Accidental Deaths
Accidental nitrogen asphyxiation is a possible hazard where large quantities of nitrogen are used.
Accidental nitrogen asphyxiation causes about eight deaths per year in the United States, which is asserted to be more than from any other industrial gas. For example in 1981, shortly before the launch of the first Space Shuttle mission, two technicians lost consciousness and one of them died after they entered the Orbiter aft compartment which was pressurized with pure nitrogen as a precaution against fire.
A laboratory assistant died in Scotland in 1999, apparently from asphyxiation, after liquid nitrogen spilled in a basement storage room.
Read more about this topic: Nitrogen Asphyxiation
Famous quotes containing the words accidental and/or deaths:
“Of your philosophy you make no use
If you give place to accidental evils.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“There is the guilt all soldiers feel for having broken the taboo against killing, a guilt as old as war itself. Add to this the soldier’s sense of shame for having fought in actions that resulted, indirectly or directly, in the deaths of civilians. Then pile on top of that an attitude of social opprobrium, an attitude that made the fighting man feel personally morally responsible for the war, and you get your proverbial walking time bomb.”
—Philip Caputo (b. 1941)