if nitrogen is everywhere, why is it a big deal if there is a nitrogen leak?
In: Chemistry
Humans need about 20% of the air we breathe to be oxygen (at sea level). The other 80% can be any inert gas, but is usually nitrogen.
Nitrogen containers are *not* 1/5 oxygen. That would be very inefficient.
If you empty a sufficiently large nitrogen container into an enclosed space, some of the original air gets flushed out through vents and openings. So, if half the room’s air is replaced with new nitrogen, there is now half as much oxygen in the room (10.4 percent).
If you don’t have enough oxygen, you will pass out and then die. In pure nitrogen, an untrained person will probably pass out in 2-4 minutes and start suffering irreversible brain damage within 8.
It’s not as bad as fluorine (which causes *water* to violently combust and turn into acid), or carbon monoxide (which actively shuts down your red blood cells by filling the space oxygen would occupy and refusing to leave), but enough nitrogen *will* kill you just by getting between your lungs and the stuff you need.
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