Re: Death due to Nitrous Oxide

[Nils Sorensen <nsorens@FAS.HARVARD.EDU>]

>

Listers,

       The article should have mentioned that Scott Krueger was
attending MIT at the time of his death. It also should have mentioned
that he died as a result of fraternity hazing.

       I am sure that Richard Guy was not replicating a
demonstration when he sat in his room and huffed down a bag full of
nitrous oxide, and I hope that no one is using NO2 as a demonstration
tool. The extent of my inhalation demonstrations is helium and the
occasional Sulfur Hexafluoride. Greg is right in emphasizing that we
need to take care in describing correct and safe practises when
addressing a class.


                                                       Nils



At 8:12 AM -0400 9/2/99, Greg Puskar wrote:
> CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - An MIT junior was found dead in his dorm room early
> Tuesday after using a plastic bag to inhale laughing gas, campus officials
> said. The body of Richard Guy, 22, was discovered shortly after
> midnight Monday. Guy, of Mission Viejo, Calif., was a physics major.
> The medical examiner said Guy died from asphyxiation as a result of
> nitrous oxide intoxication. Pure nitrous oxide dissolves in the
> bloodstream, pushing oxygen out from the blood into the lungs,
> depriving the brain and other organs of oxygen. In September 1997,
> 18-year-old freshman Scott Krueger died three days
> after he was found in an alcohol-induced coma on a fraternity floor.