sent 2/15/2023, 1/6/2024, 1/20/2024
Has Scientific American chosen not to correct this disaster of an article, below?
How and why would journalism ethics allow that? from Dudley Sharp
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Some edits, confirming, the original, which was sent 9/17-28/2022, then 1/6/2024 & 1/20/2024
To: All Editors, Scientific American and Dana Smith
Subject: Media Disaster: The Death Penalty:
Nitrogen Hypoxia & Scientific American
Nitrogen Hypoxia & Scientific American
(& sadly, Dr. Zivot, again)
RE: Errors Are the Rule Within
"New Execution Method Touted as More ‘Humane,’ but Evidence Is Lacking", Dana G. Smith, Scientific American, September 23, 2022
Subject: Media Disaster: The Death Penalty & Scientific American
From: Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent, 832-439-2113, CV at bottom
PREFACE: When inaccuracies are allowed to remain, they become lies
The errors of fact and omission, within the article, are huge, many and vital and could have been avoided, had fact checking, vetting, research and critical thinking been present. They were not, or if they were, it vanished?
One has to wonder if it was intentional:
All that was needed, for an informed article was to search, either "deaths 'nitrogen gas' " or "deaths 'nitrogen hypoxia' ". It appears that not even that very basic research was done or if done, was, intentionally, left out of the article.
Scientific American could, hardly, do worse.
Proof
1) Scientific American : "Evidence is Lacking"
Rebuttal: To the contrary . . . the evidence is overwhelming and is, easily, found (1-6):
a) For decades, and, very, recently, in industrial, manufacturing and other circumstances, we know that unconsciousness and, often, death, occur, both accidentally and intentionally, with little to no warning, because of nitrogen hypoxia (1-6). The evidence is robust, well documented and easy to find (1-6).
b) An infamous incident, just occurred, in 2021, with a report issued 2022, with six workers dying from nitrogen hypoxia (3):
c) The most infamous of these occurred at NASA, in 1981 (4):
"As they entered the aft compartment, unaware of the risk, technicians John Bjornstad, Nicholas “Nick” Cannon, and Forrest Cole were quickly overcome by the lack of oxygen. Technicians William Wolford and J.L. “Jimmy” Harper tried to help and were also affected. Rescuers airlifted Bjornstad to a hospital, but he died en route. Cole never regained consciousness and died in the hospital on April 1. Mullon survived, but died in 1995 from long-term complications from the accident." (4)
d) "Nitrogen asphyxiation hazards in industry resulted in 80 deaths from 1992 to 2002" (5).
e) The pilot testing and research, regarding nitrogen hypoxia, is voluminous. Look it up.
f) It is hard to believe that this mess was not intentional, as Scientific American didn't even look up what Wikipedia has to say, when one searches for " 'nitrogen gas hypoxia' Wikipedia", which produces this "Inert gas asphyxiation" (6), which included many more articles on the effects of nitrogen hypoxia (6), which Scientific American was either, fantastically, unaware of or left out.
g) It is also a well-known method for suicides. As Dr. Phillip Nitschke stated, for suicides, nitrogen gas hypoxia is "flawless" . . . patients lose consciousness immediately. . . .and die a few minutes later." ". . . extremely quick . . . no drugs . . . reliable, peaceful, available . . . " (1,6).'
There are many more. Look them up.
Scientific American?
h) In addition, there has been human testing, regarding how long it takes to become unconscious with nitrogen hypoxia (1), inhaling nitrogen gas, through a tube (1,2) . . . 16-18 seconds (1,2).
i) humans have been aware of what a lack of oxygen does to them, for how long?
Scientific American?
NOTE 1) Nitrogen Gas makes up 78% of the air we breathe, oxygen 21%. As is obvious, to most, nitrogen is not a poison but, when displacing oxygen, can result in nitrogen hypoxia, bringing unconsciousness and death, often, very quickly (1-6), because of the absence of oxygen.
Using a mask, as, most likely, within executions, such will bring about unconsciousness and death, very quickly, as there will be lower or no levels of oxygen present, within a mask, as opposed to within a room or with a tube (1-6), where there will be more oxygen.
