Basic science fail in Russia

https://www.yahoo.com/news/three-people-died-instagram-influencers-150424994.html

3 people died at an Instagram influencer's birthday party in Moscow after dry ice was poured into a swimming pool

Bongiozzo/Shutterstock

Three people died in Moscow on Friday after dry ice was poured into a swimming pool at the birthday party of Yekaterina Didenko, an Instagram influencer, the BBC reported.

Didenko's husband is said to be among the three people who died in the incident.

The BBC reported that the dry ice was dumped into a pool to help partygoers cool off after leaving a sauna.

But other reports say the dry ice may have been poured into the pool to create "visual effects."

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Three people died Friday after dry ice was poured into a swimming pool at a party in Moscow, according to the BBC.

The party was hosted by Yekaterina Didenko, an Instagram influencer who was celebrating her 29th birthday at a pool complex, the BBC reported.

Didenko's husband is said to be one of the three people who died.

Guests of the party reportedly choked and several lost consciousness when they entered the pool. Dry ice is a solid form of carbon dioxide, which can suffocate people if there isn't proper ventilation.

It was not immediately clear why the dry ice was poured into the pool at the party venue.

The BBC reported that the ice was meant to cool the swimming-pool water to help guests cool off after exiting a sauna. The Daily Mail and the AFP news agency via The Moscow Times reported that the dry ice might have been put into the pool to create visual effects.

A New York State Department of Health web page about the dangers of dry ice says that symptoms of overexposure to dry ice include "headache and difficulty breathing, and with greater exposure, nausea and vomiting."

The Department of Health page also states that if enough carbon dioxide gas is present, a person can lose consciousness or die.

On Friday, Didenko posted an Instagram photo for her birthday. Following the party, Didenko apparently shared a video on Instagram indicating that her husband was at intensive care, the BBC reported.

Didenko has more than 1 million followers on Instagram, and, the BBC said she used her social-media platform to share "tips about how to save money on pharmaceutical products."

Oops...

Pure stupidity. Carbon dioxide is heavy, in the absence of enough air movement it settles. Apparently they didn’t learn from the candle experiments in science class.

I once used dry ice to let me live while grinding (making lots-o-sparks) on the fuel pump opening of a gas tank while the tank was still in the car. Scary, but it worked.

Some things are best learned the hard way, but all things are best learned by watching someone else learn the hard way.

Sorry, but something is missing with this story, like deceased's drug use?

Unless pool was heated, and required a rapid chill for the swimmers, it would A LOT of dry ice to chill (1000lbs+ if a decent size 10,000+gal pool), furthermore, unless a pool is in hot sun for hours, normal ambient temps ( anything much below 98.6F) are a cooling effect on the body, you don't need dry ice, when regular ice would do.

Every concert in the 70's and early 80's had hundreds of pounds of dry ice visual stage effects, and NOBODY died.

Was it a breathing hazard, likely yes, but statistics are hard to argue with.

I say hoax.

This is what YouTube was invented for.

The people at the concerts had their heads usually 5 feet above the carbon dioxide and were still breathing mainly oxygen. The people in the pool most likely only had their heads above water and were breathing in the layer of mostly carbon dioxide, big difference.

"Yekaterina Didenko is a certified pharmacist, blogging about pharmacies and drugs. Ms Didenko is known for posting tips about how to save money on pharmaceutical products on her Instagram page. She has a million followers."

Make that 999,997

Well, most of the concerts I witnessed had a 5'(?) high stage, and audience was at ground level, and the CO2 often rolled off the front of the stage into the audience, which was the desired effect. Indoor concerts, it has hardly anywhere to dissipate .

I have done pool/dry ice effects, the amount needed is surprisingly little, as little as 10? lbs, which if air was stagnant enough, and swimmers doing little to mix the air, yes, suffocation could result, but 3 deaths, when the first aid is only to remove them to fresher air, which is likely only inches higher, is hard to understand this outcome.

This IMO appears to be a PR cover up for drug use.

And to be clear, nobody is mainly breathing O2, at best, they are breathing 21% 02.

Kind of a funny story, at the local dry ice plant here in the old part of town, decades ago, the first guy to work unlocked the door, opened it, then sat in his truck for 5 minutes. Everytime kids broke into the building they were always caught passed out in the building. It now has proper ventilation, never heard of anyone getting hurt over it, just found passed out.

It looked like a small, enclosed space. Like this: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-car-it-may-have-asphyxiated-his-mother/

I wondered if the dry ice reacted in some way with the chlorine in the pool water too.

You just pass out and nobody gets hurt? Think about passing out in a pool 9 feet deep, you pass out, your head goes under, you drown. With the water covered in the vapor no one notices bodies floating (or sinking) until it's too late, that's how this can happen.

This reminds me of a place near where I grew up that was a natural hot water bath, sort of a natural hot tub. Fed by a spring the water heated by natural geothermal bubbled up through a lake. The bubbles were co2. Sometime in the past walls were built under water and then above the lake level to better concentrate the hot water. Problem is on still summer nights the cauldron would fill with the deadly gas. Sure enough people died on occasion. In the '80's after a young man died BLM tore down the walls so the water and gas wouldn't concentrate.

I think you are indeed ultimately correct, with a number of certain conditions all occurring, this could indeed be a CO2 asphyxiation, meaning an indoor confined space, adequate amount of dry ice, a pool deck higher then water level enough to trap the expelled CO2, water depth greater then say shoulder height ( the victims could not stand up above CO2 trapped layer) little oversight by bystanders, all three succumbed almost simultaneously provided to prevent any helpful warning to others, and other possible personal voluntary impairment.

C02 is considered almost inert and non toxic. The reported symptoms mimic mount climbers high altitude sickness from low O2 levels.
I have nothing to prove any drug complicity, but still suspect its a factor here given the conditions .

This Small Lake in Africa Once Killed 1,700 People Overnight, And We Still Don't Know Why

Without warning, the lake released hundreds of thousands of tonnes of toxic carbon dioxide - estimates range from 300,000 to up to 1.6 million - and this silent death cloud spread out over the countryside at nearly 100 km/h (62 mph), suffocating an estimated 1,746 people and more than 3,500 livestock within minutes.

https://www.sciencealert.com/how-th...le-overnight-and-we-still-don-t-know-why