Flatulence affects about 30% of the total population. It is characteristic that with flatulence, the discharge of gases occurs 300 times a day, which is 20 times more often than normal. (M. Lewitt).
At the beginning of the third millennium, in an age of unprecedented advances in science and technology, man is still faced with miracles. But now, unlike his predecessors, he is increasingly asking the question: why? Science gives the answer. She persistently dispels the "fog of mystery." More recently, researchers have solved the mystery of two more phenomena.
On January 5, 1996, 12-year-old Sasha Chekeres was burnt alive in a pressure chamber during a treatment session in the barocenter of the St. Petersburg Pediatric Academy. The criminal case on this tragic incident was dropped due to the fact that four months after the tragedy, the remains of a lighter were allegedly found at the scene, which the boy allegedly carried with him.
In recent years, similar fires in single medical pressure chambers have occurred in other cities: Minsk, Rostov-on-Don, Barnaul, Yekaterinburg, Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk. In some cases, nothing is known about the causes of fires in such pressure chambers, since investigative experiments have not been carried out. What was the cause of the fires?
Lurking danger
In Russia, 99% of medical institutions are equipped with single-seat therapeutic pressure chambers, which are unsafe to operate because the pressure is increased by medical oxygen. Fires in them occur violently, like a delayed explosion, with a rapid increase in pressure and temperature (up to 1400 ° C). In multi-seat pressure chambers, which are filled not with oxygen, but with air, the likelihood of fire is lower. And even if this happened, some of the victims managed to escape (albeit with body burns and poisoning by combustion products).
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There are many reasons for a fire in pressure chambers: fire hazardous items (lighters, matches, transistors, etc.); static electricity; clothes that accumulate an electric charge (nylon, nylon, etc.); even repeatedly washed cotton fabric can self-ignite; cosmetics; some intercoms.
In "dull" cases of fires in a pressure chamber filled with oxygen, intestinal gases, abundantly escaping from patients, may be to blame. This version was put forward by an employee of the Military Medical Academy, Candidate of Medical Sciences Vladimir Ivanovich Tyurin.
Explosive mixtures inside a person
What can burn there, you ask? Not only burn, but also explode! American phlatologists (doctors who study the formation of intestinal gases in various parts of the intestine, their composition, volume and frequency of release) have determined that these gases contain approximately 60% nitrogen, 5% oxygen, 15% carbon dioxide and 20% hydrogen. And also hydrogen sulfide, methane, carbon monoxide, mercaptan "ferment" inside us. All of this either burns well, or explodes when combined in certain proportions with oxygen.
Researchers have even found out in which parts of the intestine which gases are formed. For this, 11 volunteers were injected with three probes (into the stomach through the mouth and into the intestines through the anus) for 14 days. Well, they must have worn out. But now much is known.
It turns out that during the digestion of an average dinner, almost 15 liters of gases are formed! True, only a few percent come out with a fart, and the rest enters the bloodstream through the intestinal walls and is excreted through the lungs.
Normally, the amount of intestinal gases is small - 0.9-1.0 liters. With flatulence (bloating), this volume increases to 5-10 liters, and due to flammable and explosive gases - hydrogen and methane. There are even known cases of inflammation and explosions of intestinal gases during operations and complex medical procedures.
It is possible that an explosive mixture is formed under the patient's blanket in the pressure chamber.
As you know, oxygenobarotherapy is prescribed to sick people. Many serious illnesses are treated with this non-specific method: gas gangrene, extensive burns, sepsis, heart and vascular diseases, psoriasis, periodontal disease, gastrointestinal tract disorders and much more.
Thus, patients in a pressure chamber emit flammable gases not only from the intestines, but also during breathing.
Fresh breath
Since the time of Hippocrates, doctors have been able to identify diseases by the smell of exhaled air. In diabetic patients, exhalation "smells" of acetone, in severe liver damage, a fishy odor emanates, in renal failure, urine "pulls" from the mouth, and in case of lung abscess, a putrid stench is emitted.
For the first time, respiration was analyzed in 1784 by Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (who discovered the role of oxygen in combustion) and the French mathematician Pierre Laplace. They did this on a guinea pig and found that the animal inhales oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide. Other volatile components of exhaled air have only been discovered since the middle of the 19th century.
In 1971, 250 volatile organic compounds were known in the exhaled air, and at present about 400 of them have been released, including combustible ones - methane and hydrogen.
Dangerous fun
Some people use the burning properties of intestinal gases for entertainment. This is often shown in youth comedies. A certain Michael Lewitt set fire to his exhaust gases with a burning torch. Sometimes the flame length reached 25 cm or more.
A few years ago, the Irish newspaper Irish Times, in an article entitled "Gone with the Wind," talked about the serious consequences of such entertainment. One of the farmers of County Offaly decided to joke and released gases on a lighted match in order to trace their trajectory while in the barn. And I did not calculate: the trajectory was so great that the fire under the pressure of intestinal gases (which can escape outward at a speed of 0.1 to 1.1 m / s) reached a haystack. And after a few minutes everything burned down.
