# Why don't states use nitrogen chambers for the death penalty?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 8, 2022, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698 "2022-03-08T20:23:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/81 "2024-01-27T16:42:53Z")
Why don’t they just give the person a big dose of Valium first?
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/82 "2024-01-27T16:46:40Z")
That just opens an infinite recursion.
_Executioner_: “Take this Valium pill so you’re calm when we kill you.”
_Prisoner_: “Hell no!”
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/83 "2024-01-27T16:49:47Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> My SDMB does not include a BBQ pit.
What does this mean?
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/84 "2024-01-27T16:51:01Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> That just opens an infinite recursion.
>
> _Executioner_: “Take this Valium pill so you’re calm when we kill you.”
>
> _Prisoner_: “Hell no!”
Surprise dart gun.
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### Author:  [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/85 "2024-01-27T17:12:47Z")
I was thinking predosing with nitrous oxide like at the dentist’s office or any general anesthetic that’s used for medical procedures. I was out like a light during my colonoscopy.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/86 "2024-01-27T17:14:00Z")
> [@RitterSport](#):
>
> If someone was putting a mask on you that will definitely kill you, I imagine you’ll try and hold your breath, struggle, etc.
That is not pertinent to the issue if death by N2 is humane or not vs other methods when the prisoner is being executed.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/87 "2024-01-27T17:21:31Z")
Not that I want to encourage them, but what if they started by supplying pure oxygen or regular air and then after a few minutes switched to pure nitrogen (or even did so gradually)?
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### Author:  [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/88 "2024-01-27T17:23:00Z")
I would think that the issue of prisoner comfort and compliance would also be an issue for other methods. Discomfort from holding their breath doesn’t seem all that different from discomfort from getting poked and cut from thrashing around while they’re trying to get a needle into a vein.
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### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/89 "2024-01-27T20:13:50Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> That just opens an infinite recursion.
>
> _Executioner_: “Take this Valium pill so you’re calm when we kill you.”
>
> _Prisoner_: “Hell no!”
First step of execution: the prison starts a letter writing campaign with the prisoner, pretending to be a pen pal, to gain their trust…
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### Author:  [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/90 "2024-01-27T20:19:16Z")
> [@Projammer](#):
>
> I was thinking predosing with nitrous oxide like at the dentist’s office or any general anesthetic that’s used for medical procedures. I was out like a light during my colonoscopy.
This makes too much sense! To me this would be the obvious answer.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/91 "2024-01-27T21:24:57Z")
And how do you predose someone who doesn’t cooperate?
I want my dentist to fix my tooth, so I’ll gladly take the gas.
Why should I cooperate with someone who is trying to kill me, to make it easier for them to kill me?
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2024, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/92 "2024-01-27T22:35:32Z")
Plus, as soon as you use a general anaesthetic as part of the state killing process, health companies that do not want their medicines to be used to kill people will do their best to cut off supplies.
If the anaesthetic drug is imported from other countries, they may cut off all supplies to the US, so suddenly a very valuable drug used in surgeries across the US is no longer available for any surgeries.
This is why states are looking for alternatives to lethal injection: supplies of the drugs that are used for that purpose are drying up.
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2024, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/93 "2024-01-28T04:48:45Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#):
>
> Taking deep breaths and gasping for air is not consistent with holding one’s breath.
It is absolutely consistent with having HELD your breath. Try holding your breath for as long as you can. When you let it out, you are going to gasp.
As far as instantaneous: The first lungful (or three) of nitrogen will not make you lose consciousness: it takes a little time for hypoxia to do that (otherwise, we would not be able to swim, dive, or do any other breath-holding whatsoever). I don’t know how long it takes to lose consciousness, but certainly more than a minute or two (supposedly the world record for breath-holding is 11 minutes).
So - you hold your breath as long as you can, then you start breathing. You get a lungful of nitrogen rather than oxygen. You already feel air hunger from the breath-holding, but it is not relieved (I assume).
My guess is that someone dying in an accidental exposure is not already struggling to breathe - so the hunger for oxygen never got started. They just don’t notice, until they are dead. In the state-sanctioned murder that just happened, absolutely not the case.
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2024, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/94 "2024-01-28T06:20:54Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#):
>
> So - you hold your breath as long as you can, then you start breathing. You get a lungful of nitrogen rather than oxygen. You already feel air hunger from the breath-holding, but it is not relieved (I assume)
The “air hunger” is due to the buildup of CO2 in your system. Once you exhale that, your air hunger goes away, as I understand it.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2024, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/95 "2024-01-28T11:51:29Z")
I also think this is the case.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2024, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/96 "2024-01-29T14:54:39Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#):
>
> So - you hold your breath as long as you can, then you start breathing. You get a lungful of nitrogen rather than oxygen. You already feel air hunger from the breath-holding, but it is not relieved (I assume).
This is not correct. Air “hunger,” as @needscoffee points out, is due to CO2 buildup in your lungs rather than oxygen deficiency. In industrial accidents where people enter oxygen-deficient enclosed spaces, they have no idea what’s happening to them; they just wake up on the floor (if they’re lucky). If you’ve been holding your breath for a while, you now have CO2-rich air in your lungs; inhaling pure N2 will alleviate your air hunger just as surely as inhaling atmospheric air.
I’ve inhaled pure He and N2 (on separate occasions) and held my breath; dizziness sets in fairly quickly, long before enough CO2 has built up to cause any unpleasant air hunger.
I’ve also inhaled the CO2-rich air from a just-emptied 2-liter soda bottle, and immediately felt a very strong sense of air hunger. Going even further, I once inhaled a very high concentration of CO2 (from a plastic bag containing dry ice). The resulting sensation, instead of air hunger, was acute pain.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2024, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/97 "2024-01-29T16:18:51Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> > [@Northern\_Piper](#):
> >
> > My SDMB does not include a BBQ pit.
>
> What does this mean?
Just as you can ignore a poster, you can mute/ignore an entire category, as I understand it.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2024, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/98 "2024-01-29T16:24:40Z")
I did not know that.
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### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2024, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/99 "2024-01-29T16:28:35Z")
Well, I like the method because it doesn’t require a complicated delivery system and multiple drugs. You put murderer in a sealed chamber, open a single valve, and let one unbreathable gas into the chamber. Voila.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-states-use-nitrogen-chambers-for-the-death-penalty/960698/100 "2024-01-29T16:46:21Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> > [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
> >
> > > [@Northern\_Piper](#):
> > >
> > > My SDMB does not include a BBQ pit.
> >
> > What does this mean?
>
> Just as you can ignore a poster, you can mute/ignore an entire category, as I understand it.
The phrase is a reversal of a political slogan in Canada back in the 1990s, in the run-up to the Quebec secession referendum: « My Canada includes Quebec »
I have put the entire BBQ pit on ignore. Don’t see it in my feed at all.
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