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The OSHA definition is arguably broad enough to include oxygen-deficient circumstances in the absence of "airborne contaminants", as well as many other chemical, thermal, or pneumatic hazards to life or health (e.g., pure helium, super-cooled or super-heated air, hyperbaric or hypo-baric or submerged chambers, etc.).
Helium (from Greek: ... [117] [118] A number of people, ... Inhaling helium can be dangerous if done to excess, since helium is a simple asphyxiant and so displaces ...
Large-scale natural release of gas, such as during the Lake Nyos disaster in which volcanically-released carbon dioxide killed 1,800 people. [6] 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. Climbing inside an inflatable balloon filled with ...
A global helium shortage has doctors worried about one of the natural gas’s most essential, and perhaps unexpected, uses: MRIs.. Strange as it sounds, the lighter-than-air element that gives ...
Many gases have toxic properties, which are often assessed using the LC 50 (median lethal concentration) measure. In the United States, many of these gases have been assigned an NFPA 704 health rating of 4 (may be fatal) or 3 (may cause serious or permanent injury), and/or exposure limits (TLV, TWA/PEL, STEL, or REL) determined by the ACGIH professional association.
The method of suicide based on self-administration of helium in a bag, a colloquial name being the "exit bag" or suicide bag, has been referenced by some medical euthanasia advocacy groups. [36] Originally, such bags were used with helium, and 30 deaths were reported with use of them from 2001 to 2005, and another 79 from 2005 to 2009.
While asphyxiation by helium can be detected at autopsy, there is currently no test that can detect asphyxiation by nitrogen. For this reason, nitrogen is commonly the preferred choice for people who do not want the cause of death established. [4] [5] [6] Suicide bags were first used during the 1990s. The method was mainly developed in North ...
Hydrogen and helium are the most commonly used lift gases. Although helium is twice as heavy as (diatomic) hydrogen, they are both significantly lighter than air. The lifting power in air of hydrogen and helium can be calculated using the theory of buoyancy as follows: Thus helium is almost twice as dense as hydrogen.