WEBVTT
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A Moscow corporate party turned into a medical emergency when
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a celebrity chef's flashy cryo show cocktail expanded inside a
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man's stomach like an internal airbag, rupturing the organ and
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sending him to the ICU. And he's far from the
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only victim. I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Dark News.
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Happy New Year, everybody, and welcome to our very first
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episode of Weird Dark News for twenty twenty six. Corporate
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holiday parties are notorious for awkward small talk with the
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accounting department, questionable dancing by middle management, and that one
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coworker who treats the open bar like a personal challenge
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from God. But a corporate Christmas party in Moscow just
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last week, December twenty twenty five added a new achievement
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to the list, sending a guest to emergency surgery because
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the drinks were served at negative one hundred and ninety
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six degrees celsius. Yeah. Turns out the holiday spirit can
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be deadly, especially when it has been flash frozen with
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a cryogenic compound capable of rupturing internal organs. The incident
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occurred at Egrostolov, which translates to game of tables. A
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culinary studio in Moscow then offers cooking classes, children's events,
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and corporate retreats. On this particular evening, the studio had
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hired an unnamed celebrity chef to entertain guests with a
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flashy cryo show, which is exactly what it sounds like,
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cocktails made with liquid nitrogen, creating that dramatic fog effect
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beloved buy mad scientists, mixologists who think that they're mad scientists,
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and apparently anybody who wants to feel like they're drinking
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at a Halloween themed nightclub run by chemistry professors. With
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poor judgment, the chef poured liquid nitrogen directly into paper cups,
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creating thick clouds of vapor that billowed over the drinks
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while guests laughed and filmed. This is the part where
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you might expect someone anyone to mention that liquid nitrogen
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boils at negative one hundred and ninety six degrees celsius.
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That's negative three hundred and twenty one degrees fahrenheit. For
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those who prefer their temperatures and American chaos units like
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me and you should absolutely, under no circumstances be consuming
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this before it has completely evaporated. No one mentioned this.
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According to the Russian telegram channel Baza, which originally reported
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the incident, a thirty eight year old guest named Sergee
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was handed one of these smoking cups and allegedly encouraged
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by the chef to drink it immediately. A viral video
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circulating online shows what happened next. Serge takes a stip
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from the paper cup, and within seconds, nitrogen vapor bursts
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from his mouth and nose like he's an ice dragon.
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Overdoing it. At last call at the South Pole Pub,
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he recoils instantly, clutches his abdomen, and collapses in agony.
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Before drinking, Sergey reportedly joked to the chef, it was
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nice working with you. His coworkers probably thought this was
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office humor about the party being awkward. It was, in fact,
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an accidentally prophetic comment about the state of his internal organs.
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To understand why drinking liquid nitrogen is roughly equivalent to
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swallowing a small bomb, you need to understand one number
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six hundred ninety six, That is the expansion ratio of
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liquid nitrogen. One leader of liquid nitrogen becomes six hundred
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and ninety six leaders of nitrogen gas at room temperature.
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To put this into perspective, imagine trying to fit six
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hundred ninety six basketballs into a space designed for one basketball.
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Now imagine that space is your stomach. Now imagine the
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basketballs are appearing instantaneously and with great enthusiasm inside a room.
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This expansion is merely annoying. It can reduce oxygen levels
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and potentially cause asphyxiation in enclosed spaces. Inside a human stomach,
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which is decidedly not six hundred ninety six liters in
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capacity and did not consent to this physics experiment, the
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expansion creates what medical professionals would describe as an extremely
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bad time. The stomach, faced with the sudden presence of
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hundreds of times its expected gas volume, does what any
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reasonable organ would do when asked to accommodate the impossible.
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It ruptures. Doctors determined that when Sergey swallowed the cocktail,
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the liquid nitrogen began rapidly expanding inside his body. His
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stomach perforated almost instantly. Emergency services transported him to intensive care,
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where surgeons operated to suture the damaged organ. He reportedly
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regained consciousness after surgery, though his condition was described as serious.
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The physics here are unforgiving. Wood nitrogen has a boiling
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point of negative one hundred ninety six degrees celsius, so
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cold that carbon, steel, plastics, and rubber become brittle and
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fracture under even minimal stress, so cold that brief contact
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with skin can cause cryogenic burns, so cold that even
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the vapor can rapidly freeze human tissue and eye fluid.
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And so cold that when it hits the warm, moist
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environment of a human body like a stomach, it doesn't
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just warm up politely. It explosively converts to gas with
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the force of a substance that has been cryogenically compressed
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to one six hundred and ninety six of its natural
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volume and would very much like to return to its
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original state, thank you. The Culinary Studio has not publicly
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commented on whether they'll be updating their cryoshow protocols, though
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one might hope inform guests that the drink their holding
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could physically rupture their stomach makes it onto the new checklist.
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The Moscow incident somewhat horrifyingly not the first time liquid
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nitrogen cocktails have sent someone to emergency surgery. The substance
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has been rupturing stomachs with remarkable consistency for over a decade,
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which you'd think would be information more widely shared among
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people who serve it to strangers. Instead, we have what
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amounts to a global clinical trial on whether human internal
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organs can withstand cryogenic assault. A spoiler, no, they can't.
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The most famous case occurred in twenty twelve in Lancaster, England,
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when an eighteen year old Gabby Scanlon went out to
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celebrate her birthday with friends at Oscar's Wine Bar and Bistro.
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A bartender, learning it was her birthday, brought her a
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complimentary Jaegermeister shot made with liquid nitrogen, a free drink
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with the potential to kill her. Scanlon drank two of
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these shots. The first went down find the second caused
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to what witnesses described as an explosion inside her stomach
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approximately four seconds after it was poured. Four seconds that's
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less time that it takes to unlock your phone. Smoke
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billowed from her mouth and nose, her stomach began to
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expand visibly. She told the court she felt something was
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wrong immediately. Smoke was coming from my nose and mouth straightway.
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I knew something was not right my stomach expanded. She
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was rushed to Lancaster Royal Infirmary, where doctors found a
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massive perforation in her stomach. The damage was so severe
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surgeons had no choice but to perform a total gastrectomy,
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the complete removal of her stomach, connecting her esophagus directly
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to her small bowel. Police stated she would have died
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if the operation had not been performed urgently. Scanlon did survive,
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but she now faces a lifetime of vitamin supplements, liquid
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replacement meals, and severely limited food options. She could no
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longer enjoy eating the way most people do. In court,
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she said she felt angry that these theatrical cocktails seemed
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to be aimed at younger people, especially eighteen year olds
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who were just legally able to drink and wanted to
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try something exciting. The bar was eventually fined one hundred
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thousand pounds approximately one hundred and fifty five thousand dollars for negligence,
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a very small price for a human stomach and a
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lifetime of losing the ability to eat pizza. The owner,
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Andrew Dunn, admitted he got the idea after seeing similar
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cocktails at a London bar which is a bit like
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admitting he got the idea for playing with fireworks after
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seeing someone else play with fireworks at a distance too
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far to observe the consequences. The bar had told staff
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to advise customers to wait ten seconds before drinking. This
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waiting time was found to be entirely baseless and insufficient.
