if nitrogen is everywhere, why is it a big deal if there is a nitrogen leak?

Question

if nitrogen is everywhere, why is it a big deal if there is a nitrogen leak?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

It’s not that nitrogenous is poisonous, it’s the lack of oxygen that is the issue. If nitrogen is leaking in a space, the concentration of oxygen will decrease significantly. The thing about nitrogen is that, unlike CO2, it’s not a metabolic waste product so our bodies would still take it in and eventually we’d pass out and die.