"The cave is full of hydrogen sulphide gas in too high concentrations for most animals to survive"

Over a shot of a bunch of people walking around with no masks on?

Read a bit further, the very next sentence???

> “All you could smell was sulfur hydrogen, and you cannot breathe,” Dr. Vrenozi said, recalling that most of the researchers were wearing masks. But as they descended deeper into the cave, she said that “you get used to the smell of spoiled eggs.”

Also, you use "" but you are not quoting, the text inside your quotes does not exist in the article. The actual quote would be

> The cave is hard to reach and is filled with foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas, in concentrations too great for most animals to live there.

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voidUpdate 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Getting used to the smell doesn't mean it's safe though... And isn't the safe level of hydrogen sulphide "if you can smell it, its not safe"?

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antonvs 2 days ago | parent [-]

Getting used to the smell could be an extremely bad sign, in fact.

With hydrogen sulfide, olfactory fatigue can occur at 100 ppm, and paralysis of the olfactory nerve has been reported at 150 ppm[1]. Those levels are considered "immediately dangerous to life and health (level that interferes with the ability to escape)"[3]

So you might think the gas is gone or that you're "used to it", but you're being poisoned and are at risk of losing consciousness and dying.

However, according to [2], "the atmosphere in [Sulfur Cave] can reach concentrations of up to 14 ppm of H2S". According to [4] that's below the "acceptable ceiling concentration" of 20 ppm, with up to 50 ppm for a 10-minute period being acceptable for an 8-hour shift. So these levels are in the "not great, not terrible" category. Wearing a mask is highly advisable.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK208170/

[2] https://subtbiol.pensoft.net/article/162344/

[3] https://www.osha.gov/hydrogen-sulfide/hazards

[4] https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/19...

	▲	microtherion 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, that was my thought as well. As a youthful experimenter, I once did not clean up properly after myself and stopped smelling the H2S which was permeating the room (Back then, the recipe for H2S was in chapter 1 of the Chemistry sets. Good times!) No longer noticing the smell is NOT a good thing!

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3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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shawabawa3 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I was quoting the caption in one of the images at the top, not the article itself

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nosianu 2 days ago | parent [-]

Before replying I searched the entire page and did not find your quote anywhere, including the captions. To make sure I did not miss anything I even only searched for a single word from your quote, "hydrogen", then "animals", and there are only three (two) places in the text, none in the captions.

I'm not sure if NYT articles are known to change their images and captions for different viewers? I checked the archived link too.

	▲	JayStavis 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		It's the lower third at [0:28](https://vp.nyt.com/video/2025/11/07/154186_1_07vid-spider-we...) in the video.

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tim333 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Effects of hydrogen sulphide:

>Acute inhalation exposure to high concentrations may result in collapse, respiratory paralysis, cyanosis, convulsions, coma, cardiac arrhythmias, and death within minutes.

>Exposure to low concentrations may irritate the eyes and respiratory tract, resulting in sore throat, cough, and dyspnoea.

I guess they were at the low end.