2) Missing from the article:
Left Out: Scientific American excluded that the known, conscious side effect of nitrogen hypoxia is euphoria (1). There is no reflex action - no choking nor gasping nor suffocation effect - only light headedness, maybe euphoria, prior to unconsciousness (1-6), when looking at 0% oxygen and 100% nitrogen (1-6).
Very important but missing.
3) Scientific American: "Where did the idea for nitrogen hypoxia come from?"
CORRECTION: Contrary to the SA article, that would be from:
Creque, S.A. "Killing with kindness – capital punishment by nitrogen asphyxiation" National Review, 1995-9-11. I suspect this is not the first reference.
I have been recommending it, sometime around 1997, when I found the above article and did further research.
Scientific American?
4) Scientific American made an additional fundamental and basic "error", within journalism and research., only, selecting experts, with a single view - anti-death penalty. I suspect it was intentional.
As detailed:
a) anti-death penalty Corinna Barrett Lain, a law professor: Lain complains that Michael Copeland, a criminal justice professor, "who co-authored a white paper on (nitrogen hypoxia) (2)" . . . “He’s not a doctor. He doesn’t have any medical training. He’s not a scientist."
Rebuttal: Lain failed to mention any errors, if any, within Copeland's white paper (2). Likely, Scientific American never asked "the, only, thing that mattered" . . . but, attack the author, not the facts. Pathetic.
Scientific American, also, "forgot (?)" to mention that there were three authors, and that their paper (2), correctly, confirmed the known data for 50 years (2 and 1-6).
Obviously, of no concern, to Scientific American. They left, all of it, out.
Lain, also a law professor, somehow, failed to excuse herself from this interview, as I could find no references, within Lain's CV, that Lain is a medical doctor, medically trained or a scientist, nor did she nor could she find any errors within the paper (2).
Scientific American didn't notice?
b) anti-death penalty Dr. Zivot MD “There is a claim, that I think is baseless, that nitrogen gas inhalation would cause a death that would be peaceful and not cruel. There’s no evidence for any of that.”
REBUTTAL: The evidence is, overwhelmingly, to the contrary, of Zivot's statement, as is obvious (1-6). Why did Zivot offer a guess?
Responsible media would describe Zivot as an anti-death penalty activist, who has an MD.
Lain, the three authors from the paper (2), knew considerable more than the medical Zivot, who offered nothing but ignorance, as is a pattern:
Dr. J Zivot: More Medical Anti-Death Penalty Idiocy
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2019/03/dr-j-zivot-more-medical-death-penalty.html
Rebuttal: Dr. Joel Zivot & Lethal Injection
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2023/11/rebuttal-dr-joel-zivot-lethal-injection.html
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2019/03/dr-j-zivot-more-medical-death-penalty.html
Rebuttal: Dr. Joel Zivot & Lethal Injection
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2023/11/rebuttal-dr-joel-zivot-lethal-injection.html
Scientific American?
c) anti-death penalty Robert Dunham, executive director, Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) “. . . as far as anyone can tell, no one has considered the potentially lethal danger to execution personnel if [they] don’t carry it out properly.”
Rebuttal: Absurd, of course. The literature deals with that, in, great, detail (1-6), as it is of the utmost concern, in all of the many accidental deaths. (1-6). As a matter of history, reason and fact, it is impossible not to consider that issue, as all involved parties, with the exception of Dunham and Scientific American, are aware (See Note 1).
If adopted, nitrogen hypoxia will, likely, take place in the current lethal injection rooms, which are large, making it impossible, for harm to the execution teams, as the murderer will be dead in a few minutes, with it impossible for the nitrogen to overcome the team, as a leak, if any, would be tiny, the gas would be turned off, after death was confirmed, with it, impossible, for that very small amount of nitrogen leakage, if any, to displace the oxygen to a degree approaching unconsciousness, even more so in rooms with air ventilation which is, likely, all of them.
As detailed, deception is a DPIC specialty (7).
My rebuttals show how, radically, different the education of readers would be. I suspect the intent was not to educate, but to deceive.
Scientific American?
d) Dunham described the third drug, potassium chloride, in the original three-drug, lethal injection protocol, as “chemical fire.”
Rebuttal: Except if you are unconscious, which all were, prior to the injection of potassium chloride. The murderers would feel nothing (3). In addition, potassium chloride is not required, as Dunham well knows. Texas uses pentobarbitol, only.
e) Dunham says. “That created a false distance between the reality of capital punishment and the public perception of capital punishment.”
