Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen.
The Alabama attorney general’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated Alabama plans to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that is authorized in three states but has never been used.
Nitrogen hypoxia is caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen and causing them to die. Nitrogen makes up 78% of the air inhaled by humans and is harmless when inhaled with oxygen. While proponents of the new method have theorized it would be painless, opponents have likened it to human experimentation.
Nitrogen asphyxiation does not equal suffocation. It displaces the oxygen in your lungs. Discomfort from suffocation is from build up of carbon dioxide, not lack of oxygen. For the brief period of time that you are still conscious, you can still exhale that carbon dioxide.
That seems unlikely. As @protist@mander.xyz explains further down the thread, it would likely lead to generalized pain and terror before seizures and death.
@protist is talking about nitrogen narcosis, which is a completely different thing.
No, they’re not. Read the post.
Yes, I did. Read my post.
They said:
Nitrogen narcosis happens because when you are under pressure, like when underwater, gases are more easily dissolved. The nitrogen that is in your body dissolves into your tissues and basically anesthetizes you to death.
Nitrogen asphyxiation, like what we’re talking about here, is when the nitrogen that you breathe displaces the oxygen in your lungs. This causes the oxygen levels in your blood to drop, which is what kills you.
You said:
@protist@protist@mander.xyz said:
I have a scuba certification. I know what nitrogen narcosis is. @protist is clearly not talking about nitrogen narcosis. They’re describing what would actually happen in the case of being forced to breathe pure nitrogen, which is straight up suffocation.
Captain, in my comment that you just replied to, I quoted them literally saying that they are talking about nitrogen narcosis.
In protist comment the “this…” after nitrogen narcosis is meant to indicate a change of topic to the OP. As in “X is boring this is pod racing. “ it’s ambiguous and a semi colon could have probably avoided this confusion. Or even just “what op is describing is”. Not that I think his comment is necessarily correct.
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I give up. They very clearly said exactly the opposite, but if that’s where your reading level is, then you do you.
You are correct that I forgot that you have to be under pressure for narcosis. I have read about death from nitrogen asphyxiation and thought it induced it also. I am slonscuba certified and while I haven’t been narcd, my dad has. You still get light headed and dizzy during asphyxiation from nitrogen due to lack of oxygen, which is part of being narcd but being narcd is worse because of absorbtion into the brain. Since.you are still breathing out CO2 you don’t feel the panicking you’re suffocating feeling, but it still takes 4 minutes to kill you. Though you will unconscious after a minute most likely.
So yes, you are correct I forgot that it takes pressure to truly get narcd but asphyxiation does still bring on similar feelings itself.
Yes he is. Nitrogen narcosis is from breathing compressed air with a high nitrogen blend. That’s why you need trimix with helium beyond a couple hundred feet. Otherwise you end up like my buddy trying to give fish your regulator.
Read. the. damn. post!
That guy is misinformed. He is talking about hypoxia which is what people commonly think of when dying from lack of oxygen, think of drowning. Hypoxia triggers the alarms in your body that cause the fear and pain you associate with suffocating due to the build up of co2 in the body.
With inert gases like nitrogen however it is different. Check out this wiki article, in the process drop down tab is provides a pretty good explanation on the matter
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation
Not misinformed, I forgot it takes.pressure.to.get narcd, but asphyxiation does cause some of the same feelings. Narcd is nitrogen asphyxiation, but it has other effects, and the feeling is more intense before reaching total asphyxiation, and therefore it is easier to recover from. It takes the pressure for the nitrogen to bind to the oxygen receptors.