Contaminated Air: A Personal Experience

[YilanDiver]

New Title
(Suspected) Contaminated Air: A Personal Experience

I have an Advanced Open Water and Nitrox Certification with just over 50 dives. I recently had a bout with contaminated air. I feel that it is in the best interest of the dive community to share my experience. In order to diagnose my experience I searched for this kind of account online but was not able to find one. I am therefore posting this with the hope that more divers can more easily identify symptoms in themselves and others.

(Times are my best estimates, depths are fairly accurate as I paid close attention due to my discomfort)

5~10 minutes 4~6 meters tightness around mask, headache around temples
10~15 minutes 6~9 meters increasing headache around the back of my head
15~20 minutes 9~12 meters soreness in the neck and strong headache (I began massaging my neck and forehead) This is where I should have ended the dive at the very latest.At this point I ascended to 6~9 meters.
20~25 minutes 6 meters felt nauseous and almost threw up in my regulator.
25~30 minutes ascended to 3 meters, I wanted to make sure I made a safety stop, (I was beginning to feel disoriented, tunnel vision may have been a factor here as I was so focused on not ascending too quickly that my safety stop was probably 5-10 minutes)
30~35 minutes surface swim and exit, motor skills deficient, I had difficulty with my fins and needed to rest before continuing back to the shop.

Upon arrival at the shop, I immediately removed my gear and hit the bathroom. After returning from the bathroom, I tried to disassemble my gear but I was disoriented and had to sit down. I tried again but this time I again felt nauseous and threw up in the bathroom. I was extremely disoriented and probably not communicating clearly but I did tell one of the people I was diving with, he offered aspirin and showed concern for my state. Another clerk in the shop asked if I was okay and said I looked tired, to which I responded I had just thrown up. Once again I don’t think my communication skills were up to par and I was not understood. After finally getting my gear in order (tunnel vision), sitting down and resting every 2-3 minutes, I paid for my dives. I was asked for my e-mail and I even had trouble writing it down. I was extremely disoriented and feeling very uncomfortable at that time and I went to my van to lie down. I told a fellow diver that I had hoped to do a third dive with that I was sick and would not do another dive that day. Although I never implied that it was contaminated air his response was that I should rest on the couches at the shop and it was impossible that it was bad air. I should have heeded his advice as what I needed was fresh air, not air conditioning. I also should have found the shop owner or dive master to inform him of my condition but it is not reasonable to expect someone in an irrational state to act rationally. In the future should I encounter someone with these symptoms I will take it upon myself to inform everyone around me. After resting for 30 minutes I wanted to get home so I started on my way back home around 3:30 pm. I had driven less than 500 meters when I pulled over and threw up on the side of the road. A one hour trip home took 3 hours as I had to pull over and rest every 15 minutes. In retrospect I shouldn’t have been driving. When I arrived home I went to bed and by 9:00 pm I was feeling much better, tired but much better.

I spent thenext day recollecting what happened and possible causes.

Decompression Sickness: Probably not as we weren’t deep enough and I carefully managed my ascent.
Seasickness: Probably not as I am not prone to it and it was a fairly calm day.
Food Poisoning: Ate beef noodle soup, but so did others and food poisoning usually takes 6-8 hours, and symptoms don’t match.
Bad Air: This is the most likely as symptoms are accurate. My symptoms reminded me of Carbon Monoxide poisoning; I had a severe case as a 12 year old.
Oxygen Toxicity: Wasn’t using Nitrox so unlikely.

I believe that this experience has made me better/safer diver for myself and for those with whom I dive. Although contaminated air is rare it can happen and I am thankful that I can share this experience others.

 

[emoreira]

Up to now you have only suppositions. There is still no irrefutable evidence that the air that you breathe was contaminated.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

You need to have your air tested for carbon monoxide. That is very important. That and read this companion thread thoroughly.