REBUTTAL: The "botched" execution rate with lethal injection is 1%, not 7% (9).
f) Zivot/ Scientific American: "Zivot and others have performed more than 200 autopsies on people killed by lethal injection using thiopental, pentobarbitol or midazolam . . . finding "most inmates’ lungs showed evidence of pulmonary edema, the buildup of fluid that produces a feeling of drowning. “Instead of falling off to sleep and dying, they were drowning in their own secretions and suffocating to death, sometimes masked by a paralytic,” Zivot says. “That’s, in fact, how they were dying.”
REBUTTAL: The autopsies did not prove, nor can they, that the inmates were not unconscious and, therefore, felt no pain. There is zero evidence that the first drugs, given, at overdose levels, somehow, decided on their own, to reverse their well known overdosing effects and, all of a sudden, stop working. They don't do that. Obvious.
Scientific American? A truthful media description for Dr. Zivot would be that he is an anti-death penalty activist, who happens to be an anesthesiologist.
g) Lain "being gassed to death for six to 10 minutes or being slowly suffocated under a veneer of peacefulness for 10 to 20 minutes.”
REBUTTAL: There is no suffocation effect with nitrogen hypoxia. Unconsciousness will occur in less than 16 second, as per the study. Lain is, somehow, thoroughly, unaware of the overwhelming evidence of this (1-6).
Scientific American?
5) Scientific American: At the Oklahoma hearing, "No scientific evidence was presented because there is little medical research on death by nitrogen gas. It is not clear exactly how long the process would take or how much the person would suffer."
Rebuttal: That is, clearly, the opposite of the known evidence (1-6). We have ample evidence, based within scientific research (1-6), as is well known, some of which was presented, within the hearing.
Please forward your transcript of the hearing.
In many, if not most, of the nitrogen deaths, no autopsies were performed, because the medical personnel knew, precisely and medically, what killed them, as is found within the literature.
I would believe that no scientific material was presented, within the hearing, if Scientific American was the only researcher. That would explain it. But, they weren't.
6) Scientific American: "If a mask is used, it must have an airtight seal so that the inmate cannot breathe any oxygen and prolong their death and so that the execution team and witnesses are not exposed to potentially deadly levels of the gas."
CORRECTION: As detailed (1,2), if a small leak within the mask, it may take hours, or never, for the nitrogen gas level to reach any type of critical level to the execution team, particularly, within a room, the size used in lethal injection, which has fresh airflow, as well, as you can find within the studies, stating that such will quickly dissipate within the room, causing no danger to others, in that type of scenario (1,2 & NOTE 1), as one would expect as 78% nitrogen is the norm, within the air we breathe.
The inmate would be unconscious,within seconds, dead within minutes (1,2 & NOTE 1), after which the gas is turned off.
7) Scientific American: "Doctors and drug manufacturers have protested lethal injection since its inception, not wanting their products and techniques to be used for killing rather than healing."
REBUTTAL: Ridiculous. In both abortion and euthanasia, their " products and techniques" are, intentionally, used for killing, as everyone is aware, except Scientific American.
How many physicians and drug manufacturers have, are and will be forced to pay, via lawsuit losses and/or are settling billions of dollars in lawsuits, regarding countless thousands of deaths?
How many innocent patients die, every year, from "medical misadventure? 40,000-400,000/yr, depending upon study. How many "botched" execution of guilty murderers have we had since 1973? Around 16, or 1 every three years.
The drug companies were invisible and speechless, from 1977, when the lethal injection protocols were, publicly, adopted by Oklahoma, and from 1982, when they were first used for executions, in Texas, until 2009 - 32 years and 27 years later, respectively (8) . . . was it ethics or publicity(8)?
Scientific American?
8) Scientific American: "Neither pentobarbital nor midazolam function as an anesthetic or pain reliever."
DISCLOSURE: Somehow, left out . . . at massive overdose levels, they both cause unconsciousness, quickly, and death . . . quite the anesthetic and pain reliever, even though technically, neither.
9) Scientific American: "With these changes, problems during lethal injections started to arise more frequently. In the case of John Marion Grant in Oklahoma, the drugs caused vomiting and full-body convulsions over the course of 15 minutes."
