Drowning While Breathing
This is a rather morbid post, but I recently was alerted to a fatality that occurred at one of our contractor’s fabrication yard, and it proves to be a most peculiar way to die.
A man went into a narrow shaft to inspect a pipe fitting, and he never returned. When he was noticed missing, he was found dead from asphyxiation. Death by asphyxiation (lack of oxygen to the bloodstream) is usually associated with drowning, strangling, or suffocation… but it can also occur to a person who is standing, walking and breathing.
All it takes is for the oxygen in the air to be displaced. In the case of this guy, he went down to check a pipe, but the chamber that he was in was being prepped for welding. Before welding a line or pipe, it is often purged with an inert gas (Argon in this case) to insure that all flammable products are cleared from the line. The worker had no idea that the chamber was filled with Argon. Argon is non-toxic, so when he descended down the ladder to the chamber he would not have noticed anything was awry. But since Argon is denser than air, the body was being deprived of oxygen. So in this case, and in many others, the worker goes about his work unaware that anything is awry. By the time you realize that something is wrong, it is too late. You collapse and drown in Argon.
Now that I think about it, a similar thing happens in the ‘natural world’. Dead zones are growing in certain parts of our oceans, and one of the largest is in the Gulf of Mexico. The gulf which is a relatively warm and salty is the depository for one of the US’s largest rivers, the Mississippi. An interesting thing happens when Mississippi freshwater meets the salt water of the Gulf. The fertilizers used in farming along the Mississippi are carried along the river and into the sea, where the chemicals in the freshwater soak up all the oxygen and nutrients in the sea water. Because freshwater is denser than saltwater, it sits on top and acts like a ceiling to the fish and organisms that may try and escape it. So they end up ‘drowning’ underwater. It is actually a fairly large problem, but it is the consequence of our dependence on fertilizers.
Interesting world we live in. Sorry for such a random return to blogging, but it was on my mind.
A man went into a narrow shaft to inspect a pipe fitting, and he never returned. When he was noticed missing, he was found dead from asphyxiation. Death by asphyxiation (lack of oxygen to the bloodstream) is usually associated with drowning, strangling, or suffocation… but it can also occur to a person who is standing, walking and breathing.
All it takes is for the oxygen in the air to be displaced. In the case of this guy, he went down to check a pipe, but the chamber that he was in was being prepped for welding. Before welding a line or pipe, it is often purged with an inert gas (Argon in this case) to insure that all flammable products are cleared from the line. The worker had no idea that the chamber was filled with Argon. Argon is non-toxic, so when he descended down the ladder to the chamber he would not have noticed anything was awry. But since Argon is denser than air, the body was being deprived of oxygen. So in this case, and in many others, the worker goes about his work unaware that anything is awry. By the time you realize that something is wrong, it is too late. You collapse and drown in Argon.
Now that I think about it, a similar thing happens in the ‘natural world’. Dead zones are growing in certain parts of our oceans, and one of the largest is in the Gulf of Mexico. The gulf which is a relatively warm and salty is the depository for one of the US’s largest rivers, the Mississippi. An interesting thing happens when Mississippi freshwater meets the salt water of the Gulf. The fertilizers used in farming along the Mississippi are carried along the river and into the sea, where the chemicals in the freshwater soak up all the oxygen and nutrients in the sea water. Because freshwater is denser than saltwater, it sits on top and acts like a ceiling to the fish and organisms that may try and escape it. So they end up ‘drowning’ underwater. It is actually a fairly large problem, but it is the consequence of our dependence on fertilizers.
Interesting world we live in. Sorry for such a random return to blogging, but it was on my mind.
posted by Anthony Jackson at 12:40 AM
3 Comments:
You're slacking on your blogging...cakin too much
Where did you go friend? I miss your blog!
You've got most of the Gulf situation correct. Nutrient fertilizer from the Mississippi provides excellent conditions for algal blooms in the Gulf. As the algae reproduce and die massive amounts of food becomes available to decomposers in the water. These decomposers proliferate and use up most of the water's oxygen. This leads to 'dead zones' in the water column.
The chemicals don't absorb the oxygen so much as they create an opportunity for certain organisms to use up more than their normal portion of oxygen. What have you been reading to hear about this?
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