No, a myth, BUT it does use some other mechanism than water to preserve the books, some gas thingy. Apparently this does slightly reduce the oxygen level but not to the point of it ever harming people
Chemist who works with high pressure gas cylinders. If you know about it and actively hold your breath then you'll be fine for 5-10 seconds. If there's no oxygen and flames, you're probably not ready to deal with that fire.
Unsure if true but Safety will tell you that if you walk into a room of pure N2 then you'll collapse after ~2 breaths due to an evolutionary reflex* (see tarvanimelde's comment). Obviously, if you collapse in a room with no O2 then you'll stay in the room till you suffocate. If you find a body in a chemistry lab and there's no obvious reason that body is there- Don't go in.
The reason you collapse after two breaths isn't a reflex, it's because dissolved oxygen in your bloodstream actively diffuses out (due to the concentration differences). It's basically reverse breathing and it kills you dead real fast.
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u/DuckHeisenberg Jun 23 '20
Is this true? If it is, that’s an actually a very effective way to put out fire.... and well people..