Comment by ptaipale | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ptaipale | Hacker News Reader

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Shit kills. I guess this happens everywhere in the world, but over here (Finland), there are the occasional deaths at farms where H2S released from remains of cow manure, stored in a tank, kills people.

https://www.mela.fi/sites/default/files/lietelanta.pdf

"Description of event

A farm-owner suffocated inside a manure tank which was lacking oxygen and contained toxic gases. Also his brother, who went in to help, died.

A tank of liquid-form manure was almost empty. A pipe at the bottom of the tank was blocked. The farm owner decided to enter the tank and finalize emptying the tank. However, he lost consciousness and fell to the bottom.

His brother, who was close by, saw what happened and went in to save the unconscious man, but he was also overcome in a moment. Four hours later a family member discovered the victims. Fire service was called to help, and with pressure air breathing equipment, they retrieved both men. They were both found to be dead. Cause of death was a poisoning by methane and hydrogen sulfide."

(Taken from farm advisory leaflet on manure https://www.mela.fi/sites/default/files/lietelanta.pdf )

Another case involving pig shit.

"The lagoons themselves are so viscous and venomous that if someone falls in it is foolish to try to save him. A few years ago, a truck driver in Oklahoma was transferring pig shit to a lagoon when he and his truck went over the side. It took almost three weeks to recover his body. In 1992, when a worker making repairs to a lagoon in Minnesota began to choke to death on the fumes, another worker dived in after him, and they died the same death. In another instance, a worker who was repairing a lagoon in Michigan was overcome by the fumes and fell in. His fifteen-year-old nephew dived in to save him but was overcome, the worker's cousin went in to save the teenager but was overcome, the worker's older brother dived in to save them but was overcome, and then the worker's father dived in. They all died in pig shit."

Tough way to go.

From this excellent, long-form piece on Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/boss-hog-the-dark-s...

Ok this is going to sound silly, and I apologize if this isn't a nice contribution.

But I believe to have read quite a while back that H2S is why poop stinks so bad for us. It can lead to anoxic events: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extin...

So evolutionary speaking we might have adjusted our olfactory sense to stay clear of any H2S sources.

I worked one summer for my uncle helping to construct new farrowing barns for pigs. One of the clearest lessons I got was to never, EVER, get down near the manure pits of the barns in use and that if anyone did have problems, to not go in after them.

After that, was lessons about watching for risks of fire and knowing where to GTFO.

I don't remember any at-the-time recent issues with asphyxiation and there were well known cases of barn fires every 5-8 years (we were replacing one that burnt down the year before). Still, the bigger warning I remember was about safety near manure.

Here this happens with decaying green algae on the Brittany coast. It kills wild animals and every so often the people who clean up beaches and oyster farmers.

It's common in Ireland as well, where beef and dairy are big: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-27754408

this is a very common occurence on farms and unfortunately as farms tend to be family run you get a few deaths in the same family.

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