Asphyxiant Gas - Asphyxia Hazard

Asphyxia Hazard

Asphyxiant gases in the breathing air are normally not hazardous. Only where elevated concentrations of asphyxiant gases displace the normal oxygen concentration a hazard exists. Examples are:

• Environmental gas displacement
  • Confined spaces, combined with accidental gas leaks, such as mines, submarines, refrigerators, or other confined spaces
  • Fire extinguisher systems that flood spaces with inert gases, such as computer data centers and sealed vaults
  • Large-scale natural release of gas, such as during the Lake Nyos disaster in which volcanically-released carbon dioxide killed 1,800 people.
  • Release of helium boiled off by the energy released in a magnet quench such as the Large Hadron Collider or a magnetic resonance imaging machine.
• Direct administration of gas
  • Exclusive administration, such as inhaling the contents of a balloon filled with helium
  • Inadvertent administration of asphyxiant gas in respirators
  • Use in suicide and erotic asphyxiation
  • Execution in gas chambers
• Contained gas environment
  • Climbing inside an inflatable balloon filled with helium