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The judge said the bar had been too cavalier and
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failed to follow warnings about the dangerous chemical. Doctor John Ashton,
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Cumbria's director of Public Health, described a scan one as
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the victim of an irresponsible alcohol industry that's now competing
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on gimmicks. He was perhaps being generous by implying the
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industry was merely responsible, rather than actively attempting to discover
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creative ways to hospitalize its customers. England and Russia aren't
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alone in the liquid and nitrogen hospitalization club. This is
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depressingly an international phenomenon. In twenty seventeen, a thirty year
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old man in Deli, India, learned an expensive lesson about
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cocktail consumption at a trendy bar. The man who requested
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to remain anonymous, presumably because guy who had his stomach
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opened to like a book by drinking the wrong thing
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is not how anybody wants to be known anyway. He
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consumed a cocktail with white smoke flowing from it without
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waiting for the nitrogen to evaporate, then experiencing discomforts, but
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chalking it up to acid reflux, he accepted and drank
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a second one. Within seconds, his stomach began to swell.
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He developed extreme pain and difficulty breathing. He was rushed
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to Columbia Asia Hospital in Gergawn, where doctors performed emergency surgery.
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His stomach, according to the surgeon, doctor amit Deep Tagaswami,
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us open like a book. The tear was so large
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that it could not simply be stitched back together. The
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tissue near the perforation was too damaged. Doctors removed the
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damaged portions of his stomach and connected what remained to
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his small intestine. He spent three days on a ventilator
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before regaining consciousness. Consuming liquid nitrogen can cause havoc in
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a person's system, Doctor Gazwami told reporters in what may
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be the most understated medical assessment in the history of understatements,
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the gas did not have an escape route. He said,
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after the person consumed it and the sphincter closed. This
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is what led to a perforation in his stomach. The
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Dely case highlighted a troubling regulatory gap. While India's Food
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Safety and Standards Authority permits liquid nitrogen as a freezing
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agent in food manufacturing, where it evaporates completely before the
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product reaches consumers, there were no clear guidelines for its
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use in cocktails served immediately at the point of sale.
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The substance was simply being poured and served without any
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form safety protocols. The first recorded case of liquid nitrogen
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ingestion in medical literature occurred in nineteen ninety seven when
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a physics student in Massachusetts was demonstrating the Leidenfrost effect,
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the phenomenon where a vapor layer forms between a liquid
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and a much hotter surface, creating an insulating barrier. This
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is why liquid nitrogen skidders across floors like a caffeinated
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mercury droplet, and why some demonstrators have historically put liquid
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nitrogen in their mouths and exhaled dramatic plumes of condensed
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vapor without immediate harm. The keyword there is immediate. The
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physics student accidentally swallowed some of the liquid nitrogen during
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the demonstration and suffered near fatal injuries. The Leidenfrost effect
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works very well at protecting surfaces, it works significantly less
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well once the liquid is actively in your digestive system,
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where your stomach lining is not particularly interested in supporting
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a theatrical physics demonstration. This hasn't stopped people from continuing
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the demonstrations. One physicist described in the journal article Boiling
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and the Leidenfrost Effect how he used to put liquid
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nitrogen in his mouth and exhale plumes vapor until the
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liquid quote thermally contracted two of my front teeth so
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severely that the enable ruptured into a roadmap of fissures. Quote.
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His dentist, presumably after composing himself and resisting the urge
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to ask why his patient was gargling with cryogenic substances,
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convinced the physicist to drop the demonstration. Sometimes the most
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important scientific discoveries are the ones that teach us to
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stop doing something. Russia alone has seen multiple nitrogen incidents
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in twenty twenty five, just months before the Moscow Christmas
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Party disaster. In February twenty twenty five, a twenty three
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year old woman at a corporate event at a culinary
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studio in Saint Petersburg drank soda containing liquid nitrogen and
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suffered an esophageal burn. The esophagus, it turns out, also
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does not appreciate being exposed to substances cold enough to
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freeze human tissue instantaneously. Russia appears to be conducting an
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informal nationwide experiment on whether corporate parties can be made
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more interesting through cryogenic beverages. The results so far suggest
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they can, though not in the way anyone intended. Perhaps
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the most disturbing chapter in the liquid nitrogen saga involves
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a product marketed primarily to children, Dragon's Breath deserts. Dragon's
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Breath is a frozen treat made from colorful cereal balls,
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typically with a flavor similar to fruit loops, dipped in
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liquid nitrogen and served in a cup. When placed in
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the eater's mouth, the cold of the nitrogen combines with
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the warmth of the mouth to release visible vapors, allowing
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the person to breathe smoke quote unquote out of their
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nose and mouth like a dragon, or like somebody making
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a terrible decision, depending on your perspective. The product became
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wildly popular on TikTok and Instagram, spreading through mauls, carnival
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and fares across Asia and the United States. Children loved it,
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of course. The US Food and Drug Administration did not
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love it, of course. In twenty eighteen, the FDA issued
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a safety alert warning that Dragon's Breath and similar products
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marketed under names like Heaven's Breath and Nitro Puff had
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caused severe and in some cases, life threatening injuries, such
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as damage to skin and internal organs caused by liquid
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nitrogen still present in the food or drink. Reports documented
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difficulty breathing after inhaling the vapor, and injuries to skin
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and internal organs from handling or eating these products. In Florida,
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the boy suffered an asthma attack after consuming Dragon's Breath.
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His mother, Rachel Richard McKenney, wrote on Facebook that her
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son nearly died after his airways constricted from the cold vapor.
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They had to drive to a fire station where he
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was given life saving treatment. Please, if you know someone
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that is even just a mild case of asthma, do
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not let them have this snow. She wrote. I should
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have known better, but it did not occur to me.
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That this food could have this effect. As a result,
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my son could have died. In Pensacola, Florida, a fourteen
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year old girl went to the hospital after burning her
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hand while eating Dragon's Breath. In Indonesia, the problem became
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widespread enough that the Ministry of Health issued a public
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warning in twenty twenty three after more than twenty five
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children were hurt consuming Dragon's Breath candies, including two who
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were hospitalized. One four year old boy in Jakarta was
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admitted with severe stomach pain. A child in East Java
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suffered cold burns on his skin. The ministry urged parents, teachers,
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and local health authorities to educate children about the dangers,
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presumably because don't eat the thing that's so cold that
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can instantly freeze your internal organs is not an intuitive
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concept for most elementary school students. The FDA's recommendation was straightforward,
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avoid eating, drinking, or handling food products prepared with liquid
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nitrogen at the po to sale immediately before consumption. But
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this advisory faced the same problem as most sensible health recommendations.
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It requires people to know about it before they make
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the decision. Its advising against liquid nitrogen doesn't just destroy stomachs.