REBUTTAL: Fact checking details that those are the known side effects of the drugs used (9). The obvious thing to look for. I found it within 1 minute. I could find not one reporter that did so.
Scientific American?
Search overdose midazolam "side effects".
Normal side effects include nausea, seizures, dizziness, with overdoses furthering those, until death. It is also, well known, that such side effects may occur in many overdose situations. Lethal injection executions are drug overdoses.
Vomiting, as well as uncontrollable "tremors", may occur, on their own, when facing trying episodes, such as facing an immediate death.
It's not that editors and reporters do not fact check, vet, research nor use critical thinking. It is that they refuse to. Obvious.
9) Scientific American: "In an even more horrifying event, in Arizona, Joseph Wood III gasped and snorted for nearly two hours before dying."
REBUTTAL: From Karen Sibert, an anesthesiologist and associate professor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Sibert was speaking on behalf of the California Society of Anesthesiologists: “This (Wood's) doesn’t actually sound like a botched execution. This actually sounds like a typical scenario if you used that drug combination,” (10)
"(Wood's) sedation level was continually monitored and verified by the IV team,' Mr. Ryan said. The intravenous team included a doctor, he said." (10)
Wood's breathing, wheezing and/or gasping is a product of respiratory distress, as expected. That is easy for anyone to determine (10), IF they care, one wit, about fact checking, vetting, research and critical thinking.
Scientific American?
10) Scientific American : "Most recently, the people carrying out the executions for Joe Nathan James, Jr. and Doyle Lee Hamm in Alabama were unable to insert the IV lines to administer the drugs. This resulted in numerous puncture wounds and incisions in James’s and Hamm’s skin, delaying the former’s execution for hours and halting the latter’s altogether."
CORRECTION: The majority of the false "botched" execution claims are attributed to multiple needle pricks and/or problems with the murderer's veins. Everyone familiar with lethal injections and other IV procedures knows that multiple needle pricks are a responsible and necessary function to avoid "botched" executions or botched medical IV use (9).
Multiple needle pricks are 1) not "botched" executions, but represent a common, normal safety practice with all IV procedures, daily and worldwide, 2) preparation for the execution, not the execution, and 3) often required to have secure needle insertion and retention.
It would be negligent not to go through that procedure, the opposite of "botched".
The entire process of looking for good veins is to prevent "botched" executions. Once good usable, secure veins were found, the executions proceeded . . . or, if not found, abandoned.
It is the opposite of "botched" (9). It is responsible.
Conclusion:
This from Scientific American. Horrendous.
Here are some pro death penalty experts and additional research, if you care (11).
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FN
1) Nitrogen Gas; Flawless, peaceful, unrestricted method of execution
2) Nitrogen Induced Hypoxia as a Form of Capital Punishment, Michael P. Copeland, J.D. Thorn Parr, M.S. Christine Papas, J.D., Ph.D. East Central University , 6/08/2018,
or
3) 6 Die After Liquid Nitrogen Leak at Georgia Poultry Plant, New York Times, 1/28.2021,
and
6 Workers Killed by Nitrogen Gas
U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board,
Liquid Nitrogen Release at Foundation Food Group
Investigation Update, September, 2022,
4) "40 Years Ago: Three Weeks Before the Launch of STS-1", by John Uri, RoundUp, 2021-03-19,
5) HAZARDS OF NITROGEN ASPHYXIATIO, U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board , Safety Bulletin, No. 2003-10-B | June 2003,
6) "Inert gas asphyxiation"Wikipedia,
7) The Death Row "Exonerated"/"Innocent" Frauds
71-83% Error Rate in Death Row "Innocent" Claims,
Well Known Since 2000
8) Read the first two sections
The Death Penalty & Medical Ethics Revisited
9) Rebuttal: Botched Executions
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2017/01/rebuttal-botched-executions.html
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2017/01/rebuttal-botched-executions.html
10) No "Botched" Execution - Arizona (or Ohio)
11) Research,w/sources, w/fact checking/vetting & critical thinking, as required of everyone.
Anti-death penalty facts are in error and/or the pro-death penalty positions are stronger, as detailed and prepared to defend and debate
The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research
(contacts for 7 pro-death penalty experts)
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600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victim's families &
3300+ from some of the greatest thinkers in history
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Victim Services
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