Explain Like I'm 5 (ELI5)

439 readers

1 users here now

Easier to type out this way

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

FizzlePopBerryTwist@lemmy.world

How do oxygen free hazards develop? (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 5 months ago by scuppie@lemmy.blahaj.zone to c/eli5@lemmy.world

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've had a couple of articles come up for me like Darwin award winners walking into helium balloons while they're still being filled at ground level, or people walking into buildings (is it far underground?) and just asphyxiating before they realise.

How do these conditions come about? What about cave diving? Where do you get areas open to the environment where oxygen doesn't reach? I get with helium balloons the gas is being forcefully displaced. How else do you encounter oxygen absent scenarios?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

If oxygen nor included has taught me anything it's CO2 sinks because it is a heavier gas then O2.
So places with low airflow will accumulate the CO2.

A surprising place that O2 absent environment appears is telecom pits in the street. We had several safety courses about it.

[–] scuppie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 5 months ago

That game is why I thought of it! I forgot to include in the post, I thought the reason we feel pain when suffocating is our lungs not liking CO2, but some gases like helium you'll just drop dead before you know what's happening?