But it's a "computer coolant" by virtue of it being cold, not because it is some exotic chemical. The issues are its physical properties. As a chemical, nitrogen is of course not toxic. It's most of the air you breathe and is constantly in contact with your body, unless you are underwater.

But it is not a toy. You can have a lot of fun with it if you fully understand its properties, but putting it in drinks is pretty stupid.

Only a true idiot would try to drink something with that in it.

We used to sweep the floors with it in the lab. It rides along on a cushion of its own vapor, like a drop of water on a hot iron, and pushes the dust like a broom. Even then, you want to be well ventilated.

There are some tricks to doing that safely.

1. Do not swallow it. Let it evaporate in your mouth.

2. Constantly swish it around so it's not resting in one spot in your mouth, otherwise you'll get frostbite. If you move it around, the "steam" barrier (actually bubbles of nitrogen gas) will protect the tissues in your mouth.

Seems like it's actually pretty manageable. 'Course, I also thought it was impossible to live without a functioning brain, but this young woman and her bartender have proved me wrong on that point as well...

IV feeding for life as a result in that case though, since stomach transplants aren't yet a thing.

I wouldn't expect most 18-yr-olds to understand the physical properties of nitrogen. Most people who walk into a bar and order a drink, have a reasonable expectation that it won't kill them.

that annihilate key internal organs. Not letting the bartender off the hook, though...

the bartender, more the bar manager, probably the bar owner, potentially whoever supplies them with liquid nitrogen.

The stuff's used often enough in some drinks that I wouldn't go as far as the suppliers, but people in the bar definitely need to be worked over with the Consequence Mallet. Either one person screwed up bad in that building, or a whole chain of people there did, and neither's acceptable at that point.

no tube or bag was necessary

Was there some alternative?

as the intestines break down food like the stomach does....

In the beginning, yes, we had to feed her through a tube, but that was for about a month. After that, she ate normally again and even was able to have a glass of wine each night. Unfortunately, the cancer returned, she got meningitis and died a few years later. But, she had 2 "good" years after the cancer surgery.

I miss her to death.

Sorry about your loss.

I've got nieces, nephews and greats, but miss my immediate family so much.

Life goes on though, huh? That's why I'm awake at 12:40 in the morning....loving life.....NOT

If we base every bit of legislation off the most ridiculous thing that can happen - and this is way up on that list - just about everything will end up forbidden in the first place. "Ban this because something went wrong somewhere!" is a terrible kneejerk, especially when the 'something' that went wrong required at least two people to be dangerously stupid twice in rapid succession.

That said, if a business serves someone food or drink that harms them, there's already a decent set of laws in most countries to serve up a dollop of consequences to the owner. Sure, this is a horrible thing, but I don't think it's the sort of thing that warrants new and almost certainly redundant legislation.

This is a freak corner case, which happens to be a very bad basis on which to write legislation.

Yep. DU got thumped in the knee and the resulting kick can be heard on the other side of the Internet...

What's wrong with a beer or a nice glass of wine, or even some spirits?

This need to be "trendy" is just dumb. I imagine Little Miss Stomach-less isn't feeling too "cool" or "trendy" these days.

She is not feeling too well. Here is how the paper reports that she responded to those who expressed their heartless and judgmental comments towards her online:

Good grief--you could use a dictionary. I am not speaking TO this woman--I am expressing an opinion about her stupid choice to chug down a couple of sub-zero drinks in rapid succession. Did she think her stomach was made of cast iron?

You coul also use an attitude adjustment. You certainly are behaving like a regular bully, telling me what I can and cannot say on a DISCUSSION board.

This is not the "xocet opinion board." And good thing, too. This is DU. People talk here and they have different views. Maybe you're unclear on the concept? Sure seems that way.

Maybe you should reconsider your post. Lecturing others in a rude and aggressively didactic fashion for having an opinion different than yours could also be construed as bullying--it's certainly uncivil at a minimum. Tell me, why do YOU feel the need to try to bully ME in this fashion? It speaks to your character, I should say. Good thing your effort is, as the trendy and cool kids say, a "major fail."

You're actually suggesting that someone who drinks this crap at a "trendy, cool, hotspot" isn't looking for a "trendy, cool, vibe?"

I have a bridge for sale. Great price, too.