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Given sufficient opportunity, it'll destroy pretty much anything. On January twelfth,
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two thousand and six, at approximately three am, a liquid
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nitrogen tank at Texas A and M University decided to
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demonstrate exactly how much force six hundred ninety six to
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one expansion can generate. The tank in question was about
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twenty six years old and had at some point been
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modified by persons unknown. The pressure relief devices safety mechanisms
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specifically designed to prevent exactly this sort of catastrophe had
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been removed and sealed with brass plugs. Without these safeguards,
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pressure built inside the tank until it reached approximately twelve
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hundred psi. Then the bottom blew out. The force of
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the explosion was sufficient to prepare the tank through the
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ceiling immediately above it. It shattered a reinforced concrete beam
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directly below it. It blew the walls of the laboratory
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point one two point two meters off their foundations. It
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turned the tile floor within a five foot radius into
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quarter sized pieces of shrapnel that embedded themselves in the
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walls and doors of the lab. The floor cracked, but
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held barely thanks to the supporting beam, which was destroyed
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In the process, the tank minus its bottom, rocketed through
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the concrete ceiling and into the mechanical room above, where
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it was stopped only by a water pipe. Had anyone
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been in the laboratory at three am, they would very
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likely have been killed. The university's accident report noted with
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impressive understatement that without these two safeguards in place, it
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was only a matter of time until an explosion occurred.
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The Texas A and M incident was a laboratory accident.
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The twenty twenty one disaster in Gainsville, Georgia, was something
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far worse. January twenty eighth, twenty one, a liquid nitrogen
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leak at Foundation Food Group's poultry processing plant killed six
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workers and injured at least a dozen others. The plant,
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located in a city nicknamed Poultry Capital of the World,
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used liquid nitrogen to flash freeze processed chicken. A bent
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tube in an immersion freezer, likely damaged during maintenance, caused
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the freezer to fill with an unsafe level of liquid nitrogen,
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which overflowed and rapidly vaporized into a four to five
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foot high cloud of nitrogen gas. Nitrogen gases odorless and colorless.
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The workers had no warning. Three maintenance workers entered the
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freezer room and immediately died of asphyxiation. Additional workers entered
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to try to rescue their colleagues and also died immediately.
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A sixth person died while being transported to the hospital.
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The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board later determined
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the deaths were completely preventable. Foundation Food Group had failed
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to try treing employees on the hazards of liquid nitrogen.
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Workers were not equipped with air monitoring or alarm devices
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that could have warned them about the dangerous vapor cloud.
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The company had allowed the position responsible for safety management
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to remain vacant for over a year before the incident.
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OSHA issued fifty nine violations and proposed nearly a million
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dollars in penalties, with officials, including Labor Secretary Marty Walsh,
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calling the six deaths entirely avoidable. The tragedy was made
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worse by the fact that workers died trying to save
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their colleagues. At least fourteen employees entered the freezer room
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or surrounding area to investigate or attempt rescues. They had
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no idea that the invisible cloud they were walking into
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was displacing all the oxygen in the air. In two
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thousand and nine, a twenty four year old German chef
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named Martin Anger learned that liquid nitrogen does not forgive
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amateur experimentation. Anger was a fan of molecular gastronomy, the
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culinary movement that applied scientific techniques to cooking, popularized by
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celebrity chefs like Heston Blumenthal and for Ran Andrea. He
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somehow obtained a canister of liquid nitrogen and decided to
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try a recipe at his girlfriend's mother's house. This was
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in retrospect, several poor decisions stacked on top of each other.
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There was an enormous explosion. Anger's right hand was shredded
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by the force of the blast. He was rushed to
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the hospital, where doctors determined his left hand was so
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00:20:28.359 --> 00:20:31.640
badly injured it had to be amputated. He also suffered
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serious injuries to his leg and genital area. His condition
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was described as life threatening and he was placed on
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artificial respiration. In a small miracle, surgeons were able to
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reattach his left hand, though doctors estimated it would require
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up to ten operations and that function would be restored
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to only sixty to seventy percent capacity. When police arrived
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to investigate the explosion, Anger initially claimed that he'd been
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trying to fill a gas lighter. His girlfriend, and apparently
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unwilling to cover for him, said he was trying to
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empty a canister of liquid nitrogen for cooking. Liquid nitrogen
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does not explode easily under normal circumstances. Investigators suspected the
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explosion occurred because Anger sealed or pressurized the container in
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some way, allowing pressure to build until catastrophic failure. This
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is essentially the same mechanism that launched the Texas A
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and M tank through a concrete ceiling, except Anger was
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holding the container when it happened. The lesson here is
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that liquid nitrogen belongs in professional kitchens with trained staff
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and proper equipment, not in your girlfriend's mother's apartment while
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you attempt to recreate a dish you saw on television.
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The appeal of liquid nitrogen in cocktails is purely aesthetic.
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It creates that smoky, mysterious fog effect that looks incredible
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in photos and videos. It chills drinks faster than nice
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ever could. It makes you feel like you're drinking something
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from a science fiction movie. Which, to be fair, you
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kind of are, although typically in science fiction movies the
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characters drinking from smoking vessels are either villains or about
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to be attacked by villains. When handled properly by trained professionals,
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liquid nitrogen can be used safely in food and drink preparation.
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Master mixologists typically swirl the liquid nitrogen around the glass
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until it completely evaporates, then pour in the alcohol, which
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retains a lingering mist. The key is that nothing is
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served until the nitrogen has entirely transformed from cryogenic liquid
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into harmless atmospheric gas. At that point, you're basically drinking
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from just a very cold glass surrounded by dramatic visual effects.
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The problem is that handled properly by trained professionals is
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doing an enormous amount of work. In that sentence, the
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theatrical appeal of liquid nitrogen tends to attract establishments and
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performers more interested in the show than these safety protocols,
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and the consequences of getting it wrong are catastrophic. Professor
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Peter Barham of the University of Bristol's School of Physics
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put it plainly after the Gabby Scanlon case, saying liquid
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nitrogen can be used safely in the preparation of foods. However,
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since it is not safe to ingest liquid nitrogen, do
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care must be taken to ensure that the liquid has
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all evaporated before serving any food or drink that was
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prepared with liquid nitrogen. That seems straightforward, wait for the
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thing that will destroy your internal organs to finish evaporating.
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And yet John Emsley, a science writer and fellow at
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the Royal Society of Chemistry, explained the physics to the BBC, saying,
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if you drink more than a few drops of liquid nitrogen,
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certainly a teaspoon, it would freeze and become solid and
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brittle like glass. Imagine if that happened in the ailmentary
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canal or the stomach. The liquid also quickly picks up heat, boils,
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and becomes a gas, which could cause damage such as perforations,
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or cause a stomach to burst. A substance so cold
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it turns your digestive system brittle like glass, then immediately
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converts to six hundred and ninety six times its volume
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and gas while still inside you. Not exactly a recipe
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for a fun night out. A substance capable of rupturing
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human stomachs requiring emergency gastroctomies. Killing workers in industrial accidents,
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and hospitalizing children would seem to demand heavy regulation when
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used in food service, it doesn't. In the United States,
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the FDA's twenty eighteen advisory about Dragon's Breath and similar
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products was exactly that and advisory. It warned consumers to
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avoid these products and recommended retailers cease selling them, but
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it wasn't a ban. It wasn't even a formal regulation,
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It was just a strongly worded suggestion. In the UK,
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after the Gabby scanl in case, the Food Standards Agency
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issued warnings about liquid nitrogen cocktails, but the cocktails weren't banned.
