# blowing air in the vagina **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 24, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483 "2011-02-24T19:00:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/1 "2011-02-24T19:00:55Z")
Today’s classic column about blowing air in the vagina being deadly raises a serious question: just how are they blowing air? Is this some pump system, pressurized air? Because I’m finding it really difficult to believe a manual system (i.e. mouth alone) providing the necessary air entrainment to do anything. Cite? [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/470/is-taking-a-hot-bath-an-effective-contraceptive](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/470/is-taking-a-hot-bath-an-effective-contraceptive) ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/2 "2011-02-24T22:19:59Z")
Heh. [The Master Speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2866/can-air-injected-into-the-bloodstream-really-kill-you). 🙂 That’s a 2009 column about air embolisms in general. Somewhere between 40 and 200 ml are needed for death, according to Cecil. Looking around elsewhere, it seems like pregnancy is a [contributing](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1553-2712.1994.tb02552.x/abstract), if not necessary, condition. [This case](http://www.springerlink.com/content/tm17848022n10g21/) reports a death in a non-pregnant woman who caused an air embolism using a carrot. Not cunnilingus, but it’s not a great stretch to imagine blowing could generate as much pressure as using a carrot. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/3 "2011-02-25T00:46:11Z")
😕 Isn’t a certain amount of air pumped in during intercourse? It’s not unusual for the penis to slip out and then get reinserted. Sure glad my partners have survived, the pumping action. 😉 I was warned at a service station job to **never, ever play** with an air hose. Blowing a blast of compressed air at someones rear can kill them. It doesn’t have to be very close to the person at all. I imagine that applies equally to the vagina. ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/4 "2011-02-25T00:58:57Z")
[QUOTE=aceplace57;13503984Blowing a blast of compressed air at someones rear can kill them.[/QUOTE] Not to mention what it does to anybody downwind. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/5 "2011-02-25T02:12:18Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I was warned at a service station job to **never, ever play** with an air hose. Blowing a blast of compressed air at someones rear can kill them. This is why there is a small perpendicular hole near the ends of such devices, to prevent accidents by allowing the air to escape sideways rather than into your bloodstream. :eek: Lots of people disable this feature because they want that extra pressure. Not a real good idea. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/6 "2011-02-25T02:19:54Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I was warned at a service station job to **never, ever play** with an air hose. Blowing a blast of compressed air at someones rear can kill them. It doesn’t have to be very close to the person at all. I imagine that applies equally to the vagina. > [@campp](#): > > This is why there is a small perpendicular hole near the ends of such devices, to prevent accidents by allowing the air to escape sideways rather than into your bloodstream. :eek: > > Lots of people disable this feature because they want that extra pressure. Not a real good idea. Wait. What? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/7 "2011-02-25T03:04:02Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Blowing a blast of compressed air at someones rear can kill them. > [@campp](#): > > This is why there is a small perpendicular hole near the ends of such devices, to prevent accidents by allowing the air to escape… There is indeed a small hole near the end of my rear that allows air to escape, but it’s not perpendicular. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/8 "2011-02-25T04:34:26Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I was warned at a service station job to **never, ever play** with an air hose. Blowing a blast of compressed air at someones rear can kill them. It doesn’t have to be very close to the person at all. I imagine that applies equally to the vagina. There was a sad case here in Thailand just a few years ago in which a father who worked in a garage playfully stuck an air hose in his small son’s rectum and blasted the air, killing the kid instantly. I don’t know about blowing air into vaginas, but air sure can be blown out of them. I have on occasion personally held a balloon over my head and had it burst with a vaginally projected dart via a tube/blowgun. One girl could even hit a moving target with amazing accuracy. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/9 "2011-02-25T09:18:58Z")
Cecil’s 1974 column reported that an air embolism could be caused when “air enters the bloodstream via the vein sinuses of the intrauterine wall.” Does this mean that women who have had hysterectomies would be free to safely have their partner inflate their vaginas during oral sex? (I assume that highly compressed air, as from a hose or pump, would still be absolutely contraindicated.) ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/10 "2011-02-25T10:15:06Z")
I’d think that even if someone felt the need to do that, he’s hopefully stop before his paramour became so large as to be considered as a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Now, blowing gently _across_ the vagina would be, IMO, an acceptable love-making _technique_. I guess it would depend upon the lady in question and what she likes. Also upon the velocity of the air being expelled out of the partner. You would not, for instance, want the labia to sound like a tent which has lost its stakes in a wind storm. May I also recommend freezing one’s tongue on a couple of ice-cubes for 3-4 seconds before cunningly lingulating one’s partner? These and many, many more love tips are available by mailing $50.00 to “Q’s Love Moves” Radio City Station 11111. The preceding has been an unpaid form of satire and is not to be taken wholly seriously, okay? 🙂 Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/11 "2011-02-25T14:38:02Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > There is indeed a small hole near the end of my rear that allows air to escape, but it’s not perpendicular. I don’t think your rear qualifies as a device. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2011, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/12 "2011-02-25T15:50:11Z")
[Blowing air into a vagina can be deadly.](http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Citation/1967/30010/Fatal_Air_Embolism_in_Pregnancy_Resulting_from_an.21.aspx) ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/13 "2011-02-27T16:09:02Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > There was a sad case here in Thailand just a few years ago in which a father who worked in a garage playfully stuck an air hose in his small son’s rectum… Boy, “playful” must have a different meaning in Thailand than it does here. ---
**Author:** ![misterkrc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@misterkrc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterkrc)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/14 "2011-02-28T17:09:14Z")
is that called air head. ---
**Author:** ![iftheresaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecae2f/32.png) [@iftheresaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iftheresaway)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blowing-air-in-the-vagina/572483/15 "2011-03-01T05:26:09Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > [Blowing air into a vagina can be deadly.](http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Citation/1967/30010/Fatal_Air_Embolism_in_Pregnancy_Resulting_from_an.21.aspx) All of the girls in the cited article were either 16 or 17. Does anyone know if there is a link between age during pregnancy and these air embolisms? Not that I’m going to be requesting a puff from my husband either way, but I find the significant youth of these women curious.