[blueydgirl]

I read that you are not meant to wear rings or watches when handling liquid nitrogen, and that it can freeze your finger to your hand. Is this true? What would one do if this happened?

I'm writing a novel, and I thought this would be an interesting scenario to incorporate into it.

[mike]

Possibly. I would suggest this is because either, rings and jewelry are more likely to trap liquid nitrogen against the skin for longer in the event of a spill. And second, because the jewelry is likely to stay cold for longer thus increasing the amount of time the cold is in contact with your skin. Usually small drops of liquid nitrogen on the skin will evaporate away so quickly as to do minimal damage. Larger amounts of liquid nitrogen would be more of a problem.

Now having said this, it is usaul practice to wear protective gloves clothes shoes and face shield when handly liquid nitrogen so that the liquid never actually contacts your skin in the first place.

I the case of a fictional story I would say that pouring liquid nitrogen over a limb wearing jewelry could quite possibly make the skin freeze to the metal... ouch!

[Borek]

Additional thing to consider is that skin under rings is usually wet, while around it is dry. Moisture can form an ice bridge between metal and skin.