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Bars are still free to serve them as long as
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they take some care about it, though what constitutes adequate
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00:25:09.799 --> 00:25:14.519
care remains somewhat ambiguous. Interesting that the UK will ban
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words and phrases considered politically incorrect, making it be legal
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to use them, yet doesn't ban something that allowed right
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to kill you if you consume even a few drops
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of it. In India, the Food Safety and Standards Authority
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permits liquid nitrogen as a freezing agent in food manufacturing,
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but when the Deliman's systomach was perforated. In twenty seventeen,
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officials acknowledged there were no clear guidelines for its use
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in cocktails. Restaurant owners were using it for theatrical effects
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00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:45.720
without any formal safety training or protocols. In Russia, liquid
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00:25:45.799 --> 00:25:49.200
nitrogen cocktails are served at corporate parties with celebrity chefs
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who apparently don't warn guests about the risks of consuming
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cryogenic substances. The regulatory landscape is a patchwork of warnings, advisories,
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and general assumption that people will figure out not to
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drink things that can rupture their internal organs. This approach
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has not been entirely successful. For the sake of clarity,
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here is a recap of what we have documented about
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00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:15.759
liquid nitrogen consumption just in this episode, all of which
409
00:26:15.799 --> 00:26:19.240
have been documented in news reports and medical literature. A
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00:26:19.240 --> 00:26:23.559
physics student in Massachusetts nineteen ninety seven accidentally swallowed liquid
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nitrogen during a leidenfrost effect demonstration and suffered near fatal injuries.
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00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:32.079
The first recorded case of ingestion, A physicist cracked the
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enamel on two of his front teeth by repeatedly putting
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liquid nitrogen in his mouth to exhale vapor, creating a
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00:26:38.279 --> 00:26:42.039
roadmap of fissures. An eighteen year old in Lancaster, England,
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00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:45.720
twenty twelve had her entire stomach removed after drinking two
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00:26:45.799 --> 00:26:48.920
liquid nitrogen Yegermeister shots at a bar on a birthday.
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A thirty year old man in Deli twenty seventeen had
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portions of his stomach removed after drinking two liquid nitrogen cocktails.
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Doctors described his stomach as open like a book. A
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00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:03.440
German chef two thousand and nine lost both hands in
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an explosion while experimenting with liquid nitrogen at his girlfriend's
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mother's house. One hand was later reattached. A liquid nitrogen
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tank at Texas A and M University in two thousand
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00:27:14.119 --> 00:27:18.039
and six exploded through a concrete ceiling after someone removed
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00:27:18.039 --> 00:27:22.519
the pressure relief devices. Six workers in Gainesville, Georgia, twenty
427
00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:25.960
twenty one died of asphyxiation when a liquid nitrogen leak
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00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:29.559
created an invisible cloud that displaced oxygen in a poultry
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plant freezer room. A twenty three year old woman in
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00:27:32.680 --> 00:27:37.119
Saint Petersburg, Russia, February twenty twenty five suffered esofagial burns
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00:27:37.160 --> 00:27:40.319
from drinking soda containing liquid nitrogen at a corporate event.
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A thirty eight year old man in Moscow, Russia, December
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twenty twenty five, had his stomach ruptured by a liquid
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00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:50.799
nitrogen cocktail at a corporate Christmas party. Twenty five children
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00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:53.960
in Indonesia twenty twenty two through twenty twenty three were
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00:27:54.039 --> 00:27:57.920
hurt consuming Dragon's Breath candies, including one four year old
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00:27:58.039 --> 00:28:02.200
hospitalized with severe stomach pain. A boy in Florida suffered
438
00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:05.440
a near fatal asthma attack after consuming Dragon's Breath. The
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00:28:05.480 --> 00:28:09.119
fourteen year old girl in Pensacola, Florida, was hospitalized after
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00:28:09.160 --> 00:28:13.039
burning her hand while eating Dragon's Breath. Multiple lawsuits have
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00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:16.079
been filed in the United States by individuals who suffered
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00:28:16.119 --> 00:28:19.759
burns or internal injuries from Dragon's Breath products at mals
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00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:23.400
and fairs. This list is not comprehensive. It's just what
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00:28:23.480 --> 00:28:25.759
I had time to share in this episode. These are
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00:28:25.799 --> 00:28:28.680
simply the incidents that made the news. The actual number
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00:28:28.759 --> 00:28:34.119
of liquid nitrogen injuries is certainly higher. Sergeys reportedly recovering
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00:28:34.119 --> 00:28:36.880
in the ICU, having survived a holiday party that very
448
00:28:36.920 --> 00:28:41.119
nearly killed him. His stomach, though sutured, will presumably never
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00:28:41.160 --> 00:28:44.000
look at a smoking beverage. The same way. Again. The
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00:28:44.039 --> 00:28:47.480
celebrity chef who served the drink has not been publicly identified,
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which is probably for the best, given that the chef
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00:28:50.200 --> 00:28:53.039
who ruptured a mand's stomach at Christmas is not a
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title that inspires consumer confidence. Liquid nitrogen continues to be
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00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:01.160
legal to use in food service, despite a growing catalog
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00:29:01.279 --> 00:29:07.759
of perforated stomachs, removed organs, burned aesophaguy, exploded tanks, asphyxiated workers,
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00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.160
hospitalized children, and at least one physics teacher's permanently fissured
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tooth enamel. The substance expands six hundred and ninety six
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00:29:16.680 --> 00:29:21.680
times its volume, has no warning properties like odor or color,
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00:29:21.839 --> 00:29:25.079
boils at negative one hundred ninety six degrees celsius, and
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00:29:25.160 --> 00:29:29.079
can cause tissue damage on contact. It is, in other words,
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00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:32.359
a uniquely terrible substance to pour into a paper cup
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00:29:32.680 --> 00:29:35.480
and hand to somebody at a party. But it does
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make a really impressive fog. If you find yourself in
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an establishment serving liquid nitrogen cocktails, the FDA's advice is straightforward,
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wait for the nitrogen to fully evaporate before drinking. You'll
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00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:51.480
know it's evaporated when the bubbling has stopped. And there's
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00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:54.240
no liquid pooling in the bottom of the cup. If
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somebody tells you to drink it immediately, don't. If the
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bartender seems unsure about safety, pro order something else and
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probably find another place to go drinking with your friends.
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And if you're at a corporate party and a celebrity
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chef hands you a smoking beverage, maybe just stick with beer.
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Your stomach well. Thank you. If you'd like to read
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00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:18.400
this story for yourself or share the article with a friend,
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you can read it on the Weird Darkness website. I've
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placed a link to it in the episode description, and
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00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:25.759
you can find more stories of the paranormal, true crime, strange,
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00:30:25.799 --> 00:30:28.680
and more, including numerous stories that never make it to
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the podcast in my Weird Darknews blog at Weird Darkness
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dot com. Slash news and Happy New Year.
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A Moscow corporate party turned into a medical emergency when
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a celebrity chef's flashy cryo show cocktail expanded inside a
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man's stomach like an internal airbag, rupturing the organ and
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sending him to the ICU. And he's far from the
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only victim. I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Dark News.
