4 ms·

> No one has died or even hurt themselves, not ever, inhaling the nitrous from whipped creme Sadly, not true (though it's rare) https://www.yourerie.com/news/l

> No one has died or even hurt themselves, not ever, inhaling the nitrous from whipped creme Sadly, not true (though it's rare) https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/centre-county-coroner-releases-official-autopsy-results-of-17-year-old-cathedral-prep-student-jack-schoenig/ https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/centre-county-coron...

Maursault 4y ago
> The autopsy shows that Schoenig died from asphyxiation Something doesn't add up. When you pass out from holding your breath, you automatically start breathing again. What must have happened is there was so much nitrous being used, and not enough ventilation, and the nitrous displaced the air on the floor. So he passed out, fell down, and when he would have started breathing again normally, there was no air on the floor to breathe. No one thought to open a door to let the nitrous escape, so the CPR was in vain if there was no air to get into his lungs. Then his friends cleaned up all the empty whippets before the police arrived, and got their story straight: "he did one whippet, and just died," when there was probably hundreds of whippets being released in an enclosed space, pushing the air off the floor and creating a zone of asphyxiation. So I suspect this is precisely what I described in my post, asphyxiation from displaced air on the floor. The nitrous itself did not hurt him, it just made him pass out because there was no oxygen in his lungs when he was holding in the nitrous. What killed him was asphyxiation, not toxicity to nitrous. Decades ago, 2 kids died this way in a pickup truck. They even had the windows open, but the nitrous displaced the air along the floor, they passed out and folded over, with heads below the door-windows, and asphyxiated. More recently but still years ago, a high school boy and girl died together the same way crawling under a large advertising helium balloon to hear their voices sound funny... but there was no air under there, so they asphyxiated. The helium itself did not kill them, it is inert. The lack of air causes asphyxiation, and that is what it is fatal. So, again, nitrous itself will not hurt you, has never hurt anyone ever, but because it is heavier than air, it displaces the air, and in an enclosed space it will push out all the air, and death by asphyxiation occurs.
- cantSpellSober 4y ago
  Yep, but "doing whippets is dangerous" is the big takeaway. I'm not sure what the answer is, but this seems like a strange move for a state that just legalized cannabis.
- eth0up 4y ago
  The term is Inert Gas Asphyxiation, pretty much as you described. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation -- Approved by Exit International as a reasonably high quality method of permanently checking out See also the 3.19.1981 Columbia incident: https://www.wired.com/2009/03/march-19-1981-shuttle-columbias-first-fatalities/ https://www.wired.com/2009/03/march-19-1981-shuttle-columbia... Edit: to clarify that I'm not disagreeing with anything you've written nor am I attempting pedantry. Just adding a bit.
  - Maursault 4y ago
    Thanks for the links and the nomenclature. Not a bad way to go, but it's always so sad because these kinds of fatalities always seem to have been avoidable.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - yarg 4y ago
    There's a lake with a history of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos#1986_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos#1986_disaster Apparently, it was known (or believed) by the locals to house an evil spirit.

Maursault 4y ago

> The autopsy shows that Schoenig died from asphyxiation Something doesn't add up. When you pass out from holding your breath, you automatically start breathing again. What must have happened is there was so much nitrous being used, and not enough ventilation, and the nitrous displaced the air on the floor. So he passed out, fell down, and when he would have started breathing again normally, there was no air on the floor to breathe. No one thought to open a door to let the nitrous escape, so the CPR was in vain if there was no air to get into his lungs. Then his friends cleaned up all the empty whippets before the police arrived, and got their story straight: "he did one whippet, and just died," when there was probably hundreds of whippets being released in an enclosed space, pushing the air off the floor and creating a zone of asphyxiation. So I suspect this is precisely what I described in my post, asphyxiation from displaced air on the floor. The nitrous itself did not hurt him, it just made him pass out because there was no oxygen in his lungs when he was holding in the nitrous. What killed him was asphyxiation, not toxicity to nitrous. Decades ago, 2 kids died this way in a pickup truck. They even had the windows open, but the nitrous displaced the air along the floor, they passed out and folded over, with heads below the door-windows, and asphyxiated. More recently but still years ago, a high school boy and girl died together the same way crawling under a large advertising helium balloon to hear their voices sound funny... but there was no air under there, so they asphyxiated. The helium itself did not kill them, it is inert. The lack of air causes asphyxiation, and that is what it is fatal. So, again, nitrous itself will not hurt you, has never hurt anyone ever, but because it is heavier than air, it displaces the air, and in an enclosed space it will push out all the air, and death by asphyxiation occurs.

cantSpellSober 4y ago
Yep, but "doing whippets is dangerous" is the big takeaway. I'm not sure what the answer is, but this seems like a strange move for a state that just legalized cannabis.
eth0up 4y ago
The term is Inert Gas Asphyxiation, pretty much as you described. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation -- Approved by Exit International as a reasonably high quality method of permanently checking out See also the 3.19.1981 Columbia incident: https://www.wired.com/2009/03/march-19-1981-shuttle-columbias-first-fatalities/ https://www.wired.com/2009/03/march-19-1981-shuttle-columbia... Edit: to clarify that I'm not disagreeing with anything you've written nor am I attempting pedantry. Just adding a bit.
- Maursault 4y ago
  Thanks for the links and the nomenclature. Not a bad way to go, but it's always so sad because these kinds of fatalities always seem to have been avoidable.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- yarg 4y ago
  There's a lake with a history of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos#1986_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos#1986_disaster Apparently, it was known (or believed) by the locals to house an evil spirit.