Putting Dry Ice In A Swimming Pool. Avoiding Blowing It #253

Dry Ice Is Pure Carbon Dioxide. First Breath Knocks You Unconscious, Second Kills You.

Over the weekend at a party in Moscow. A few people thought it would be a good idea to put dry ice in a swimming pool. If you ever witnessed dry ices smokey vapor billow from it’s interaction with a glass of water. You would deem it’s cool looking science. You could unwittingly surmise that it would be much cooler on a grander scale. I believe that thought may have crossed the minds of the party goers in Moscow. And three people died because of it.

If you have ever worked around CO2 you know that it is a very dangerous gas. In a brewery for instance you’re taught never to put your head into a fermenter or bright tank if CO2 could be present. There are CO2 detectors all through out the brewery. Why? Because CO2 is so deadly. As the saying goes the first breathe will knock you unconscious and the second will kill you. Carbon Dioxide is heavier than air so it settles to ground level. So when you do ultimately pass out you’re blanketed by the gas once on the floor.

So if you put it in a pool right where your head bobs out is a thick layer of deadly gas. Just small breathe of it is like a punch to the face if you can survive the knock out blow. Get out of there immediately. A pool is actually a multiplier of the danger. You hold your breath to go under water when you come up the first thing you want to do is take a big breathe and bam like that you’re unconscious. Hard for anyone to save you because you would need a oxygen tank just to breathe while exerting yourself in that environment. Others would parish too without it if they tried to jump into to the pool to grab others.

Just err on the side of caution. If you want a smokey pool rent a smoke machine. And take gases very seriously if you don’t know how they affect the body don’t use them. The fact that you have to be 18 to purchase dry ice should signify the dangers but maybe we need even more warning labels.