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Happy New Year, everybody, and welcome to our very first
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episode of Weird Dark News for twenty twenty six. Corporate
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holiday parties are notorious for awkward small talk with the
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accounting department, questionable dancing by middle management, and that one
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coworker who treats the open bar like a personal challenge
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from God. But a corporate Christmas party in Moscow just
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last week, December twenty twenty five added a new achievement
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to the list, sending a guest to emergency surgery because
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the drinks were served at negative one hundred and ninety
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six degrees celsius. Yeah. Turns out the holiday spirit can
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be deadly, especially when it has been flash frozen with
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a cryogenic compound capable of rupturing internal organs. The incident
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occurred at Egrostolov, which translates to game of tables. A
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culinary studio in Moscow then offers cooking classes, children's events,
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and corporate retreats. On this particular evening, the studio had
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hired an unnamed celebrity chef to entertain guests with a
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flashy cryo show, which is exactly what it sounds like,
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cocktails made with liquid nitrogen, creating that dramatic fog effect
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beloved buy mad scientists, mixologists who think that they're mad scientists,
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and apparently anybody who wants to feel like they're drinking
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at a Halloween themed nightclub run by chemistry professors. With
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poor judgment, the chef poured liquid nitrogen directly into paper cups,
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creating thick clouds of vapor that billowed over the drinks
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while guests laughed and filmed. This is the part where
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you might expect someone anyone to mention that liquid nitrogen
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boils at negative one hundred and ninety six degrees celsius.
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That's negative three hundred and twenty one degrees fahrenheit. For
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those who prefer their temperatures and American chaos units like
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me and you should absolutely, under no circumstances be consuming
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this before it has completely evaporated. No one mentioned this.
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According to the Russian telegram channel Baza, which originally reported
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the incident, a thirty eight year old guest named Sergee
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was handed one of these smoking cups and allegedly encouraged
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by the chef to drink it immediately. A viral video
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circulating online shows what happened next. Serge takes a stip
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from the paper cup, and within seconds, nitrogen vapor bursts
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from his mouth and nose like he's an ice dragon.
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Overdoing it. At last call at the South Pole Pub,
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he recoils instantly, clutches his abdomen, and collapses in agony.
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Before drinking, Sergey reportedly joked to the chef, it was
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nice working with you. His coworkers probably thought this was
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office humor about the party being awkward. It was, in fact,
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an accidentally prophetic comment about the state of his internal organs.
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To understand why drinking liquid nitrogen is roughly equivalent to
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swallowing a small bomb, you need to understand one number
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six hundred ninety six, That is the expansion ratio of
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liquid nitrogen. One leader of liquid nitrogen becomes six hundred
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and ninety six leaders of nitrogen gas at room temperature.
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To put this into perspective, imagine trying to fit six
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hundred ninety six basketballs into a space designed for one basketball.
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Now imagine that space is your stomach. Now imagine the
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basketballs are appearing instantaneously and with great enthusiasm inside a room.
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This expansion is merely annoying. It can reduce oxygen levels
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and potentially cause asphyxiation in enclosed spaces. Inside a human stomach,
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which is decidedly not six hundred ninety six liters in
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capacity and did not consent to this physics experiment, the
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expansion creates what medical professionals would describe as an extremely
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bad time. The stomach, faced with the sudden presence of
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hundreds of times its expected gas volume, does what any
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reasonable organ would do when asked to accommodate the impossible.
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It ruptures. Doctors determined that when Sergey swallowed the cocktail,
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the liquid nitrogen began rapidly expanding inside his body. His
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stomach perforated almost instantly. Emergency services transported him to intensive care,
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where surgeons operated to suture the damaged organ. He reportedly
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regained consciousness after surgery, though his condition was described as serious.
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The physics here are unforgiving. Wood nitrogen has a boiling
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point of negative one hundred ninety six degrees celsius, so
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cold that carbon, steel, plastics, and rubber become brittle and
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fracture under even minimal stress, so cold that brief contact
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with skin can cause cryogenic burns, so cold that even
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the vapor can rapidly freeze human tissue and eye fluid.
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And so cold that when it hits the warm, moist
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environment of a human body like a stomach, it doesn't
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just warm up politely. It explosively converts to gas with
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the force of a substance that has been cryogenically compressed
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to one six hundred and ninety six of its natural
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volume and would very much like to return to its
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original state, thank you. The Culinary Studio has not publicly
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commented on whether they'll be updating their cryoshow protocols, though
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one might hope inform guests that the drink their holding
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could physically rupture their stomach makes it onto the new checklist.
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The Moscow incident somewhat horrifyingly not the first time liquid
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nitrogen cocktails have sent someone to emergency surgery. The substance
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has been rupturing stomachs with remarkable consistency for over a decade,
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which you'd think would be information more widely shared among
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people who serve it to strangers. Instead, we have what
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amounts to a global clinical trial on whether human internal
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organs can withstand cryogenic assault. A spoiler, no, they can't.
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The most famous case occurred in twenty twelve in Lancaster, England,
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when an eighteen year old Gabby Scanlon went out to
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celebrate her birthday with friends at Oscar's Wine Bar and Bistro.
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A bartender, learning it was her birthday, brought her a
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complimentary Jaegermeister shot made with liquid nitrogen, a free drink
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with the potential to kill her. Scanlon drank two of
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these shots. The first went down find the second caused
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to what witnesses described as an explosion inside her stomach
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approximately four seconds after it was poured. Four seconds that's
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less time that it takes to unlock your phone. Smoke
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billowed from her mouth and nose, her stomach began to
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expand visibly. She told the court she felt something was
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wrong immediately. Smoke was coming from my nose and mouth straightway.
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I knew something was not right my stomach expanded. She
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was rushed to Lancaster Royal Infirmary, where doctors found a
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massive perforation in her stomach. The damage was so severe
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surgeons had no choice but to perform a total gastrectomy,
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the complete removal of her stomach, connecting her esophagus directly
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to her small bowel. Police stated she would have died
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if the operation had not been performed urgently. Scanlon did survive,
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but she now faces a lifetime of vitamin supplements, liquid
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replacement meals, and severely limited food options. She could no
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longer enjoy eating the way most people do. In court,
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she said she felt angry that these theatrical cocktails seemed
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to be aimed at younger people, especially eighteen year olds
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who were just legally able to drink and wanted to
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try something exciting. The bar was eventually fined one hundred
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thousand pounds approximately one hundred and fifty five thousand dollars for negligence,
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a very small price for a human stomach and a
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lifetime of losing the ability to eat pizza. The owner,
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Andrew Dunn, admitted he got the idea after seeing similar
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cocktails at a London bar which is a bit like
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admitting he got the idea for playing with fireworks after
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seeing someone else play with fireworks at a distance too
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far to observe the consequences. The bar had told staff
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to advise customers to wait ten seconds before drinking. This
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waiting time was found to be entirely baseless and insufficient.