SeaRat

 

[ambertiger]

Sorry to hear about that. Here is a link that discusses contaminated air in detail Carbon Monoxide tester for scuba and firefighting DAN also have a good reference site.
From your description of the event it is hard to say really what occurred. Is it possible that you were very tired or, had driven a long way, are you a smoker? Food poisoning should not be entirely discounted as it can come on very rapidly especially on an empty stomach. I once ate bad clams in a soup and started vomiting and was incapacitated within 2 hours. Did you talk to any of the other divers in the shop? I think that is the 1st thing I would have done because if one tank is contaminated usually a bunch of tanks are and several divers might be feeling the effect from that day. Does the shop use a diesel compressor? Did you take a look at the inlet for the air? Did you do a smell test on the remaining air in your tank? Although carbon monoxide is odourless it is usually possible to smell an oily residue or diesel smell from a bad tank. Maybe ask the shop how often they change their filters on the compressor. Good luck next time.

 

[YilanDiver]

I've never been too big into forums, I don't really want to get into any kind of argument for the sake of argument. I hope this can stay as a positive discussion on staying safe and being aware that accidents can happen even in the most mundane circustances.

It was my second dive of the day, can't say I was tired. After the first dive I had planned to do two more. I drove for an hour to get there. I am a non-smoker.

As it was my first time to the shop, I didn't really know anyone, and I was disoriented. Maybe other divers did feel it but I don't know. The owner said the tank I used was a borrowed tank from next door, one other diver in my group was also using a borrowed tank (identified by its bright pink color), but I don't know his name.

In theory food poisoning should have also affected the other 8 people that ate the same meal as I.

I know that there will be a considerable amount of doubt without empirical evidence but I know my body and there was something that directly coincided with me getting in the water and breathing from a tank that made me irrefutably ill for a period of 6 hours.

I will be asking for a visit to the filling station next time I go. A smell test was performed pre-dive but post dive I was way too sick to do anything other than focus on getting the heck out of there.

Thanks for your response, I hope there isn't a next time but I will certainly be better prepared for it due to this experience and will be better able to perform in case of an emergency. As I said I am a better/safer/more experienced diver today than I was last week.

May I add that the only reason for these posts is that during my morning swim 2 days ago I had a vision of this ending very differently. I have spent considerable time thinking about it and have been having trouble sleeping because of it. I was hoping to generate some discussion to ease my tension.

 

[openmindOW]

Yilan,
Where were you diving? Without naming the operator, can you tell us the general location of the operation?
Did the air in the cylinder have an unusual taste or smell?

 

[YilanDiver]

I was in Asia. Nothing unusual about the air in the cylinder. I smelled and breathed it predive. I've only just started smelling my air after my most recent dive instructor told me that smell is a better indicator.

 

[tddfleming]

Without hijacking this thead, it was mentioned to have suspect air tested. How does one go about having air tested? What is the cost? Where do you have to send it? Who would be responsible for the payment of it, shop or individual?

I am glad you are OK. As you mentiond, when one is really sick, you do not think things out very well. All three of us had food poisoning so bad that we just laid in bathrooms for days, if not is bathrooms we were in bed. But it was not until after the fact that we even suspected food poisioning. I was just laying on the bathroom floor crying, which I typically don't do.

You said it was a tank from another business, was it another scuba shop next door?? Were these businesses one in the same? Have you since spoken to the shop?

 

[YilanDiver]

Yes I have spoken to the shop and I am satisfied with thier response. I will dive with them again. I don't know the exact relationship with the shop next door. I hope to visit the filling station next time I'm in the area, to settle my nerves
.

 

[vladimir]

New Title
(Suspected) Contaminated Air: A Personal Experience

Thank you for posting what must have been a scary experience.

Up to now you have only suppositions. There is still no irrefutable evidence that the air that you breathe was contaminated.

I think he has considerably more than suppositions; I think he has a set of symptoms that are consistent with CO poisoning and not easily explained otherwise. To say that he lacks "irrefutable evidence" is stating the obvious--that's a pretty high standard, particularly since he is not leveling an accusation at anybody, just sounding a general warning for the common benefit. The reflex urge to cast doubt upon his claim is interesting, and might be a sign of just how scary bad gas is to divers, and of how much we'd like to believe it never happens.