Trendy: TV chef Heston Blumenthal has pioneered the use of liquid nitrogen
in his restaurants including making ice-cream using it

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2214268/Gaby-Scanlon-Teenager-stomach-removed-save-life-drinking-trendy-liquid-nitrogen-cocktail.html#ixzz28mXiLYs0

People generally trust those preparing their food and drinks not to kill them. This woman is no more deserving your scorn* than someone who suffered from e-coli after eating at a hamburger stand.

(*which is oddly specific in its anger towards "trendy and cool kids." Did a hipster steal your Pabst or something?)

specifically noted for doing these sorts of drinks.

I have to wonder if that bar wasn't her first stop of the night. If she were on a pub crawl it's entirely possible that she was already impaired.

Surely after the first drink a problem would have been detected under normal circumstances? According to reports, she slammed down two drinks in rapid succession.

Caution may not be a strong suit of the young, but that was one helluva lesson.

That may not have been her first time in a public house or bar, either. The drinking age in UK is sixteen if you're ordering food as well, and children over five are allowed to tipple at home.

Caveat emptor, friend. Your own damn fault you didn't run that ground chuck through your lab first. What, you don't have a lab? Way to dodge personal responsibility.



If a licensed establishment has an item in their selection, you aren't going to order it with hte assumption "hey, this might kill me" you assume it's safe. We're not talking about a drink whipped up in your best friend's basement from his homemade still or something.

But that's me.

I'd probably be the type to be sure the Baked Alaska wasn't still flaming before I tried to dig in to that, too.

There's more important shit going on in the world, there's an asshole nitwit Republican named Romney trying to kick the incumbent President out of the White House, so carping over the stupidity of a teenager in London who is lucky she didn't kill herself is real low on my priority list today.

So you have a nice day--I'm sure you can find someone willing to fight with you about this subject matter, if you just flail around a bit and maybe dig through this thread, who can give you a good argument--assuming you have a "need" for such a thing and can't just accept that people will have different views on this matter. I just don't give much of a shit, frankly. She did a very dumb thing and she paid dearly for it. Hopefully her story will serve as a cautionary tale for others.

All of them consisting of you "carping over the stupidity of a teenager in London?"

Yeah, real low-priority there.

I suggest you look up mrs. Liebeck's case. it was kind of big news at the time.

I'm pretty sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. And I'm pretty sure, looking at the shit you post here, that you thought it was fucking hilarious back then, too. And then, just as now, you were wrong, and were being a fucking ghoul.

So long as you're happy with that.

"Calling someone who does a stupid thing "stupid" is not bullying...."

Much as calling someone who is acting in a vulgar and insensitive manner is not being being vulgar and insensitive in and of itself-- merely an observation.

But we all of us rationalize out actions-- whether it's a trendy drink, or a vulgar attitude.

You have not refuted that assessment in your lengthy rebuttal.

Your initial post only discredits you.

European.

Have a nice day.

It remains though that you apparently need to go after someone who was injured. That is pathetic.

You don't know the circumstances to any great level of detail, but you feel free to make your uninformed assessments anyway.

Maybe, it makes you feel smart. Who knows?

Ultimately, it is your problem and the problem of those who have to deal with you on a daily basis.

It IS pointless to argue--so perhaps you should just stop.

Again, you have one of those nice days.

There are indeed some bloated, self-important personalities on this board that can be very nasty and judgmental.

To bully someone, one needs to have some expectation that the subject of the bullying will somehow be in contact with the bullying. I very much doubt the subject of the story is scouriing every Internet site that made mention of this incident; she probably has other things on her mind.

Do think twice before typing.

I mean, seriously,

At least the poor girl is alive, though I'd imagine living without a stomach isn't easy (or pleasant).

in time the thing might stretch. If we are to believe Huffpo UK, that's what happened--they didn't take the entire thing: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/08/after-teenager-gaby-scanlon-highly-alcoholic-drinks_n_1947711.html?ncid=GEP&just_reloaded=1

It's why some people who do the "stomach stapling" or "lap band" surgery don't always succeed. They have their stomach shrunk, in essence, but they stretch it back out over time.