Better to have "harmless" fun following the example of rock and roll star Rod Stewart. Together with his wife - supermodel Rachel Hunter - he indulges in his favorite pastime and even competes with her, arguing for big money, in who will release the loudest "line of charges". The biggest nuisance for outsiders is spoiled air.
Heavenly Voice
But is the release of gases in a pressure chamber really so dangerous, the reader may doubt?
According to foreign and domestic researchers, about 30% of the total population suffers from flatulence, while gases are emitted almost 300 times a day (20 times more often than normal). It is estimated that with flatulence, people release gases 12-13 times an hour, and the volume of each "charge" is 40 ml or more.
Flatulence often occurs after surgery. To reduce it, patients are sometimes placed in a single medical pressure chamber. With increased pressure, the patient's stomach collapses, intestinal motility is restored, and intestinal gases begin to leave. Surgeons call this the "heavenly voice." This "voice" is especially strong when the pressure in the pressure chamber decreases. This is where spontaneous combustion of released methane, hydrogen sulfide or oxyhydrogen gas can occur.
The potential for a fire or explosion in the pressure chamber due to the accumulation of intestinal gases is justified by specialists. However, not everyone considers this reason to be convincing. In the event of a pressure chamber fire at the Pediatric Academy of St. Petersburg, the commission that examined this incident did not consider it necessary to mention intestinal gases among the probable causes of the tragedy.
Astronauts burned out in oxygen
In 1971, a Soviet cosmonaut died on Earth in a fire in an isolation chamber filled with pure oxygen (under a pressure of 259 mm Hg). When oxygen burns, the temperature rises very quickly, even lead wires and stainless steel melt.
In 1977, in the United States, three astronauts burned down in the cabin of a spacecraft, also filled with pure oxygen (at a pressure of 270 mm Hg). After that, in order to increase fire safety, the Americans began to use nitrogen-oxygen mixture (69% nitrogen and 31% oxygen) in spaceships, and only compressed air in pressure chambers.
And in Italy, due to the danger of fires, they completely abandoned the use of single medical pressure chambers.
But is it dangerous to "shoot intestinal charges" in space? After all, when the gas jet escapes from the anus of the astronaut, jet thrust is created. With what speed does such a jet allow you to move inside and outside the ship?
One of the Russian cosmonauts who went into outer space said that this problem is not urgent. The force of the released jet is less than the total impulse of the thrust of own breathing. Boles is a serious problem, which even theses are devoted to, it is the blanket air that each of us breathes.
(The heartbeat creates much more problems when working in space: in zero gravity, the body vibrates due to its beats. This prevents the astronauts from working on ultra-precise optical instruments. They have to fix the body in order to precisely "aim" at the crosspiece of the instrument.)
It turns out that it is safe to let gases in space, you won't even bang your head.
By the way, a person “fires” from the intestines on average 8 times a day, that is, 2,900 times a year, and in his entire life a man releases a line of gases in 209 thousand charges, and a woman - 232 thousand. Plus it produces a noise effect!
Dangerous occupation
It turns out that the "heavenly voice" (as surgeons call this phenomenon) sometimes has more than serious and tragic consequences. Los Angeles researcher Jim Dawson has published an entire book, Who Cut the Cheese, dedicated to the "cultural history of gas emission." Some excerpts from it testify to the urgency of the problem.
For example, a single "blank shot" cost the lives of 10 thousand people in the 1st century AD. A Roman soldier decided to express his contempt for the Jews and gassed loudly in the presence of a crowd of thousands. The people rebelled and staged a riot, during which many innocent people died.
Pour a drink
In 1998, at one of the fires in the Vyborgsky district of St. Petersburg, two firefighters admitted that in their practice there were inexplicable cases of spontaneous combustion of people. Only fires and casualties are recorded in official reports. Spontaneous combustion of people, if any, is counted as a victim, without giving a reason.
The fire tamers refused to give their names: the bosses do not like extraneous conversations at the facilities.
About three years ago, Nikolai was on a call in a communal apartment in the Vyborg district. Neighbors called the firefighters when smoke and a sharp smell of burning came from the drunkard's room. The arriving firefighters broke down the door and saw a completely drunk charred man on the floor. His body was in terrible burns, charred in places. The clothes were preserved in fragments. When they began to raise him, the man woke up and began to ask: "Pour a drink!" Then he died. What is surprising: apart from him, nothing in the room burned down. Even if he set himself on fire, the furniture would catch fire, but here everything would remain intact.
One acquaintance who recently worked in the fire brigade heard about a similar case from colleagues from the Nevsky District. From time to time in the press there are reports of people burning from the inside. The reasons for such incidents remain a mystery.
Flashing from within
This dramatic incident took place on February 19, 1725 in a small Parisian hotel and became the first official evidence of a spontaneous human combustion. The wife of the owner, Jacques Millet, suffering from alcoholism, went down to the basement, taking with her a bottle of wine. The owner fell asleep without waiting for his wife. He was awakened by the smell of burning. Jacques Millet hastily dressed and rushed into the basement. There he saw a terrible picture: the remains of an unfortunate woman smoldered on the armchair.
