# Another Lethal injection question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-lethal-injection-question/921254
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 22, 2020, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-lethal-injection-question/921254 "2020-09-22T18:35:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 7
### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2020, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-lethal-injection-question/921254/121 "2020-09-29T15:16:18Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#):
>
> Until this thread, I had no idea that breathing a pure nitrogen atmosphere was that painless. I’d read of accidental asphyxiation, but never made the connection.
This is true of many gases, including the noble gases (neon, helium, etc.), as well as nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur hexafluoride, and others.
Here’s a pool party where the organizers poured liquid N2 into the pool. The low temps created an entertaining fog above the water, but the cold N2 vapor blanketed the top of the pool and displaced the usual atmosphere, causing swimmers to pass out before they had any idea they were in danger:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLzpQR9iIo4)
Carbon dioxide can also asphyxiate, but is intensely irritating at elevated concentrations (think of the last time you beer-burped through your nose, except imagine a far stronger sensation, throughout your entire respiratory tract).
Carbon monoxide is acutely toxic and can kill at very low concentrations, even when there’s enough oxygen present to otherwise sustain life.
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2020, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-lethal-injection-question/921254/122 "2020-09-29T17:04:26Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#):
>
> Carbon monoxide is acutely toxic and can kill at very low concentrations, even when there’s enough oxygen present to otherwise sustain life.
Having suffered from what I’m pretty sure, in hindsight, was low-level CO poisoning over several months, I can believe that. The issue isn’t that there isn’t enough oxygen, but that the blood takes up CO in preference to pure oxygen. My roommates and I simply felt tired all the time, no matter how much we rested - of course, that rest was done in the apartment that had the CO leak, so… I won’t go so far as to say we felt “fine” - obviously we felt tired - but we didn’t feel like we had any trouble breathing. Our problems happened after we put weatherstripping around the door and windows of the low-rent apartment we were sharing one January. We’re just lucky that even with that, the place leaked like a sieve.
That pool party video is rather sobering. You’d think that in an outdoor scenario the nitrogen wouldn’t be that much more concentrated - especially since nitrogen is lighter than oxygen - but I guess there was enough all at once, that people were overcome before it had time to dissipate.
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### Author:  [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-lethal-injection-question/921254/123 "2020-09-29T17:09:22Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#):
>
> That pool party video is rather sobering. You’d think that in an outdoor scenario the nitrogen wouldn’t be that much more concentrated - especially since nitrogen is lighter than oxygen - but I guess there was enough all at once, that people were overcome before it had time to dissipate.
Nitrogen gas is only slightly lighter than air and readily mixes with air at room temperature. Cold vapors are more dense and will settle.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2020, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-lethal-injection-question/921254/124 "2020-09-29T17:09:59Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#):
>
> Carbon dioxide can also asphyxiate, but is intensely irritating at elevated concentrations (think of the last time you beer-burped through your nose, except imagine a far stronger sensation, throughout your entire respiratory tract).
It’s worse than that, because CO2 triggers the “I need to breathe” reflex. So asphyxiation with CO2 feels like being suffocated. I once observed someone kill a cage of hamsters using CO2, and it was awful.
CO is potentially dangerous to onlookers because even a small leak could cause them damage. But it’s painless. N2 is almost certainly the best choice, since it’s painless and also quite safe so long as enough oxygen is present – that is, a minor leak in the apparatus would not be risky to onlookers. It’s also abundant and cheap.
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2020, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-lethal-injection-question/921254/125 "2020-09-29T17:20:16Z")
> [@MindsEye\_Watering](#):
>
> Nitrogen gas is only slightly lighter than air and readily mixes with air at room temperature. Cold vapors are more dense and will settle.
Ah - good point. I’d forgotten that little tidbit - and I did know it at one point.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2020, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-lethal-injection-question/921254/126 "2020-09-29T18:01:22Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#):
>
> That pool party video is rather sobering. You’d think that in an outdoor scenario the nitrogen wouldn’t be that much more concentrated - especially since nitrogen is lighter than oxygen - but I guess there was enough all at once, that people were overcome before it had time to dissipate.
It’s a nightmare scenario. Bystanders want to jump in to help, but they risk being likewise overcome. **[Confined-space incidents](https://www.nsc.org/safety-training/workplace/osha-compliance/confined-spaces)** are also a problem in industry, for the same sort of reason.
> [@Machine\_Elf](#):
>
> This is true of many gases, including the noble gases (neon, helium, etc.), as well as nitrogen, hydrogen, sulfur hexafluoride, and others.
Expanding on this:
Many folks here have probably amused themselves by inhaling deeply from a helium balloon and then speaking with an altered voice. You probably felt fine afterwards, but if you were to inhale a second time from the helium balloon without an intervening breath of fresh air, there’s a good chance you’d fall over half-conscious. So sayeth the squeaky voice of experience.
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### Author:  [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-lethal-injection-question/921254/127 "2020-09-29T18:41:02Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#):
>
> " Capital punishment makes it impossible to undo mistakes."
> Agreed
“A prison has a door. A grave has not.”
- Alexandre Dumas,_The Count of Monte Cristo_
(That’s either a quote or a paraphrase, can’t remember for certain.)
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2020, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-lethal-injection-question/921254/128 "2020-10-03T10:42:25Z")
Not to mention, that people who are subject to physician-assisted suicide are usually ill and medically frail. Not the case with death row inmates.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2021, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-lethal-injection-question/921254/129 "2021-02-18T14:04:36Z")
Bumped.
> **[Executioners sanitized accounts of deaths in federal cases](https://apnews.com/article/executioners-sanitized-accounts-of-death-25d133f59039150c2e308ba1a2a5caef)**
>
> CHICAGO (AP) — Executioners who put 13 inmates to death in the last months of the Trump administration likened the process of dying by lethal injection to falling asleep and called gurneys “beds” and final breaths “snores...
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