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The judge said the bar had been too cavalier and
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failed to follow warnings about the dangerous chemical. Doctor John Ashton,
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Cumbria's director of Public Health, described a scan one as
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the victim of an irresponsible alcohol industry that's now competing
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on gimmicks. He was perhaps being generous by implying the
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industry was merely responsible, rather than actively attempting to discover
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creative ways to hospitalize its customers. England and Russia aren't
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alone in the liquid and nitrogen hospitalization club. This is
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depressingly an international phenomenon. In twenty seventeen, a thirty year
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old man in Deli, India, learned an expensive lesson about
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cocktail consumption at a trendy bar. The man who requested
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to remain anonymous, presumably because guy who had his stomach
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opened to like a book by drinking the wrong thing
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is not how anybody wants to be known anyway. He
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consumed a cocktail with white smoke flowing from it without
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waiting for the nitrogen to evaporate, then experiencing discomforts, but
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chalking it up to acid reflux, he accepted and drank
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a second one. Within seconds, his stomach began to swell.
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He developed extreme pain and difficulty breathing. He was rushed
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to Columbia Asia Hospital in Gergawn, where doctors performed emergency surgery.
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His stomach, according to the surgeon, doctor amit Deep Tagaswami,
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us open like a book. The tear was so large
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that it could not simply be stitched back together. The
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tissue near the perforation was too damaged. Doctors removed the
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damaged portions of his stomach and connected what remained to
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his small intestine. He spent three days on a ventilator
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before regaining consciousness. Consuming liquid nitrogen can cause havoc in
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a person's system, Doctor Gazwami told reporters in what may
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be the most understated medical assessment in the history of understatements,
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the gas did not have an escape route. He said,
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after the person consumed it and the sphincter closed. This
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is what led to a perforation in his stomach. The
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Dely case highlighted a troubling regulatory gap. While India's Food
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Safety and Standards Authority permits liquid nitrogen as a freezing
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agent in food manufacturing, where it evaporates completely before the
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product reaches consumers, there were no clear guidelines for its
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use in cocktails served immediately at the point of sale.
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The substance was simply being poured and served without any
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form safety protocols. The first recorded case of liquid nitrogen
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ingestion in medical literature occurred in nineteen ninety seven when
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a physics student in Massachusetts was demonstrating the Leidenfrost effect,
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the phenomenon where a vapor layer forms between a liquid
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and a much hotter surface, creating an insulating barrier. This
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is why liquid nitrogen skidders across floors like a caffeinated
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mercury droplet, and why some demonstrators have historically put liquid
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nitrogen in their mouths and exhaled dramatic plumes of condensed
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vapor without immediate harm. The keyword there is immediate. The
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physics student accidentally swallowed some of the liquid nitrogen during
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the demonstration and suffered near fatal injuries. The Leidenfrost effect
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works very well at protecting surfaces, it works significantly less
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well once the liquid is actively in your digestive system,
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where your stomach lining is not particularly interested in supporting
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a theatrical physics demonstration. This hasn't stopped people from continuing
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the demonstrations. One physicist described in the journal article Boiling
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and the Leidenfrost Effect how he used to put liquid
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nitrogen in his mouth and exhale plumes vapor until the
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liquid quote thermally contracted two of my front teeth so
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severely that the enable ruptured into a roadmap of fissures. Quote.
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His dentist, presumably after composing himself and resisting the urge
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to ask why his patient was gargling with cryogenic substances,
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convinced the physicist to drop the demonstration. Sometimes the most
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important scientific discoveries are the ones that teach us to
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stop doing something. Russia alone has seen multiple nitrogen incidents
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in twenty twenty five, just months before the Moscow Christmas
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Party disaster. In February twenty twenty five, a twenty three
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year old woman at a corporate event at a culinary
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studio in Saint Petersburg drank soda containing liquid nitrogen and
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suffered an esophageal burn. The esophagus, it turns out, also
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does not appreciate being exposed to substances cold enough to
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freeze human tissue instantaneously. Russia appears to be conducting an
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informal nationwide experiment on whether corporate parties can be made
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more interesting through cryogenic beverages. The results so far suggest
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they can, though not in the way anyone intended. Perhaps
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the most disturbing chapter in the liquid nitrogen saga involves
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a product marketed primarily to children, Dragon's Breath deserts. Dragon's
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Breath is a frozen treat made from colorful cereal balls,
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typically with a flavor similar to fruit loops, dipped in
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liquid nitrogen and served in a cup. When placed in
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the eater's mouth, the cold of the nitrogen combines with
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the warmth of the mouth to release visible vapors, allowing
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the person to breathe smoke quote unquote out of their
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nose and mouth like a dragon, or like somebody making
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a terrible decision, depending on your perspective. The product became
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wildly popular on TikTok and Instagram, spreading through mauls, carnival
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and fares across Asia and the United States. Children loved it,
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of course. The US Food and Drug Administration did not
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love it, of course. In twenty eighteen, the FDA issued
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a safety alert warning that Dragon's Breath and similar products
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marketed under names like Heaven's Breath and Nitro Puff had
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caused severe and in some cases, life threatening injuries, such
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as damage to skin and internal organs caused by liquid
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nitrogen still present in the food or drink. Reports documented
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difficulty breathing after inhaling the vapor, and injuries to skin
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and internal organs from handling or eating these products. In Florida,
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the boy suffered an asthma attack after consuming Dragon's Breath.
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His mother, Rachel Richard McKenney, wrote on Facebook that her
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son nearly died after his airways constricted from the cold vapor.
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They had to drive to a fire station where he
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was given life saving treatment. Please, if you know someone
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that is even just a mild case of asthma, do
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not let them have this snow. She wrote. I should
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have known better, but it did not occur to me.
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That this food could have this effect. As a result,
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my son could have died. In Pensacola, Florida, a fourteen
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year old girl went to the hospital after burning her
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hand while eating Dragon's Breath. In Indonesia, the problem became
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widespread enough that the Ministry of Health issued a public
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warning in twenty twenty three after more than twenty five
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children were hurt consuming Dragon's Breath candies, including two who
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were hospitalized. One four year old boy in Jakarta was
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admitted with severe stomach pain. A child in East Java
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suffered cold burns on his skin. The ministry urged parents, teachers,
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and local health authorities to educate children about the dangers,
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presumably because don't eat the thing that's so cold that
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can instantly freeze your internal organs is not an intuitive
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concept for most elementary school students. The FDA's recommendation was straightforward,
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avoid eating, drinking, or handling food products prepared with liquid
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nitrogen at the po to sale immediately before consumption. But
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this advisory faced the same problem as most sensible health recommendations.
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It requires people to know about it before they make
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the decision. Its advising against liquid nitrogen doesn't just destroy stomachs.
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Given sufficient opportunity, it'll destroy pretty much anything. On January twelfth,
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two thousand and six, at approximately three am, a liquid
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nitrogen tank at Texas A and M University decided to
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demonstrate exactly how much force six hundred ninety six to
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one expansion can generate. The tank in question was about
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twenty six years old and had at some point been
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modified by persons unknown. The pressure relief devices safety mechanisms
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specifically designed to prevent exactly this sort of catastrophe had
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been removed and sealed with brass plugs. Without these safeguards,
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pressure built inside the tank until it reached approximately twelve
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hundred psi. Then the bottom blew out. The force of
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the explosion was sufficient to prepare the tank through the
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ceiling immediately above it. It shattered a reinforced concrete beam
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directly below it. It blew the walls of the laboratory
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point one two point two meters off their foundations. It
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turned the tile floor within a five foot radius into
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quarter sized pieces of shrapnel that embedded themselves in the
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walls and doors of the lab. The floor cracked, but
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held barely thanks to the supporting beam, which was destroyed
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In the process, the tank minus its bottom, rocketed through
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the concrete ceiling and into the mechanical room above, where
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it was stopped only by a water pipe. Had anyone
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been in the laboratory at three am, they would very
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likely have been killed. The university's accident report noted with
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impressive understatement that without these two safeguards in place, it
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was only a matter of time until an explosion occurred.
