Argon gas bad for health?

[madkayaker]

If you piped your self up to pure oxygen you would die as you would be unable to dispels carbon dioxide.

 

[BrokenBiker]

i know of a guy who tried the old, hse pipe on the exhaust and into the window of the car trick, but it didnt work due him owning a diesel.

he ended up in hospital for a few days coughing his lungs up but it didnt kill him

 

[Robotstar5]

Worse thing I've come across was Amine? gas, used as a catalyst to harden sand cores. I was working behind a core making machine and breathed in a lungful, really weird sensation, my brain said I was inhaling but getting no oxygen so just kept trying to inhale!

 

[BrokenBiker]

ive had something similar. i used to work for a battery making company called enersys (other battery companies are available) and it is a heavy lead environment, lead dust, lead fumes, plenty of red oxide and plenty of fibreglass dust. on the section i worked on before leaving, there is a lead pot full of molten lead, and a gas i dont know the name of to cool it as it comes out of the mould. anyway, long story short, the mould wasnt cooling, and it was my job to check why. pipe was split and leaking, i got a lung full and i couldnt breath after that. my brain was telling me i had to breath, but my lungs wouldnt do anything. got very dizzy and may have passed out, everything went blurry anyway. woman by the name of danielle pulled me out( i say woman, shes 22) and i came round then. wierd stuff indeed

danielle now teaches at my college too lol

 

[Wedg1e]

i know of a guy who tried the old, hse pipe on the exhaust and into the window of the car trick, but it didnt work due him owning a diesel.

he ended up in hospital for a few days coughing his lungs up but it didnt kill him

When I worked for the bod squad (aka the Co-op Funeral Service ) we had a guy who did manage to kill himself that way (though not with a diesel).

It's a spectacularly messy way to do it: if you had a carbon monoxide rich environment it would knock you out pretty quickly but the problem with car exhausts is that CO isn't the only thing they chuck out so you take quite a while to go unconscious and in that time there's a fair amount of chundering, coughing etc.... you have to be pretty determined to force yourself to go through all that till you pass out.

 

[mike os]

Unless you're stuck in the middle of a lot of it!

even then the argon is not the problem..... its the lack of other gasses that are the issue

 

[Dev]

Worse thing I've come across was Amine? gas, used as a catalyst to harden sand cores!

Halon. Used in fire supression systems in server farms. A friend nearly died of suffocation when the room he was working in filled with it without the alarms activating.

 

[madkayaker]

Banded from use these days except channel tunnel and military uses. I work on several co2 dump systems at work and always leave all the doors open

 

[Robotstar5]

I work on several co2 dump systems at work and always leave all the doors open

Don't you have a mechanical lock-off on the bottle banks?

 

[hotrodder]

It has been used in a number of fairly peaceful (?) suicides. But that involved deliberately piping it into the lungs; it displaces air quickly enough then...

It's supposed to painless because the feeling of suffocation isn't due to a lack of oxygen but from the build up of CO2.

If you piped your self up to pure oxygen you would die as you would be unable to dispels carbon dioxide.

Pure oxygen can be toxic but i don't think it works like that

 

[BrokenBiker]

morphine can be toxic too, sort of lol

when i was in hospital after my bike crash, a nurse gave me a tad (3times) too much IV morphine, and it relaxed me so much my brain forget to tell my lungs to breath. didnt breath for 2n half minutes, and lost feeling in my arms when i came round. nurse got one hell of a row from doctors and i got a complimentory cup of tea and my own private room on the ward.

i know its not a gas, and not the same, but i thought id mention it anyway lol

 

[pedrobedro]

How bad is it to weld with argon in a single garage (door open) without a gas mask?

if i should use a mask any suggestions on type etc?

Many thanks.

You are fine to weld in an open garage, argon is not bad for you in low concentrations in a garage with the door open it will be negligible and you should wear a mask more for particle protection. I can't believe this thread has gone on for 6 pages and gone so far off topic without being closed.

 

[KemppiFrog]

It's supposed to painless because the feeling of suffocation isn't due to a lack of oxygen but from the build up of CO2.


Pure oxygen can be toxic but i don't think it works like that

Guys in the space capsules on the moon trips and in their suits use pure O2 at around 5psi. Scrubbers for the CO2. Also, The RN uses O2 sets with CO2 scrubbers for diving (no bubbles ) but not at any depth, as that gets dangerous.

 

[tttonyyy]

Worst I'm likely to get exposed to these days is Methanol vapour but fortunately the antidote is Ethanol, so I feel like I have an excuse for a nice bottle of red "for my health". Cheers!

I did once work at a place that reproduced drawings on a massive Dyeline copier that ran using Ammonia, if you got a whiff of that it certainly cleared your passages!

 

[Robotstar5]

I did once work at a place that reproduced drawings on a massive Dyeline copier that ran using Ammonia

One of my jobs as an apprentice in the drawing office was to run prints off one of those.

 

[Drains]

One of my jobs as an apprentice in the drawing office was to run prints off one of those.

Me too. Used to ruin loads of sheets getting the speed wrong (particularly doing print offs from badly exposed transparent amendment prints). I wonder what they cost?

 

[Boots3]

The problem with oxygen depletion from gas in an enclosed space, it seems, is that besides a little nausea and headache which not all subjects experience is that the only indiction you get is other people or budgerigars around you keeling over. If you're on your own and the (heavier than air) argon concentration at head height is enough to knock you out: now you're lying with your head in an area where there is definitely a fatally depleted concentration of oxygen. Coma and death within a minute or two is certain

I do quite a lot of my welding inside a boat where I was concerned that the argon could build up and cause asphyxiation. To help control the risk, I have an oxygen depletion monitor/alarm permanently hanging on a hook about 6 inches off the floor. It's reassuring to see "20.9%" on the little screen and the thing goes crazy if it drops below 19.5%

Neotronics Impulse XT, Cost about a hundred quid, lifespan of two years with no calibration or maintenance requirements.

 

[Cobbler]

i know of a guy who tried the old, hse pipe on the exhaust and into the window of the car trick, but it didnt work due him owning a diesel.

he ended up in hospital for a few days coughing his lungs up but it didnt kill him

 

[Paul G]

You are fine to weld in an open garage, argon is not bad for you in low concentrations in a garage with the door open it will be negligible and you should wear a mask more for particle protection. I can't believe this thread has gone on for 6 pages and gone so far off topic without being closed.

Me to; although argon can be dangerous if you drop a cylinder on yer foot.

Paul G

 

[Maker]

Me to; although argon can be dangerous if you drop a cylinder on yer foot.

Paul G

Or if you knock the valve off.