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Asphyxiants can cause suffocation and severe brain damage, and can take many forms, including drowning, carbon monoxide, and gases like helium, nitrogen, and argon. Proper safety procedures and ventilation are essential when working with asphyxiants.
An asphyxiant is an agent or event that induces asphyxiation, also known as suffocation. Asphyxiation can be extremely dangerous, as a lack of oxygen kills most animals within minutes. While asphyxiation doesn’t kill, it can cause severe brain damage. Therefore, asphyxiants are a cause for concern. Because asphyxiants can take many forms, it’s a great idea to familiarize yourself with basic safety procedures designed to reduce the risk of asphyxiation, ranging from learning to swim to using proper ventilation in laboratories.
Most people are familiar with an asphyxiant in some form of event, such as drowning or death by suffocation. In both of these cases, the asphyxiant makes the body unable to take in oxygen, leading to oxygen starvation. If the victim is removed from the asphyxiating circumstances, they should recover very quickly, as neither incident has any health effects beyond asphyxiation.
In another sense, an asphyxiant can interfere with the body’s ability to process and deliver oxygen. Carbon monoxide is an asphyxiant that works in this way, binding itself to the body’s red blood cells so they can’t pass needed oxygen to the rest of the body. In this case, it may be necessary to give the patient pure oxygen or other treatments to remove the carbon monoxide from the blood, allowing the normal circulation of oxygen to resume.
An asphyxiant can also cause suffocation by displacing oxygen in the environment. This type of asphyxiant takes the form of a gas such as helium, nitrogen or argon. Alone and in small quantities, these gases are not harmful; in fact, you are breathing these gases right now. However, when concentrations of these gases get too high, they dilute oxygen levels to a dangerously low amount, leading to asphyxiation.
Asphyxiant gases are a big problem because many of them are largely inert and are also odorless and colorless. Thus, people may not be aware that they are in danger until it is too late. When working with asphyxiant gases, a well-ventilated workspace is essential. This is especially true with liquid nitrogen, which will quickly convert to gaseous nitrogen, engulfing an environment very quickly. Excessive amounts of nitrogen will produce an oxygen-poor environment near the ground, so if someone loses consciousness and falls to the ground, their condition will rapidly deteriorate.
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