There's more in the Torygraph on this story--she may have a lawsuit (though they are less generous in UK than they tend to be over this side of the pond):

mainly used to quick freeze 'essences' such as fruit flavors (real) but this is the first I've heard of it as an actual ingested ingredient

bartender actually mixed LN and an alcoholic beverage, probably producing an icy slurry. Problem is, gases are more soluble in liquids at low temperatures, so a lot of N2 went into solution. She drank it, it warmed up, and the N2 started coming out of solution in a hurry. CO2 is even more soluble -- adding Dry Ice to a container of alcohol produces a carbonated liquid which bubbles off a large volume of gas on warming. N2 is less soluble but LN is so much colder that it can have a similar effect.

If you want to freeze something in LN, don't mix them in the same container !! Dip the container you want to freeze in the LN -- it will freeze fast enough.

As LN evaporates, it can cause O2 (which has a higher boiling point) to condense out. LN left standing open until mostly evaporated can contain significant amounts of LOX -- enough to start a fire if mixed with something flammable (like alcohol).

LN is not a plaything. A bar has no more business using LN than operating an arc welder.




ETA: LN boils at about -320.4° F, so it does not stick around as a liquid very long after mixing with water or alcohol, for those not familiar.

then she will not have received the "Darwin Award".

Making a drink like that just seems like a Lawsuit waiting to happen.

Here's another link:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/09/woman-loses-stomach-after-drinking-liquid-nitrogen-cocktail/

Nobody ever had a thought of actually consuming the stuff.

Of course, you don't actually eat the dry ice, but the vapor clouds coming from the punch bowl look cool.

...but yeah, I was talking about putting small dry Ice cubes into individual drinks, it would be safe for most people, but you know some idiot would swallow one, either by accident or on a dare.

I needed an Earth equivalent of Fallian Marsh Gas - dry ice or liquid nitrogen might do the trick!

It'd certainly make the drink look cool!

Didn't think I would know the recipe, did ya?

Ain't Google great?

Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster

1 bottle Ol' Janx Spirit.
1 measure Santraginean seawater.
3 cubes frozen Arcturan MegaGin.
4 liters Fallian marsh gas.
1 measure Qualactin Hypermint Extract.
1 Algolian Suntiger tooth.
Zamphour to taste.
Olive garnish.

Take the juice from one bottle of the Ol' Janx Spirit (see page 15 of the actual Guide).

Pour into it one measure of water from the seas of Santraginus V -- Oh, that Santraginean seawater, it says. Oh, those Santraginean fish!

Allow three cubes of Arcturan MegaGin to melt into the mixture (it must be properly iced or the benzene is lost).

Allow four liters of Fallian marsh gas to bubble thrugh it, in memory of all those happy hikers who have died of pleasure in the marshes of Fallia.

Over the back of a silver spoon float a measure of Qualactin Hypermint Extract, redolent of all the heady odors of the dark Qualactin Zones, subtle, sweet and mystic.

Drop in the tooth of an Algolan Suntiger. Watch it dissolve, spreading the fires of the Algolan suns deep into the heart of the drink.

Sprinkle Zamphour.

Add an olive.

Drink... but... very... carefully.

If my brains are bashed out, I'll just get a second head.

http://www.gumbopages.com/food/beverages/gargle-blaster.html

Which is why I've been attempting to develop the Terran approximation of the drink.

I'd say that dry ice or liquid nitrogen would work as a substitute for Fallian Marsh Gas.
Wild Turkey can substitute for Ol' Janx Spirit.
Bombay Sapphire is gonna have to do since Arcturan Mega-Gin isn't available (and humans don't react well to benzene in their drinks...)
Blue Curacao works in place of Santraginean Seawater (and turns the drink blue!)
For Qualactin Hypermint Extract, I'm going to substitute a shot of peppermint schnapps.
For the tooth of an Algolian Suntiger - those animals are scarce on Earth, so I may have to make do with tossing in a piece of jalapeno.
And I have no idea what Zamphour is - I might try cinnamon.

Then add an olive, and drink... but... very... carefully.

...something salty might be better to simulate Sea Water.

But I did find 4 different versions of the drink at "Drinks Mixer" (a very cool site I just found), check it out! I kind of like the sound of version #4

Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster recipe

http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink12215.html

Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster #2 recipe

http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink5742.html

Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster #3 recipe

http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink12214.html

Pan-Galactic Garble Blaster #4 recipe

http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink12216.html

I used to work in a laboratory that used liquid nitrogen as a coolant. Every few days we had to refill the cryostat.

