Nitrogen gas that suffocated TimkenSteel security guard was 'non-toxic,' Ohio Supreme Court rules

[Nevilledog]

https://signalcleveland.org/ohio-supreme-court-rules-nitrogen-gas-that-suffocated-a-timkensteel-worker-was-non-toxic/

Within seconds of walking into an industrial elevator’s control room at a TimkenSteel plant near Canton, Ken Ray, a 32-year-old firefighter who moonlit there as a security guard on the weekends, died of asphyxiation.

No one knew at the time, but nitrogen had continuously leaked into the room from a device designed to blast small puffs of pressurized gas to dust off the ventilation filters. Oxygen typically comprises about 21% of ambient air. On March 20, 2016, it was measured at 4.7%, slowly and lethally displaced by inbound nitrogen.

All parties agree the nitrogen gas almost instantly killed Ray, who was tasked with inspecting fire extinguishers on site. But on Wednesday, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that nitrogen gas is not “toxic,” as the law at the time required for a lawsuit accusing the company of a safety violation to prevail. The court’s ruling blocks Sharmel Culver, Ray’s widow, from punitive financial penalties that her lawyer said could have potentially been worth millions.

The six Republicans on the Ohio Supreme Court sided with TimkenSteel (now known as Metallus Inc.) and the Ohio Industrial Commission, which hears appeals of workers compensation claims. They agreed that because nitrogen is a primary component of the air we breathe, it’s not toxic.

*snip*


This is the same bunch of sociopaths that ruled boneless chicken wings can have bones.