Someone above mentioned the certifying agencies, and that got me thinking: PADI calls all their certified shops "PADI Five-Star." There's apparently no such thing as a "Four Star" PADI shop. Why doesn't PADI require that any shop that wants to use its name, must use an in-line CO analyser or buy fills only from fill stations that do?
Here's an idea: To be called a PADI Five-Star shop, they would have to sell fills ONLY from fillers using an in-line CO analyser. Otherwise they become a PADI Three-Star shop. They could still certify divers, but would lose two stars.
I dive maybe once or twice a year, and those analysers have to be checked (calibrated?) every year, by a process that, as I read the dealers' web sites, sounds complicated. I don't mind checking my nitrox for O2 using the dive operator's testers. I wouldn't mind checking for CO the same way. But I'm not sure I'd have total confidence in a tester that I buy, and which sits in my closet for a year between dive trips, and which I (with no training) do the check on each time, apparently with a can of test gas that I buy through the mail.
OTOH, it does seem as though checking for CO is critical.
Here's an idea: To be called a PADI Five-Star shop, they would have to sell fills ONLY from fillers using an in-line CO analyser. Otherwise they become a PADI Three-Star shop. They could still certify divers, but would lose two stars.
I dive maybe once or twice a year, and those analysers have to be checked (calibrated?) every year, by a process that, as I read the dealers' web sites, sounds complicated. I don't mind checking my nitrox for O2 using the dive operator's testers. I wouldn't mind checking for CO the same way. But I'm not sure I'd have total confidence in a tester that I buy, and which sits in my closet for a year between dive trips, and which I (with no training) do the check on each time, apparently with a can of test gas that I buy through the mail.
OTOH, it does seem as though checking for CO is critical.