see the 20 second reference. When holding your breath you don't exhale any oxygen. Breathing N2, you will exhale the O2 in your lungs so blood levels will drop more rapidly than holding your breath. Still, I would like to see a reference that says you will be unconscious in 20 seconds which is still far from "one or two breaths" unless you are a sloth or a whale perhaps. 20 seconds seems a very specific number.
Where I worked we had several large vessels that were filled with nitrogen. They were about 10 feet indiameter and 15 feet tall . About once a year someone had to go in and clean the inside. Thee were oxygen detectors for each vessel. Our department had to make sure they were safe. I went into them many times. I had a hand held detector for oxygen, co2, and flamable gas. The opening was a manhole about 2 feet each way. It would be very difficult to get someone out if they were passed out. The vessels were in a large room and that room had 4 oxygen detectors mounted on the walls so if the oxygen got too low an alarm would sound . Most of the time the room did not have anyone in it. Often when people did go in the room one was carring a portable oxygen meter.
There was another area where railroad cars were unloaded . They were tanker cars and had a powder in them that resembled flour. The building was open on the ends and the cars were placed in the building and large hoses hooked to the bottom of the cars. The material fell down in to blow pots that sent it to silos for storage. The area under where the cars were parked was a large room likea basement and nitrogen was used to blow the material to other areas. There should not be any excess nitorgen in the room. Normally no one was in that room. To go into it required severl people to sign off on paper work and people to stand by out side the room and the portable oxygen monitors.
Rescuers need to carry oxygen. Sometimes they are roped to harnesses so people outside the tank can pull them out.
Quote:
"According to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, in humans, "breathing an oxygen deficient atmosphere can have serious and immediate effects, including unconsciousness after only one or two breaths.
The exposed person has no warning and cannot sense that the oxygen level is too low." In the US, at least 80 people died due to accidental nitrogen asphyxiation between 1992 and 2002.[3] Hazards with inert gases and the risks of asphyxiation are well established.[4]"
It's also happened in old steel tanks where rust has depleted the O2.
I extended it to 20s because I didn't think you would believe me.
12s is what I was taught as the length of time that you have to get the normal air set on and working or get out into fresh air.Two or three breaths before you pass out is industry standard warning:
People seriously underestimate the danger and die as a result.
Sounds more like body recovery than rescue.
+1 That document is worth keeping.
Wikipedia should never be used for anything other than entertainment. The errors in the content are widely known. The reference should ALWAYS be checked. Did you do that?
I checked by going to the wayback archive. There is a safety bulletin from 2003 that says the quoted words. That bulletin does not give a citation. But I won't argue the point. Still, saying one or two breaths "can" make someone unconscious is not the same as saying it "will" make them unconscious.
My idea is not to give the general public a sick fix, there are plenty of industries to cater to that.
But when public officials who call themselves Christian deem it necessary for an execution to be carried out I expect them to stand behind their decision.
Ok, that is pretty clear. I guess I was a doubting Thomas.
Or to be fair, stand in close proximity, - they understandably might not be amenable to standing directly behind.
Yeah, not big surprise the legislators write the law such that the law says legislators aren't eligible witnesses.
If a rescuer passes out, they can be pulled to safety before any harm is done.
At work we had to have a rope and harness to go into the confined spaces to do the work. Was told it was mostly for body recovery than rescue.
Who volunteers?
Oh, it's known. The Apollo 13 astronauts had CO2 buildup, for instance.
As for 'complex', yeah, a whole human being is that. But a feedback/distress mechanism for breath regulation is not the whole human being.
The real complexity is, many persons are in the chain of events in such an execution, and at least half of them will balk at taking a life.
Legally, lawyers get a chance to shine.
Practically, if no one will sell you nitrogen, what do you do?
buy a nitrogen generator?
remember some tv program about the death penalty and how do it. The proponents of the death penalty did not like the idea of a painless and likely euphoric death from using nitrogen
Make your own? Air is nearly 80% N2. It's not hard to liquefy. It's been done for more than a century. Actually, it isn't necessary to liquefy the N2. You can liquefy the 20% O2 and use what is left, a mixture of N2 and Argon with a bit of CO2 assuming the moisture is taken out.
Seems if you want someone to suffer, you either put their face in a cage with rats, or you put them in prison. Prison is no cakewalk. I'm not sure it is better than a "humane" death. If it is, it's not by much.
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