1. You can hold a drop of liquid nitrogen in your bare hand for about 5-10 seconds before the pain becomes unbearable and you have to let the drop slip away. No skin-damage after-wards.

2. One of my co-workers liked to do a stunt: He catched the excess liquid nitrogen from the cryostat's exhaust-pipe with his hair. For a few seconds afterwards it looked like his hair was smoking.



That's the limit for safe use with humans: A few drops at a time and for no longer than a few seconds (which obviously excludes swallowing it).
Seriously, I wonder how a drink that cold would even make it from throat to stomach without major pain and health problems.

The tour guide was doing the liquid nitrogen trick things, put a balloon in liquid nitrogen, etc. The thing about it is she wasn't wearing gloves, then she took a bucket of liquid nitrogen and started pouring it on the floor and throwing it against the walls. The whole scenario seemed rather foolish and dangerous to me.

2 Weeks ago I found a video about an experiment with liquid nitrogen on YouTube. It was impressive: stuff exploded. What was really bizarre to me was, that the guy who conducted it, teacher or professor, didn't use gloves or protective glasses (5 bucks).

In my old lab I worked with a guy who never used gloves when handling liquid frozen gas.
I tried to copy his method once and oversaw a trick: The result was a severe frostburn in the fingertips of my right hand. (No skin-damage apart from being unusually red.) My fingertips and the left half of my right thumb were numb for a full week until the nerves had regenerated.

If available, I will always use protective gear. I've had my share.

In 1990, I was working construction at the "Earthquake" Ride at Universal Studios -Florida and was painting/applying Coal Tar Paint (water proofing paint) to some metal bars over my head (without eye protection) when a big glop of it fell directly into my right eye. Man was that painful ans scary! Once we got to the emergency clinic they had to scrape the stuff (water proofing paint) off of my eyeball and out of my eye socket.

But the worst part was the week I had to wait for the eye to heal and then to see if I was now blind in that eye. Thankfully, my eye healed up fine. But ever since then, I always wear eye protection whenever I do anything even remotely dangerous to my eyes.

...of our bodies because it could cause severe burns. Kind of like dry ice, only worse because it was much colder.

Ever heat up a frying pan and throw a few drops of water on it? See how the droplets dance around on the surface of the pan? The water in contact with the hot pan flashes to steam, and creates a cushion of steam that the water drop floats on.

Same thing with liquid nitrogen and skin (or mouth tissue) - if you splash some LN2 on your skin, the warmth from your skin causes the LN2 directly in contact with it to flash to gaseous nitrogen, causing the LN2 to float on it and do the dancing droplet thing just like in the hot frying pan.

The catch is that you've got to keep the LN2 moving around. If you let it sit in one spot, eventually, your skin will cool enough that it no longer causes the LN2 to immediately flash to vapor. Then you've got liquid liquid nitrogen in direct contact with your flesh, and that's when you get frostbitten.

Of course, when you pour the stuff down your gullet, your stomach doesn't know to keep the droplets moving around so they keep dancing, so that girl's stomach got frostbitten - badly enough to cost her her stomach.

Important safety tip: Don't swallow liquid nitrogen. Keep it in your mouth, and keep it moving around your mouth so your tongue, lips and gums don't freeze.

Same principle. Of course they did extensive testing with a dummy hand first.

They melted some lead, then did a test using uncooked sausage links as a substitute for fingers - the trick was to splash them in water, dip them in the molten lead, see if the sausage showed signs of cooking (because you don't want your fingers cooked.)

The first time around, the sausage showed some cooking, meaning the flesh was burning. What to do? Make the lead even hotter! They turned up the heat by a hundred degrees, acting on the theory that the lead needed to be sufficiently hot to flash the water on the skin to steam to insulate the flesh from the molten lead.

And it worked! Sausage emerged unscathed, then Adam and Jamie did it with their fingers, and were unburned!

Also, an eighth grade teacher's obviously going to have stricter safety margins than someone talking about the stuff to an adult audience.

Of course, he didn't swallow it - thus he still has a stomach.