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The Texas A and M incident was a laboratory accident.
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The twenty twenty one disaster in Gainsville, Georgia, was something
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far worse. January twenty eighth, twenty one, a liquid nitrogen
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leak at Foundation Food Group's poultry processing plant killed six
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workers and injured at least a dozen others. The plant,
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located in a city nicknamed Poultry Capital of the World,
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used liquid nitrogen to flash freeze processed chicken. A bent
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tube in an immersion freezer, likely damaged during maintenance, caused
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the freezer to fill with an unsafe level of liquid nitrogen,
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which overflowed and rapidly vaporized into a four to five
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foot high cloud of nitrogen gas. Nitrogen gases odorless and colorless.
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The workers had no warning. Three maintenance workers entered the
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freezer room and immediately died of asphyxiation. Additional workers entered
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to try to rescue their colleagues and also died immediately.
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A sixth person died while being transported to the hospital.
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The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board later determined
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the deaths were completely preventable. Foundation Food Group had failed
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to try treing employees on the hazards of liquid nitrogen.
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Workers were not equipped with air monitoring or alarm devices
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that could have warned them about the dangerous vapor cloud.
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The company had allowed the position responsible for safety management
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to remain vacant for over a year before the incident.
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OSHA issued fifty nine violations and proposed nearly a million
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dollars in penalties, with officials, including Labor Secretary Marty Walsh,
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calling the six deaths entirely avoidable. The tragedy was made
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worse by the fact that workers died trying to save
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their colleagues. At least fourteen employees entered the freezer room
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or surrounding area to investigate or attempt rescues. They had
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no idea that the invisible cloud they were walking into
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was displacing all the oxygen in the air. In two
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thousand and nine, a twenty four year old German chef
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named Martin Anger learned that liquid nitrogen does not forgive
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amateur experimentation. Anger was a fan of molecular gastronomy, the
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culinary movement that applied scientific techniques to cooking, popularized by
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00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:07.000
celebrity chefs like Heston Blumenthal and for Ran Andrea. He
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somehow obtained a canister of liquid nitrogen and decided to
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try a recipe at his girlfriend's mother's house. This was
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in retrospect, several poor decisions stacked on top of each other.
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There was an enormous explosion. Anger's right hand was shredded
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by the force of the blast. He was rushed to
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the hospital, where doctors determined his left hand was so
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00:20:28.359 --> 00:20:31.640
badly injured it had to be amputated. He also suffered
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serious injuries to his leg and genital area. His condition
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was described as life threatening and he was placed on
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artificial respiration. In a small miracle, surgeons were able to
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reattach his left hand, though doctors estimated it would require
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up to ten operations and that function would be restored
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to only sixty to seventy percent capacity. When police arrived
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to investigate the explosion, Anger initially claimed that he'd been
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trying to fill a gas lighter. His girlfriend, and apparently
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unwilling to cover for him, said he was trying to
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empty a canister of liquid nitrogen for cooking. Liquid nitrogen
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does not explode easily under normal circumstances. Investigators suspected the
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explosion occurred because Anger sealed or pressurized the container in
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some way, allowing pressure to build until catastrophic failure. This
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is essentially the same mechanism that launched the Texas A
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and M tank through a concrete ceiling, except Anger was
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holding the container when it happened. The lesson here is
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that liquid nitrogen belongs in professional kitchens with trained staff
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and proper equipment, not in your girlfriend's mother's apartment while
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you attempt to recreate a dish you saw on television.
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The appeal of liquid nitrogen in cocktails is purely aesthetic.
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It creates that smoky, mysterious fog effect that looks incredible
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in photos and videos. It chills drinks faster than nice
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ever could. It makes you feel like you're drinking something
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from a science fiction movie. Which, to be fair, you
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kind of are, although typically in science fiction movies the
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characters drinking from smoking vessels are either villains or about
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to be attacked by villains. When handled properly by trained professionals,
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liquid nitrogen can be used safely in food and drink preparation.
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Master mixologists typically swirl the liquid nitrogen around the glass
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until it completely evaporates, then pour in the alcohol, which
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retains a lingering mist. The key is that nothing is
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served until the nitrogen has entirely transformed from cryogenic liquid
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into harmless atmospheric gas. At that point, you're basically drinking
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from just a very cold glass surrounded by dramatic visual effects.
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The problem is that handled properly by trained professionals is
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doing an enormous amount of work. In that sentence, the
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theatrical appeal of liquid nitrogen tends to attract establishments and
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performers more interested in the show than these safety protocols,
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and the consequences of getting it wrong are catastrophic. Professor
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Peter Barham of the University of Bristol's School of Physics
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put it plainly after the Gabby Scanlon case, saying liquid
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nitrogen can be used safely in the preparation of foods. However,
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since it is not safe to ingest liquid nitrogen, do
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care must be taken to ensure that the liquid has
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all evaporated before serving any food or drink that was
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prepared with liquid nitrogen. That seems straightforward, wait for the
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thing that will destroy your internal organs to finish evaporating.
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And yet John Emsley, a science writer and fellow at
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the Royal Society of Chemistry, explained the physics to the BBC, saying,
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if you drink more than a few drops of liquid nitrogen,
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certainly a teaspoon, it would freeze and become solid and
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brittle like glass. Imagine if that happened in the ailmentary
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canal or the stomach. The liquid also quickly picks up heat, boils,
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and becomes a gas, which could cause damage such as perforations,
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or cause a stomach to burst. A substance so cold
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it turns your digestive system brittle like glass, then immediately
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converts to six hundred and ninety six times its volume
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and gas while still inside you. Not exactly a recipe
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for a fun night out. A substance capable of rupturing
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human stomachs requiring emergency gastroctomies. Killing workers in industrial accidents,
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00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:30.480
and hospitalizing children would seem to demand heavy regulation when
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used in food service, it doesn't. In the United States,
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the FDA's twenty eighteen advisory about Dragon's Breath and similar
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products was exactly that and advisory. It warned consumers to
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avoid these products and recommended retailers cease selling them, but
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it wasn't a ban. It wasn't even a formal regulation,
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It was just a strongly worded suggestion. In the UK,
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after the Gabby scanl in case, the Food Standards Agency
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issued warnings about liquid nitrogen cocktails, but the cocktails weren't banned.
