Two Workers Killed at Russian Launch Facility

universetoday.com ^ | November 12, 2013 | Nancy Atkinson on

[Lurker]

Nitrogen asphyxiation is a very common industrial accident.

[Ramius]

Poisonous nitrogen vapors? Uh... probably a translation error there. Sure, a pure nitrogen environment would be anoxic and deadly, put not actually poisonous.

[The Cajun]

poisonous nitrogen vapors

Thank goodness our atmosphere doesn't have nitrogen in it < /S >

[Jack Hydrazine]

N₂0₄ is the poisonous nitrogren gas which is also know as (di)nitrogen tetroxide. Combine that with hydrazine and you have an explosive combination!

[BitWielder1]

As usual the reporter did not know enough chemistry ask the right questions.
Regular nitrogen is not poisonous, lack of oxygen however is a problem.
Or was it some other kind of nitrogen compound?

[frithguild]

poisonous nitrogen vapors

They should outlaw like they did with carbon dioxide. They should do something about oxygen dihydride too

[Jack Hydrazine]

From the article.

“...and in October of 2002, a Soyuz-U carrying the ESA Foton-M1 project failed to launch and exploded, killing one.”

Here’s the video of the launch. It looks similar in explosive force to a tactical nuclear bomb.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl9u-h_btBo
(warning: some bad language)

[livius]

I don’t know if it’s poisonous per se, but obviously, it eliminated the ability of these workers to get oxygen (hence, the asphyxiation part of it).

These are very common tank and boiler cleaning accidents. When I was a child, the super in my building used to hire us kids (for 25 cents!) to stand outside the boiler when he went into it to clean it. This was a yearly process and could only be done after a couple of days without hot water, since the interior of the furnace had to cool down enough for a human being to enter it.

He would then chip the clinkers off the wall, while we waited outside and talked to him all the time so we were sure he was alive and breathing. We were supposed to run immediately for the police if he stopped talking (although, of course, he would have been dead already).

Horrible job. We were always so happy when we heard him coming up the ladder and saw him appear at the furnace door.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Nitrogen is not poisonous.

Lack of O2 is the problem.

[cynwoody]

Poisonous nitrogen vapors? Uh... probably a translation error there. Sure, a pure nitrogen environment would be anoxic and deadly, put not actually poisonous.

True.

Over three quarters of the air we breath consists of "nitrogen vapors".

[Jack Hydrazine]

BTW, both nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine are very toxic/poisonous.

http://www.realistnews.net/Thread-monomethylhydrazine-and-nitrogen-tetroxide-poisonous-chemicals-used-in-missiles

[Jack Hydrazine]

Do you mean Di-hydrogen monoxide?

[The Cajun]

They should outlaw like they did with carbon dioxide. They should do something about oxygen dihydride too

Obviously the next AlGore crusade :)

[Ramius]

Yah, and it was admittedly a little nitpicky of me. But it likely wasn’t the presence of nitrogen so much as the absence of oxygen that was the problem. Unless it was some other actually toxic nitrogen-based compound it sounds like a tank asphyxiation case. They happen all the time any time there’s tanks or voids that need people working inside them from time to time. Eventually somebody forgets to ventilate or mask up properly.

[The Cajun]

They should outlaw like they did with carbon dioxide. They should do something about oxygen dihydride too

Obviously the next AlGore crusade :)

[frithguild]

Do you mean Di-hydrogen monoxide?

Add that to the list!

[blackdog]

Confined space entry hazards seem silly, until you discover why they need to be followed, personally!

It's hard to lock-out / tag-out gaseous atmosphere.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Ya guys still aren’t listening.

N204 is the poisonous gas they are talking about in the article.

You don’t store di-atomic, gaseous or liquid nitrogen in rocket fuel storage tanks. The only thing that would be in there is N204, nitrogen tetroxid, which is very poisonous.

Here ya go!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/accident-at-russian-launchpad-kills-2-officers-sickens-3-servicemen/2013/11/12/e6743ed8-4bc1-11e3-bf60-c1ca136ae14a_story.html

MOSCOW — Russia’s Defense Ministry says two officers died and three servicemen were hospitalized after cleaning rocket fuel tanks at a military launchpad.

The ministry said Tuesday that the officers appeared to have violated safety rules during the regular cleaning of the fuel tanks at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia.

The three servicemen were hospitalized after breathing toxic nitrogen vapors on Saturday and their lives were not in danger, the ministry said in a statement. It did not specify how the officers died.

[blackdog]

I used to work on a kill floor for hogs. They were moved thru a carbon dioxide room where they would pass out. The conveyors then brought them hung by a leg to have their throats slit and bleed out.

I had to fix electrical problems when the line went down. I had a life-line rope, gas meter, breathing pack tank, and a radio where a person outside maintained constant speech with me. If I started to not sound right the attendant would pull me with the line out of the room.

All you get is about 20 seconds and out you go in a zero oygen environment. Three minutes and you're dead. Almost three minutes and you'll never be the same if you do survive. You'll drool a lot and be spoon fed.