The Dangers of Argon Gas

[unclesyd]

Here is a another tragic accident that again highlights the dangers of Argon gas.

http://telecom-expense-management-solutions.tmcnet.com/news/2008/05/20/3456984.htm

Here is an article that again illustrates historically the dangers of working with Argon.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-argon.list,0,6062301.story

I think the shipboard case is tragic in more respect than the loss of life. The last check I had on the stevedore profession OSHA had very little or no jurisdiction over docks. I know locally that if you try to report an unsafe condition or question any thing your toast.

 

[MintJulep]

Or any other heavier-than-air gas that isn't oxygen.

suffocated by argon gas, which made the air in the hold unbreathable.

More accurately, made the air in the hold not there.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

There are many gases that will cause this -- actually ALL gases except maybe oxygen can cause suffocation if too much oxygen is removed. Even 100% oxygen at atmospheric pressure can cause problems.

Humans need O2 at about 20% at one atmosphere to survive. Obviously these ratios can vary a bit - but not much before serious problems result.

Deep sea divers must use wild combinations of O2 and Helium to maintain livable concentrations and prevent the "bends"

 

[dbooker630]

Argon and other inert gases are classified as simple asphyxiants. In the industrial world this would be defined by OSHA as a confined space, requiring monitoring and the proper personal protective equipment.

This is a good article to show to my management to convince them to fix the ventilation in my windowless spectrograph room.

 

[civilperson]

Halon fire supression systems are common in enclosed boat spaces and can have the same effects on humans as argon.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Actaully Halon concentrations only reach 3-5% in properly designed systems allowing humans to survive quite well - but they should leave the area. Most do - because fire alarms are going off all around. This is not true with CO2 or Nitrogen systems - the very high concentrations may cause problems.

Long term inhalation of Halon - more than five minutes has led to heart fibrillations in a very few people - but returned to normal as soon as they reached regular air.

Halon - really a first cousin to Freon is an amazing fire and explosion suppresant. Pretty much banned nowadays.

 

[btrueblood]

It's always a shock when stuff like this happens...but I don't know how to fix it without having people die first. Our industrial society uses a lot of hazardous materials on a daily basis, and knowledge of what those hazards are is the only way people can stay safe. How does one explain to people the risk if they won't listen, refuse to be educated? One ends up sounding like chicken little...until the sky really does fall.

An acquaintance from high school, a classic "jock", went into the welding business with his dad after graduation. To say that this guy was as dumb as rocks would not be unfair. They were doing some pipefitting at a machine shop, and apparently ignored the sign on a dumpster nearby that said "Danger - Flammable - Magnesium Chips". I'm sure the pile of what looked like aluminum seemed pretty harmless. Both son and father were horribly burned, both lost their lives after a long several days of suffering. A tragedy. But for 30 seconds of education (Take this strip of magesium foil and light it with a match. Then throw it in a bucket of water. Our chemistry prof. at school showed us this demonstration. The jock never took chem.)

Nowadays, with YouTube right here on my work computer, it is pretty straightforward to search on terms like "burst test", play a video clip and put some shock and awe into what I tell the shop techs before they hydro test our products. And they take care, and treat the hazard seriously, for all the joking we do. But somewhere else on this site a lad is talking about building a very high-rpm rotor and testing it; I can't find an easy link to a video of a high-rpm rotor burst test, and I'm not in a position to make him watch it. All we can do is squawk and flap our feathers, and hope.

 

[Hoxton]

Tragic. Actually, a similar situation came up in a work discussion last week. We sell and operate gas powered generating sets. We were discussing purging the gas line with nitrogen before maintenance for safety. One of my colleagues surprised us be stating that that this did not make the procedure "safe". As he said, an uncontrolled release of nitrogen could asphyxiate the workers.

 

[tomwalz]

Part of the problem is an awareness of the dangers and the other part is a true understanding.

How much Nitrogen would it take to asphyxiate a standing person in a shop?

A classic along these lines is the cyanide operation where the rescuers didn’t know that cyanide was skin permeable.


Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.

http://www.carbideprocessors.com