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Bars are still free to serve them as long as
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they take some care about it, though what constitutes adequate
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00:25:09.799 --> 00:25:14.519
care remains somewhat ambiguous. Interesting that the UK will ban
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words and phrases considered politically incorrect, making it be legal
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to use them, yet doesn't ban something that allowed right
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to kill you if you consume even a few drops
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of it. In India, the Food Safety and Standards Authority
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permits liquid nitrogen as a freezing agent in food manufacturing,
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but when the Deliman's systomach was perforated. In twenty seventeen,
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00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:37.319
officials acknowledged there were no clear guidelines for its use
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in cocktails. Restaurant owners were using it for theatrical effects
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00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:45.720
without any formal safety training or protocols. In Russia, liquid
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00:25:45.799 --> 00:25:49.200
nitrogen cocktails are served at corporate parties with celebrity chefs
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00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:52.359
who apparently don't warn guests about the risks of consuming
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cryogenic substances. The regulatory landscape is a patchwork of warnings, advisories,
404
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and general assumption that people will figure out not to
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drink things that can rupture their internal organs. This approach
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has not been entirely successful. For the sake of clarity,
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here is a recap of what we have documented about
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00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:15.759
liquid nitrogen consumption just in this episode, all of which
409
00:26:15.799 --> 00:26:19.240
have been documented in news reports and medical literature. A
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00:26:19.240 --> 00:26:23.559
physics student in Massachusetts nineteen ninety seven accidentally swallowed liquid
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nitrogen during a leidenfrost effect demonstration and suffered near fatal injuries.
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00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:32.079
The first recorded case of ingestion, A physicist cracked the
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00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:34.960
enamel on two of his front teeth by repeatedly putting
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00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:37.920
liquid nitrogen in his mouth to exhale vapor, creating a
415
00:26:38.279 --> 00:26:42.039
roadmap of fissures. An eighteen year old in Lancaster, England,
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00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:45.720
twenty twelve had her entire stomach removed after drinking two
417
00:26:45.799 --> 00:26:48.920
liquid nitrogen Yegermeister shots at a bar on a birthday.
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00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:52.480
A thirty year old man in Deli twenty seventeen had
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00:26:52.519 --> 00:26:56.400
portions of his stomach removed after drinking two liquid nitrogen cocktails.
420
00:26:56.839 --> 00:27:00.279
Doctors described his stomach as open like a book. A
421
00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:03.440
German chef two thousand and nine lost both hands in
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00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:07.119
an explosion while experimenting with liquid nitrogen at his girlfriend's
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mother's house. One hand was later reattached. A liquid nitrogen
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00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:14.119
tank at Texas A and M University in two thousand
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00:27:14.119 --> 00:27:18.039
and six exploded through a concrete ceiling after someone removed
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00:27:18.039 --> 00:27:22.519
the pressure relief devices. Six workers in Gainesville, Georgia, twenty
427
00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:25.960
twenty one died of asphyxiation when a liquid nitrogen leak
428
00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:29.559
created an invisible cloud that displaced oxygen in a poultry
429
00:27:29.599 --> 00:27:32.640
plant freezer room. A twenty three year old woman in
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00:27:32.680 --> 00:27:37.119
Saint Petersburg, Russia, February twenty twenty five suffered esofagial burns
431
00:27:37.160 --> 00:27:40.319
from drinking soda containing liquid nitrogen at a corporate event.
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00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:43.839
A thirty eight year old man in Moscow, Russia, December
433
00:27:43.880 --> 00:27:46.599
twenty twenty five, had his stomach ruptured by a liquid
434
00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:50.799
nitrogen cocktail at a corporate Christmas party. Twenty five children
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00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:53.960
in Indonesia twenty twenty two through twenty twenty three were
436
00:27:54.039 --> 00:27:57.920
hurt consuming Dragon's Breath candies, including one four year old
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00:27:58.039 --> 00:28:02.200
hospitalized with severe stomach pain. A boy in Florida suffered
438
00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:05.440
a near fatal asthma attack after consuming Dragon's Breath. The
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00:28:05.480 --> 00:28:09.119
fourteen year old girl in Pensacola, Florida, was hospitalized after
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00:28:09.160 --> 00:28:13.039
burning her hand while eating Dragon's Breath. Multiple lawsuits have
441
00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:16.079
been filed in the United States by individuals who suffered
442
00:28:16.119 --> 00:28:19.759
burns or internal injuries from Dragon's Breath products at mals
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00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:23.400
and fairs. This list is not comprehensive. It's just what
444
00:28:23.480 --> 00:28:25.759
I had time to share in this episode. These are
445
00:28:25.799 --> 00:28:28.680
simply the incidents that made the news. The actual number
446
00:28:28.759 --> 00:28:34.119
of liquid nitrogen injuries is certainly higher. Sergeys reportedly recovering
447
00:28:34.119 --> 00:28:36.880
in the ICU, having survived a holiday party that very
448
00:28:36.920 --> 00:28:41.119
nearly killed him. His stomach, though sutured, will presumably never
449
00:28:41.160 --> 00:28:44.000
look at a smoking beverage. The same way. Again. The
450
00:28:44.039 --> 00:28:47.480
celebrity chef who served the drink has not been publicly identified,
451
00:28:47.559 --> 00:28:50.160
which is probably for the best, given that the chef
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00:28:50.200 --> 00:28:53.039
who ruptured a mand's stomach at Christmas is not a
453
00:28:53.079 --> 00:28:57.839
title that inspires consumer confidence. Liquid nitrogen continues to be
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00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:01.160
legal to use in food service, despite a growing catalog
455
00:29:01.279 --> 00:29:07.759
of perforated stomachs, removed organs, burned aesophaguy, exploded tanks, asphyxiated workers,
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00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.160
hospitalized children, and at least one physics teacher's permanently fissured
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00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:16.599
tooth enamel. The substance expands six hundred and ninety six
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00:29:16.680 --> 00:29:21.680
times its volume, has no warning properties like odor or color,
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00:29:21.839 --> 00:29:25.079
boils at negative one hundred ninety six degrees celsius, and
460
00:29:25.160 --> 00:29:29.079
can cause tissue damage on contact. It is, in other words,
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00:29:29.119 --> 00:29:32.359
a uniquely terrible substance to pour into a paper cup
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00:29:32.680 --> 00:29:35.480
and hand to somebody at a party. But it does
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00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:39.119
make a really impressive fog. If you find yourself in
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00:29:39.160 --> 00:29:44.279
an establishment serving liquid nitrogen cocktails, the FDA's advice is straightforward,
465
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wait for the nitrogen to fully evaporate before drinking. You'll
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00:29:48.720 --> 00:29:51.480
know it's evaporated when the bubbling has stopped. And there's
467
00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:54.240
no liquid pooling in the bottom of the cup. If
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somebody tells you to drink it immediately, don't. If the
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bartender seems unsure about safety, pro order something else and
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probably find another place to go drinking with your friends.
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And if you're at a corporate party and a celebrity
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chef hands you a smoking beverage, maybe just stick with beer.
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Your stomach well. Thank you. If you'd like to read
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00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:18.400
this story for yourself or share the article with a friend,
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00:30:18.599 --> 00:30:20.759
you can read it on the Weird Darkness website. I've
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00:30:20.759 --> 00:30:22.839
placed a link to it in the episode description, and
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00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:25.759
you can find more stories of the paranormal, true crime, strange,
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00:30:25.799 --> 00:30:28.680
and more, including numerous stories that never make it to
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00:30:28.759 --> 00:30:32.279
the podcast in my Weird Darknews blog at Weird Darkness
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00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:35.680
dot com. Slash news and Happy New Year.
