pulmonary edema from helium/CO2 statics?

[Lil Dragonfly]

My friend recommended statics with either helium or bottled CO2 as a way to liven up the game by increasing the challenge level. I went and tried 2 breathholds with helium, 1 with packing, 1 without. It worked quite nicely.

The problem is, he said that with breathing any pure gas there is a slight chance of permanent lung damage from pulmonary edema.

Should I be worried?

 

[trux]

I am not really sure what the challenge is doing a breath hold with helium (you can as well do an empty lungs breath hold to achieve similar starting level of O2), but I'd definitely strongly advise against breathing pure CO2 - in high concentrations it is toxic, and may have even fatal consequences.

 

[apeogre]

Breathing bottled CO2 seems like a really really bad idea. Isn't the point to hold your breath for a long time not hold your breath while prebreathing not air? What's next? Prebreathing through a lit cigarette?

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

Uh oh. Good thing you told me about the bottled CO2, I was going to try it

I know that empty lung breathholds would have the same effect, but full lung breathholds are so yummy!

 

[Mullins]

Why helium? If you're talking pure helium, that's just going to reduce the 'difficulty' and make it way easier to BO without feeling much of an urge to breathe.

 

[rxcnc2]

'cause then you can say "I am okay" in a perfect falsetto.

 

[apeogre]

'cause then you can say "I am okay" in a perfect falsetto.

I prefer the classic "we represent the lollypop guild"rofl

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

Why helium? If you're talking pure helium, that's just going to reduce the 'difficulty' and make it way easier to BO without feeling much of an urge to breathe.

It will?

I found that it made it more difficult. Weird. Although, that could just be the placebo effect...

 

[Mullins]

Pure helium, no oxygen? How long did you last??

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

It was helium from a balloon (no oxygen).

I wasn't timing it. I lost my stopwatch somewhere in my messy room :/

The lung discomfort came much sooner than a regular breathhold though. Which is exactly the effect I was looking for.

 

[efattah]

Not surprisingly I have tried doing breath holds with pure CO2 from a CO2 duster (count on me to have tried everything). However in my case I was taking only a tiny amount of CO2 from the duster. This technique does have its uses but it is very dangerous and I don't recommend trying it.

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

You don't mean computer duster, do you?

Oh god please don't use that stuff! It's got more than just CO2 in it, also toxic chemicals. It's the worst, most dangerous drug there is. In terms of neurotoxicity and chances of fatality, you'd be better off doing coke, speed, or even diph.

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

So how come helium breathholds are easier not harder? Confused

 

[trux]

They feel about the same as with air, but you will blackout far before you would if you breathed air. That's why there were many fatal accidents with helium - people simply do not feel the lack of oxygen if they accidentaly breath pure helium, and they black out without any urge to breath and without significant warning

 

[sross]

In the lab we used to use tanks of pure gases such a nitrogen, argon, helium, CO2, etc. for various purposes, and in the safety newsletters reports would appear from time to time of someone getting into trouble when there was release into a room that displaced the oxygen, or when they got a shot of pure gas that displaced the air in their lungs. It's insidious for 2 reasons- there's no scent to most of these gases, and since you can't detect O2 levels in your lungs, nothing seems to be wrong, because the CO2 is clearing normally from your lungs.

If someone does black out from breathing a pure gas without oxygen, you shouldn't just blow on their faces or slap 'em to get 'em breathing again. It's a big job to get the gas out of the lungs and some fresh O2 in there, so you should start artificial respiration as soon as you can.

Concerning CO2 gas, many of my colleagues would use it to kill small animals- fish, mice, young rabbits, etc., for experiments. I personally favour the cervical dislocation method since it is instant, and I think death by gassing is actually a bit cruel, but some folks didn't have the stomach for CD, so they'd put 'em in a container and feed in pure CO2. The beasts always died within less than 2 minutes. Note that it takes much longer for CO2 to kill a large animal, and this should never be used for animals larger than about 2 kg IMO.

People might find this article interesting:

http://www.csb.gov/assets/document/SB-Nitrogen-6-11-03.pdf

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

If someone does black out from breathing a pure gas without oxygen, you shouldn't just blow on their faces or slap 'em to get 'em breathing again. It's a big job to get the gas out of the lungs and some fresh O2 in there, so you should start artificial respiration as soon as you can.

If I do dry helium statics with no buddy, would this be a bad idea?

 

[trux]

Dragonfly, I do not know if you actually have read the answers of all those who posted here in this thread, but if you try to re-read them again, you will probably realize that it is not only a terribly bad idea to do it without a buddy, but it is a quite bad idea doing it even with a buddy. Besides that, I really see absolutely no interest and no challenge in doing statics after breathing helium.

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

The stuff I had already read in the thread confused me a bit. But, I get the idea now.

 

[sross]

If I do dry helium statics with no buddy, would this be a bad idea?

Hi LilDragonfly

It would be an ultra-bad idea.

Steve

 

[Lil Dragonfly]

I'm still quite confused as to the science behind this. Wouldn't a helium breathhold out of the water create a less bad blackout situation than a helium breathhold in the water? I mean, if your face isn't submerged in water then you automatically start breathing through the nose right? How does the helium stop the breathing reflex from kicking in?