Stephen Condray, age 16, of Cleveland, Oklahoma, for his question:
Is natural gas toxic?
Natural gas is one of the earth's gifts from the distant past. It is a treasure trove with dozens of different uses. Its heating capacity surpasses all other natural fuels and this energetic quality makes it a tricky substance to handle. But it is not a toxic substance.
The word toxin is coined from an older word for poison and toxic substances are poisonous to living tissues. The natural gas that comes from the ground is a mixture of different gases but none of them are toxic in the proper meaning of the word. However, most of the gases are flammable and some are trigger happy explosives. For these reasons, the breezy mixture must be tamed and handled with care.
Natural gas forms underground with deposits of petroleum. The ratio of ingredients in the mixture varies in different deposits but as a rule the major ingredient is methane, or marsh gas. Methane gas may account for mcre than 90% or as little as 25% of the tricky brew. Propane and butane, ethane and octane are usually present in various proportions. Carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulphide and perhaps helium also may be present in the natural gas that comes from the ground.
Most of these gases are organic compounds of hydrogen and carbon. And the hydrocarbons are chemicals created by living things, either of the present or of the past. The methane molecule is a package of one carbon atom locked in the center of four hydrogen atoms. It forms when plants decay in stagnant water where oxygen is scarce. New supplies of methane rise from boggy swamps arid often glow with the eerie, dancing displays we call Will 'o theIJisp.
Though the light, energetic gas is not toxic, it is combustible and highly explosive. When air contains more than 5.3% of methane, we have a tinderbox mixture likely to burst apart with shattering force at any moment. For this reason, special safety measures are needed to control the methane mixture of natural gas used to heat the stove in the kitchen.
Methane burns with a hot, blue flame. But it has no odor and to detect a gas leakage, we need to be able to smell it. So special chemicals are added to give an odor to the natural gas used in the home. This helps us to smell a leakage before the home goes boom.
Natural gas is not a toxic poison, but if you breathe too much of it, it may be deadly. When it fills the lungs, it replaces the vital supply of oxygen and the patient perishes from asphyxiation. This, however, is true of any other non breatheable gas when it replaces the normal oxygen in the lungs.
Methane is a light gas, only a little more than half the weight of ordinary air. It boils at minus 164 degrees centigrade and when reduced to this chilly temperature it becomes liquid. If the chilling drops to minus 184 centigrade degrees, the trigger happy gas freezes solid. The group of other hydrocarbons in natural gas are chemically similar to methane and behave more or less in the same way.