The court tried to accuse the owner of the hotel of premeditated murder, but the innocent was saved from execution by one amazing circumstance: his wife was burned from the inside. The victim's clothes were unburned! Doctor Le Sha, who was in the hotel that night, was able to prove to the judges that no mortal is capable of burning a human body without damaging the surrounding objects.
Such chilling incidents are far from uncommon in the annals of history. Most often, fat women addicted to wine became victims of spontaneous combustion. Therefore, even 300 years ago, many believed that this was God's punishment for an unrighteous lifestyle. But sometimes the fire punished innocent people.
American Jack Angell, completely sober, went to bed in his van on November 12, 1974. He woke up only four days later and was horrified to see that his right hand had burned to the ground. Significant areas of the skin on the back were also burned. When questioned, the unfortunate man could not say anything intelligible. He managed to remember only "a strange semblance of an explosion in the chest." Camping neighbors, who came to help, were amazed to find Jack Angel's undamaged pajamas on.
Forensic medical experts were also extremely surprised - the victim's hand was burnt from the inside. This was evidenced by the skin and bone preserved in places, which turned into ash. Experts have been dismantling and assembling Jack's van for more than two years, trying to find the cause of the mystery in it, but to no avail.
Burn more often
In 1985 in England there were several cases of spontaneous combustion of people at once. So, on January 28, a young student, who went down to the lobby of Widnes College in Cheshire, suddenly flared up in front of her acquaintances who were in shock and soon died.
Another victim was the elderly widow Mary Carter, who was found dead in the hallway of her apartment on Ivor Road, Sparkhill, Birmingham. Although there were matches in the room, they were not found next to the corpse. They could not understand where the fire came from.
A month later, 19-year-old computer operator Paul Hayes had a stomach flare as he walked calmly on Stephen Green in London. He managed to get to the hospital, where doctors rescued him because the fire burned for about 30 seconds.
In 1988 in England, a 71-year-old woman survived spontaneous combustion, but her husband was severely burned while saving his wife from the fire.
In April 1990, a 14-year-old boy from Hunan Province, China, had several involuntary flares. Small trickles of flame burst from the round pores on his skin.
On May 29 of the same year in Los Angeles (USA), 26-year-old Angela Hernandez, a patient at a medical center, suddenly caught fire on the operating table and died.
Similar cases are known in Russia. One of them occurred in October 1990 on the border of the Saratov and Volgograd regions. Two shepherds accidentally wandered onto the slope of the hill, which, according to local beliefs, should be avoided. Feeling tired, one of them sat down on a stone (according to other sources, he sat down because of great need), and the other went to calm the sheep, who were frightened by something. Returning from the flock, the shepherd found the burnt corpse of his partner. Not more than five minutes passed.
Before the arrival of the doctors and the police, the corpse was transferred to a cart. Eyewitnesses testified that the clothes on him were not damaged by the flame. However, when the body was removed from the cart, the bottom turned out to be charred. The case of the shepherd's charge of setting fire to his partner was closed for lack of evidence.
Theoretical spark
Can these strange incidents of living torches be explained? According to the South African professor Jackie van Strepe, there may be several hypotheses. The most plausible is the following: our body contains chemical elements (for example, phosphorus), which, in contact with each other or air, can ignite spontaneously. Probably, under certain conditions, the formed pure phosphorus in an unknown way reacts with oxygen and … explodes.
Another assumption is based on the fact that other substances can also ignite: combustible gases released by the body, as well as fats, which are especially abundant in the body of fat people. A theoretical spark capable of igniting a combustible mixture can be formed as a result of the difference in electrostatic potentials of individual internal organs.
In the 19th century, the hypothesis of spontaneous combustion of drunkards was popular, whose bodies are alcoholized and therefore flare up from any spark, even when smoking.
The aforementioned hypotheses still cannot explain why, in most cases, the surrounding objects, and sometimes the clothes of the victims, remain intact.
A number of researchers of this phenomenon make other assumptions. The fire that burns the unfortunate from the inside is caused by ball lightning, microwave radiation and even … the reaction of atomic fusion in the body.
Which of the hypotheses will be valid?
Recently, British researchers have unveiled a mystery that has existed for nearly three centuries. It was found that methane is the cause of the phenomenon. It accumulates in the intestines due to dysfunction of the digestive system. Sometimes it is enough to light a cigarette at the wrong time so that the gas accumulated in the body cavities ignites.
The ability of unusual fire to destroy bones is no longer a mystery. The experimenters roasted a fattened pig over low heat for 5 hours. It turned out that the bones of the animal that died in the name of science became black, easily crumbling firebrands.
The fat helped turn them into ash. It turned out that the fatty layer of mammals significantly increases the destructive power of the flame. This find also explained the mysterious preservation of the lower body in the victims of spontaneous combustion. As you know, there is practically no fat on the legs.
From the book "Phenomena, Secrets, Hypotheses" Potapov A. V.