Demystify: 

One of the responses to my inquiry last Friday about liquid nitrogen storage was from the Weill Cornell Medical campus in New York City. They provided two documents that are likely to be of interest to people interested in this topic. One is a powerpoint overview of
A Method for Assessing Asphyxiation Hazard from Cryogenic Material
the other is a PDF form that leads one through
Assessing the Asphyxiation Hazards of Liquid Nitrogen in Laboratory Spaces

Since DCHAS-L doesn't accept attachments, these files are available for download at
http://www.dchas.org/file-downloads/category/85-liquid-n2-safety

I was especially interested in some statistics provided in the powerpoint file:
From 1992 to 2002
85 nitrogen asphyxiation incidents:
- 62% industrial, maritime, and manufacturing
sites
- 13% Maintenance activities
- 14% trenches/manholes
- 11% Laboratories/Hospitals
80 deaths and 50 injuries
Incident in 2000 at NYPH/WCMC killed one and injured six

Thanks to Matthew Brinton and Erik Talley for sharing their work.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart
secretary**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org
Secretary
Division of Chemical Health and Safety
American Chemical Society

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