Woman dies and another in hospital after cryotherapy session at Paris gym

Original article by Kim Willsher in Paris

Police in Paris have launched an investigation after a woman suffocated while undergoing a cryotherapy session at a city gym and a second was taken to intensive care.

The dead woman, a 29-year-old employee of the gym, collapsed after a nitrogen leak from a cold chamber that had been repaired earlier in the day, sources close to the inquiry said. The colourless and odourless gas is used to create an atmosphere of extreme subzero temperatures.

The two women, the second aged 34, were in cardiorespiratory arrest when the emergency services arrived at the On Air gym in east central Paris shortly before 6.30pm local time (1730 BST) on Monday, a police source told journalists. Three other people who attempted to revive the women were taken to hospital and 150 people evacuated from the building.

In a statement, the Paris prosecutor’s office said the police and workplace inspectors were looking into the cause of death and injury. “An autopsy and toxicology analysis will be carried out to determine the precise cause of death,” a spokesperson said.

Cryotherapy is a wide term used to describe various forms of treatment using extreme cold on the body. It is popular with top-level athletes to relieve muscle injury, pain and inflammation and increase blood circulation. Exposed to sub-freezing temperatures for two to three minutes, the body’s response is to limit blood flow and release hormones including adrenaline and endorphins. The heart pumps faster and increases blood flow, increasing the supply of oxygen to the body, accelerating tissue repair and reducing muscle pain and swelling.

In its most basic form, the process involves placing an ice pack on the skin. Modern cryotherapy involves using liquid nitrogen or nitrous oxide to expose the body to temperatures between -110C and -140C (-166F and -230F) in baths or cabins.

Use of the therapy is increasingly widespread among elite athletes and sports teams and whole-body cryotherapy has become a trend in wellbeing. The Mayo Clinic in London says research into the benefits of cryotherapy is “still in its infancy” and suggests a bag of ice on a swollen joint or sore muscle, or a swim in a cold lake, may be just as beneficial.

In 2018, the European Industrial Gases Association, a safety organisation, warned of the danger of liquid and gas nitrogen in cryotherapy, including the risk of “oxygen depletion and potential asphyxiation”. It suggested those using them should be closely monitored.

A 24-year-old woman froze to death in a cryotherapy chamber at a Las Vegas spa in 2015. She had entered after work hours and was only discovered the next day by a colleague.