Four persons were at work near refilling area, including a surviving eye-witness (25 ft away from rest of three workers), at the time of blast. The refilling of cylinders was being carried out in a shed with roof height of 25 ft. In an industrial area there was an “oxygen filling factory” spread over 110×50 ft, dealing with filling of oxygen (both medical and industrial) and nitrogen oxide cylinders. The specific injury produced in lungs by the blast is known as blast lung, which is grossly characterized as sub pleural patchy haemorrhage, often in the line of the ribs, intrapulmonary haemorrhage and bullae at the lung margins 6. Injuries due to an explosion are primary blast injury (this is the result of sudden change in the environmental pressure changes resulting from blast waves), secondary blast injuries (fragments and other missiles cause these injuries), tertiary blast injuries (include acceleration and deceleration injuries caused by the victim's body impacting against stationary objects or injuries caused by collapse of structures and buildings) and thermal and/or chemical injuries 7.
Rani M et al 5 have reported a case of a 34-year-old male welder who died following injuries sustained from explosion of an acetylene gas-welding cylinder.ĭeaths from the effects of explosive substances or devices occur in both civil and military circumstances though the later now include considerable proportion of terrorist activities rather than conventional wars, civil tragedies are usually industrial, as in individual incidents in mines and quarries or on a larger scale, such as the denotation of chemical stores, ships and factories 6. Precautions taken during handling, storage and transport can save damages to both human beings and inanimate things.
Gases in their compressed state, and particularly compressed air, are almost indispensable to modern industry can cause disastrous effect in absence of proper handling, storage and transport. Few lay press news items such as three people were killed and one injured after an oxygen cylinder blast at their job site 3, and two people died and one sustained serious burns after cylinder blast 4 while filling gas are not uncommon. Inspite of being vital to the human life, oxygen can be most dangerous to snatch a soul from body if not handled with caution. In growing edge of industrial and medical advancements, increased use of compressed gases like oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, helium, argon, krypton, acetylene etc is the need of an hour. After appropriate resuscitation, macrovascular repair, and fracture stabilization, adjunctive hyperbaric oxygen therapy can enhance tissue oxygen content. Greensmith 2 has observed that hyperbaric oxygen therapy potentially can provide enhanced oxygen delivery to peripheral tissues affected by vascular disruption, cytogenic and vasogenic edema and cellular hypoxia caused by extremity trauma. It is widely used in welding, people who work in deep sea diving, for food preservation, in steel works and for medical purpose etc. Many people at work and sometimes at home use oxygen gas in cylinders. Without oxygen we would die in a matter of minutes 1. The air we breathe contains about 21% oxygen.