CO2 safety

[AlexKay]

Concentration of CO2 is ~400 ppm by volume. You’ve calculated 400 ppm by weight in liquid water (1 kg/L). So your ~70 kg number is off by a few orders of magnitude.

180000 liters of air at 0.04% by volume means 72 liters of CO2. That’s about 3 mol CO2, which weighs about 120 g.

Google says 40000 ppm is immediately dangerous to life or health; 5000 is the OSHA limit. That’d be 12 kg and 1.5 kg. Your later calculations look correct.

 

[madscientist451]

Instead of providing an "explanation" of the safety or lack of safety of a CO2 tank, perhaps provide some statistical evidence of causes of accidental death/injury. Motor vehicles are far more dangerous than a CO2 tank.
Then suggest they DWRAHAHB.

 

[AlexKay]

Instead of providing an "explanation" of the safety or lack of safety of a CO2 tank, perhaps provide some statistical evidence of causes of accidental death/injury. Motor vehicles are far more dangerous than a CO2 tank.
Then suggest they DWRAHAHB.

Motor vehicles are more dangerous that most things people do. A quick Google suggests 20 fatalities per year for compressed gases. Compare this to ~400 per year for CO poisoning. But in this comparison consider that nearly every person is exposed to potential hazards from CO, while only a small fraction of people ever work near compressed gases.

I think the risk of having cylinders in the house is acceptable, but I wouldn’t tell people to R or DW. Treat them with respect and keep alert to potential problems.

 

[madscientist451]

I wouldn’t tell people to R or DW. Treat them with respect and keep alert to potential problems.

I guess my point is that people don't worry about some things that are dangerous, like motor vehicles, but then they are concerned about a CO2 tank, and in my opinion that is kind of ridiculous. Of course, these days anyone with an opinion that points out how ridiculous something is can be labeled as "disrespectful", so I guess I'll tell myself to relax and when its 5pm somewhere I'll get into the homebrew.