Korean J Leg Med.  2015 Aug;39(3):88-91. 10.7580/kjlm.2015.39.3.88.

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

• Park JH
• Kwon M
• Kim HJ
• Choi BT

• KMID: 2044955
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7580/kjlm.2015.39.3.88

Abstract

An 18-year-old man collapsed at his workplace while putting desiccant into a cylindrical mixer, 2 m x 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.

Keyword

Nitrogen; Anoxia; Asphyxia; Autopsy

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Anoxia*
Asphyxia*
Autopsy
Cause of Death
Humans
Nitrogen*
Oxygen*
Rubber
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Rubber

Figure

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  Fig. 1. Opening of the cylindrical mixer.

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