This week, a failed cryotherapy machine appears to have caused the tragic death of a 29-year-old woman in France.
The unusual death occurred Monday night at the aerial gym in eastern Paris, according to local law enforcement. The woman, a gym employee, appears to have died from a nitrogen leak from the cryotherapy machine. The second 34-year-old woman was seriously injured and is currently in intensive care.
Cryotherapy or cryo-stimulation is an emerging practice. Its fashionable form, whole-body cryotherapy, requires people to be completely in extremely cold temperatures for several minutes at a time. Some studies have shown that cryotherapy can relieve certain types of pain and inflammation and may also have other health benefits, such as improving sleep.
Cryotherapy machines often use frozen liquid nitrogen to generate these temperatures. In this case, according to medical express, the temperature is as low as -148 degrees Fahrenheit (-100 degrees Celsius). But when it is a gas, nitrogen is both odorless and colorless. As a result, the European Industrial Gas Association (EIGA) warns that improperly designed or maintained machines can be a safety hazard. If too much nitrogen can penetrate into frozen wood or surrounding space, it can quickly replace oxygen without notice, and then suffocate people.
This seems to be the case here. Both women were in cardiac arrest when emergency services arrived. Three other people who tried to recover women were also taken to the hospital, while about 150 people were evacuated from the building.
According to police, the machine was allegedly repaired earlier in the day, which could be a pathetic error. But authorities say they are still investigating the matter. A spokesman for the Paris Attorney’s Office told The Guardian: “Unmortality and toxicological analysis will be conducted to determine the exact cause of the death.”
Deaths related to cryotherapy are rare, but not unheard of. For example, in 2015, a spa employee in Las Vegas died of suffocation due to cryotherapy.
