Three of the largest manufacturers of medical-grade nitrogen gas in the U.S. have barred their products from being used in executions after Alabama’s killing of the death row inmate Kenneth Smith using a previously untested method known as nitrogen hypoxia. The three companies put in place mechanisms that will prevent their nitrogen cylinders falling into the hands of departments of correction in death penalty states. The move marks the first signs of corporate action to stop medical nitrogen, which is designed to preserve life, being used for the exact opposite – killing people, The Guardian reports. The beginnings of a corporate blockade for nitrogen echo the almost total boycott that is now in place for medical drugs used in lethal injections. That boycott has made it so difficult for death penalty states to procure drugs such as pentobarbital and midazolam that a growing number are turning to nitrogen as an alternative technique.
The march has been led by Airgas, which is owned by the French multinational Air Liquide. The company announced in 2019 that supplying nitrogen for execution was not consistent with its values. The move followed Oklahoma becoming the first state to adopt nitrogen hypoxia as a capital punishment protocol in 2015. “Airgas has not, and will not, supply nitrogen or other inert gases to induce hypoxia for the purpose of human execution,” the company said. Two other major nitrogen manufacturers have also confirmed that they are restricting sales of their gas. Air Products said that it had established “prohibited end uses for our products, which includes the use of any of our industrial gas products for the intentional killing of any person (including nitrogen hypoxia)”. Matheson Gas said that supplying nitrogen gas for use in executions was “not consistent with our company values”, and that it would not do so.
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