But he swished it around in his mouth - as long as you keep it moving, it won't hurt you, and when you blow out, you blow cold-vapor smoke - pretty cool trick!

But yes, you need to know the caveats before you try this trick - if you let the LN2 sit in one place in your mouth, you'll get frostbitten, and if you swallow it, see the OP...

By the way, Dr. Walker's dentist does not recommend the liquid nitrogen trick - that is detailed in the excerpted text below.

It really is a substance which should be kept away from drinks. The fact that such a serious accident happened isn't a surprise. I hipe legislation to ban this it brought into place. At least the girl is alive but she'll have to live without a stomach. Terrible...

It's always going to be incumbent on food serving establishments to not serve customers things that are inherently unsafe, and up to individuals to make the final decision about what to consume and what not to consume. Government regulation will never be able to keep up with the human imagination. People will always be thinking up new things to try, and not all of them will be safe.

I never would have thought that anyone would be foolish enough to enter a cockroach-eating contest or to host such a competition, , but it happens.

Man dies after cockroach-eating competition

The winner of a cockroach-eating competition died shortly after eating dozens of the live insects and worms in Florida, authorities have said.

Edward Archbold, 32, became ill and collapsed at a pet shop where the contest took place in the city of Deerfield Beach on Friday....

Or eating pot brownies and falling asleep.
She would have been better off doing a couple of lines of coke and staying up all night!

Stick to the time-tested ones, kids. Actually, probably best to stay away from those as well, but at least you know you won't get your stomach surgically removed.

and it should all evaporate during the drink making phase. I have had nitro margaritas no big deal. Sounds like this bar doesn't know what they are doing.

Same sort of thing as calling someone who's seventeen (or twenty-five, if the speaker's old enough) a "child." Semantically correct (at least in the seventeen-year-old's case), but the whole point's to put some emotional emphasis on what's being discussed.

If the headline was "18 year old woman" there probably actually would be a significant number of people who'd be aiming their vitriol at her instead of the bartender or Society These Days or the period table or whatever other targets there are.

Russians have been known to freeze-burn their esophagus drinking super-cooled vodka, which stays liquid at sub-freezing temperatures.

on many occasions with no problems. But the temperature was about 0 Farenheit not 320 below. Liquid nitrogen is not a "food product." When chefs use it it is used as a quick-freezing method, not as an ingredient.

1. This young woman did something really dumb, but

2. Any bar that serves drinks with liquid nitrogen as an ingredient to be consumed should be sued to the ends of the earth to prevent other people from inventing such idiot concoctions.

Christ, no wonder liberals have a bad name! No wonder we're bashed as nanny-staters!

Every time one person makes a stupid and hurts herself, the authoritarian numbwits have themselves a screech and demand that the rest of us be made to suffer for one person's moronic act.

Don't like liquid nitrogen in your drink? Don't order such a drink! Don't tell the rest of us we can't have one! Why is this concept hard?

Lots of people know better than to chug such drinks, and can enjoy them without damaging themselves.

Coming up next, swimming is to be banned because one fuckwit inhaled water and died because he didn't know how to swim.

to order it, until it DESTROYED HER STOMACH.

AND YOU CALL NOT HAVING LN IN DRINKS "SUFFERING"?????????

If it can destroy your stomach it clearly isn't safe.

I mean, you know better than to chug one, of course, according to your post. But such a drink can still be enjoyed regardless of the end result involved, right?

Your comparison to swimming aside. Because...well, it's stupid.

If enough gaseous nitrogen enters an environment without being ventilated, the oxygen content of the room will drop. If oxygen gets much below the normal 21% of the air, unconsciousness and death may result.

I used to work with LN2 cooled chambers, and there were several oxygen monitor/alarms on the wall.

I work with LN occasionally and I wear protective gloves and a face shield. And there are people actually WILLINGLY INGESTING it?

This is insanity... even with warnings and caveats, LN is potentially life threatening at worst or capable of doing severe injury from flash freezing exposed flesh.

I can't imagine such stupidity.

she even get into the bar in the first damn place?

as if everybody needs protected form themselves and stupid decisions. Go ahead and blame this situation on lack of regulation... people will no doubt find other yet-to-be-regulated stupid activities to kill themselves. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.