Seriously, I had to quote this because its kinda silly. Have you ever emptied a can? You can watch the fumes, and they don't just drop the ground like rain falling. The difference between air and butane densities is not that much. Imagine adding milk to water... does the milk drop straight to the bottom, or mix with the water? Why would butane fumes not mix with air and spread out in all directions... because thats what actually happens.
If you are blasting cans you should be wearing a solvent rated gas mask and safety goggles. Huffing 'tane ain't cool.
I wouldnt turn a can upside down and just empty it into the air, so no, I havent done that. But of course, I have dumped many cans of butane down a full honey oil tube, and with that said, when it drips out the bottom it does not go back up into the air back into your lungs. It falls to the ground right out of the pan....... It also evaporates so slowly that by the time you did breath any in, you'd have certainly smelled it, way sooner than you would have any other health concerns arise.......
The difference between air and butane is a lot. A gallon of butane weighs nearly 5 pounds. How much does a gallon of air weigh? (
m/V = p / RT = 101325 N/m2 * 1 m3 / (287 J/kg-K * 273.15 K) = 1.2925 kg/m3 ---- NOT MUCH!).
Butane is so heavy that it falls directly to the ground while evaporating unless its one hell of a windy day. Once its in the pan, it isnt going higher than an ~inch above the pan...... Its so much denser, that its not a matter of "by how much" its "by a factor of how much".....
If we change the conditions of the experiment, however, to a can of butane being emptied into regular air not a vessel full of herb and glass, then of course, there's spattering and random droplets coming out everywhere. That'd happen if you turned on a garden hose, too. Its simply pressure inside a container that makes that. Rule of thumb? Dont empty a can of butane into open air for no reason?
Where I said "Since butane is heavier than air, I doubt your friend was breathing in butane to cause a seizure.", I gotta stand by that, I dont see any reason to change the statement, or why it was silly........
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