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Park, Kwon, Kim, and Choi: [secondary publication] Asphyxia due to Oxygen Deficiency by Evaporated Liquid Nitrogen
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Korean J Leg Med 2015;39(3):88-91.

Published online: 17 January 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7580/kjlm.2015.39.3.88

[secondary publication] Asphyxia due to Oxygen Deficiency by Evaporated Liquid Nitrogen

Jong Hyeok Park1, Mia Kwon2, Hyun Jee Kim2, Byung-Tae Choi3

1Division of Forensic Medicine, Busan Institute, National Forensic Service, Yangsan, Korea

2Division of Forensic Chemistry, Busan Institute, National Forensic Service, Yangsan, Korea

3Division of Meridian and Structural Medicine, School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea

Correspondence to Byung-Tae Choi Division of Meridian and Structural Medicine, School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, 49 Busandaehak-ro, Yangsan 626-815, Korea Tel: +82-51-510-8475 Fax: +82-51-510-8420 E-mail: choibt@pusan.ac.kr

Received 18 January 2015       Revised 30 January 2015       Accepted 17 August 2015

Copyright © 2015 The Korean Society for Legal Medicine

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

An 18-year-old man collapsed at his workplace while putting desiccant into a cylindrical mixer, 2 m 1 m in dimension, which contained rubber powder. His coworker found him collapsed, and he was transported to a hospital by a 119 rescue team, where he died. Prior to the incident, liquid nitrogen had been placed into the mixer to lower the temperature of the rubber powder. There were no injuries or disease that could have caused death. Analysis of the gas in the mixer revealed that the O2 concentration had dropped to 3.7% in 2 minutes following addition of the liquid nitrogen. Therefore, it was concluded that the cause of death was asphyxia due to oxygen deficiency caused by liquid nitrogen evaporation.

Keywords: Nitrogen, Anoxia, Asphyxia, Autopsy

REFERENCES

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Fig. 1.
Opening of the cylindrical mixer.
kjlm-39-88f1.tif
Table 1.
Effect of oxygen deficiency
Oxygen (%) Effect of deficiency
15-19.5 Decreased ability to perform work
12-15 Increased pulse rate and respiration, impaired perception and judgment
10-12 Further increase in pulse and respiration, giddiness, poor judgement, blue lips
8-10 Mental failure, nausea, fainting, vomiting, unconsciousness
6-8 8 min, 100% fatalities; 6 min, 50% fatalities; 4-5 min, recovery expected
<6 Coma in 40 sec, convulsions, breathing stops, death
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