Meridiano Fill Station Adding Analox Clear inline CO Monitors

[cvchief]

Don,
Just as an aside: Why does it not suprise me that in addition to all the equip you also dive with your own doc/gas specialist?

Congrats though, I personally thought you were tilting at windmills. Nice work!

 

[swamp diver]

What a great story and I want to thank you two both for your persistence and tenacity on this issue.

I am curious if you two knew each other prior to going to Cozumel or was this a chance meeting, and if so what were the odds of an anesthesiologist and Don ending up on the same boat with CO testing gear? If only one of you was on that boat the strength of the finding of CO in the breathing air would likely have been discounted or ignored, but to have two different monitors showing the same result likely was a big factor in David taking action.

To add to the serendipitous nature of this story we also have a local dive op owner on the boat who owns an industrial gas testing company which makes it all the more surreal. Any other person other than David on board, and who did not recognize the important significance of the findings, would likely have resulted in a much less successful outcome.

Depending on one's belief the stars were certainly aligned perfectly that week or as Louis Pasteur once said, "In the field of observation chance only favors the prepared mind."

It is very fortunate for the safety of divers everywhere that we had three divers whose minds were very prepared for what they observed that week and felt compelled to act on those findings for the benefit of the entire dive community.

Thanks again Don, Suprane, and David at Aldora for your efforts.

 

[jfcl01]

The interval of time and the colorful variety of events and discussions that took place therein-most of which were not made public on the board except for a few small excerpts-more or less rules out serendipity, don't you think? Well, perhaps once Dandy Don and his boat buddy were introduced, that is.
Serendipity? When there is an industrial gas expert on the island for how many years?

If safety, altruism, and professional standards talked, there would have been in-line CO monitors long ago. Certainly months ago.

I'd say money and professional opportunism talked.

Feel free to PM me with your feedback and/or flames but know that I will post them in their entirety.

 

[Mike]

Cozumel diving has become safer for generations to come, most will never know it, but from those of us that do, a big thumbs up and thanks!

Awesome job guys!

Even my cat says thanks

 

[swamp diver]

The interval of time and the colorful variety of events and discussions that took place therein-most of which were not made public on the board except for a few small excerpts-more or less rules out serendipity, don't you think? Well, perhaps once Dandy Don and his boat buddy were introduced, that is.
Serendipity? When there is an industrial gas expert on the island for how many years?

If safety, altruism, and professional standards talked, there would have been in-line CO monitors long ago. Certainly months ago.

I'd say money and professional opportunism talked.

Feel free to PM me with your feedback and/or flames but know that I will post them in their entirety.

I think what was serendipitous or of good fortune was the fact that these three gentleman each with a unique role to play in seeing the outcome we did end up on the same boat that week. I suspect if any two of the three had only been on the boat the outcome would have remained the status quo for many years to come.

Also remember the 'eyes can't see what the brain doesn't know' and to many in the dive industry the notion of a compressor actually producing CO from within due to overheating and burning or dieseling of the compressor's lubricant oil is a new concept to consider and one that is not necessarily intuitive.

The fire service industry has recognized this risk wholeheartedly only as of about 5 years ago but that was only after a large urban service discovered CO in their SCBA tanks across the city and a researcher published the results. It took another 5 years of industry education before we saw it written into the NFPA compressed breathing air standard where all fire service compressors in the USA must now have an inline CO monitor installed. That requirement only came to be in 2008 for the US fire services so to have a large compressed air supplier for the dive industry in an international Mexican dive destination no less voluntarily installing monitors a short time after sorting out their contamination issues is worthy of some praise one would hope in order to encourage not only other local ops, but other international dive destinations who may be following this story to do the same.

I have spoken to the researcher who discovered the CO in the fire service air despite a large electric compressor with a intake well away from any vehicular exhaust and the initial reaction by the fire service was one of shock, disbelief, and denial. Imagine a fire fighter who is trained to put on his SCBA at 35 ppm CO in the ambient air in order to protect himself finds out there is 250 ppm or carbon monoxide in the compressed breathing air he is supposed use while in the fire. In this case it took several weeks to verify the origin and mechanism of the contamination and several months to rectify the issues which lead to the compressor overheating. CO monitors were installed voluntarily several months later across the fire service which is not much different to how the situation has played out on Cozumel to date.

Remember as well that high-quality, calibrated, and portable CO monitors did not start showing up on Cozumel until less than a year ago so unfortunately this problem has remained under the radar until now. Thankfully with the new Analox EII CO unit on the way this month that is all about to change and the dive industry worldwide will be put on notice regarding CO contamination in our compressed breathing air.

 

[DandyDon]

I am curious if you two knew each other prior to going to Cozumel or was this a chance meeting, and if so what were the odds of an anesthesiologist and Don ending up on the same boat with CO testing gear? If only one of you was on that boat the strength of the finding of CO in the breathing air would likely have been discounted or ignored, but to have two different monitors showing the same result likely was a big factor in David taking action.

To add to the serendipitous nature of this story we also have a local dive op owner on the boat who owns an industrial gas testing company which makes it all the more surreal. Any other person other than David on board, and who did not recognize the important significance of the findings, would likely have resulted in a much less successful outcome.

I think Bill/suprane and I had talked on various threads before, about Coz, CO testers, Scuba Mau, etc, and I think I gave him info you gave me in helping him get his analyzer. Some luck involved, but more mutual interests.

Now Dave was not on the boat. I actually have not had the pleasure of meeting Dave nor diving with Aldoha yet. I don't remember all the details of how he got involved in the PM discussions really. I think maybe Bill had a lot to do with that. Anyway, Bill & I were on a Scuba Mau boat with tanks from the same compressor Op that Dave's dive Op uses so our mutual interests developed along those lines.

I had no idea that Dave was so professionally involved in gas technology, that was a surprise, but for a few Texas boys to work this out was part of it. Bill did grow up not too far from me in Amarillo and we know some of the same areas well around here, but this was our first meeting.

 

[jwilson05]

I need to add my thanks, Don. I have two trips set up in the next six months with three different family members. It's nice to have a little extra peace of mind. One less thing to worry about.
Nothing like a West Texas farm boy to get things done!

 

[suprane]

OK!... Now that that is all solved,,,,, Let's go get wet in March!

 

[DandyDon]

I need to add my thanks, Don. I have two trips set up in the next six months with three different family members. It's nice to have a little extra peace of mind. One less thing to worry about.
Nothing like a West Texas farm boy to get things done!

Now, I still suggest taking your own CO tester wherever you go. Taking the fix to the source is a giant step, but I'm still going to test my tanks, as is Aldora going to test theirs. You might skip that if you dive with an Op who has an CO tester of their own you can use, and as cheap as they are I'd like to see all the Ops furnish CO testers just as they do Nitrox testers - but expecting this to happen right away is wishful I think.

I'm cynic enough that I take my own Nitrox analyzer in case I don't like the Ops, and I didn't in Roatan this year. I also failed to take a spare battery :silly: for my old analyzer but another diver on the boat had one just like mine so I fixed it when I got home. And I'll be carrying two different CO testers for a while, in part for comparisons, and then there's my klutz record there too. I ruined mine on this last trip and had to replace it. Looking forward to ordering an Analox tester this week now that they almost have the order page ready.

Hope y'all have great trips...! ilot:

 

[scubamon]

So, does anyone know if ScubaMau gets their tanks from Meridiano? Knowing all this, it would be awesome to have a list of Dive Ops on Coz that fill at Meridiano. I know that is no guarantee for safety, but for those of us without an analyzer it would be a nice assurance. Thanks!

---Wes