The bigger issue is that helium is a functionally finite resource, and does not remain in the atmosphere (at least IIRC it literally just floats up until it gets blown into space).
The bigger local issue you run into with liquid helium and liquid nitrogen is having it evaporate in an enclosed space. You can "easily" create an environment leading to inert gas suffocation (a real hazard in some industrial cases) - in reality any simple case like this is unlikely to be using enough of N or He, and is unlikely to be sufficiently enclosed, but in principle it would be possible - maybe if you were in a basement and spilled an inexplicably large thermos of them it could do it.
bee_rider|1 year ago
olliej|1 year ago
The bigger local issue you run into with liquid helium and liquid nitrogen is having it evaporate in an enclosed space. You can "easily" create an environment leading to inert gas suffocation (a real hazard in some industrial cases) - in reality any simple case like this is unlikely to be using enough of N or He, and is unlikely to be sufficiently enclosed, but in principle it would be possible - maybe if you were in a basement and spilled an inexplicably large thermos of them it could do it.