House insulation all over Regs

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Interesting array of responses here. I would add that aquatic organisms excrete bodily wastes into the water you dive in 24 hours a day. I'm not sure that mice are that special as to require complete disassembly and service of the regulator. I would wash and rinse, do a function check, then dive as normal.

Many of the concerns expressed here relate to the Hanta virus, a bad actor which can be spread via mouse urine and feces and can cause a fatal lung disease.
 
Personally I would take them to a good reg tech, explain the situation and ask him to sterilise and perform a full service on them.

Might be overkill but I would rather not take any chances with rodents given the diseases they are known to be carriers for - CDC link
 
Many of the concerns expressed here relate to the Hanta virus, a bad actor which can be spread via mouse urine and feces and can cause a fatal lung disease.

Hantavirus is an issue I had not thought of. I am familiar with the Hantavirus in the west, but a little googling indicates that there are 4 different strains of Hantavirus, all carried by different rodents. The one carried by the white-footed mouse certainly includes New York in its range. Hantavirus apparently has a 60% mortality rate, so there's that. I found that it is spread by fresh mouse droppings, fresh urine, or dust that is contaminated with either. I tried to find out how long the virus might remain active (how "fresh" does the urine/droppings have to be) but was only able to determine that viruses in general seem to have lifetimes of 15 minutes to several days outside of a host. Note that there is at least one virus that was measured to survive for 5 months.
How long do bacteria and viruses live outside the body?
 
FWIW The OP is in NY which is a very very low probably area for Hantavirus. Now he was west of the Mississippi River and in particular the West/Southwest then it could be on concern.

I would first give then a quick washing under running water, especially the first stage, which I would then hook up to a cylinder so to blow out the second stages. After that I would remove the second stage purge cover and diaphragm and wash in hot soapy water with disinfectant.

I might be wrong about this, but I seem to recall reading about hantavirus being an issue along the Appalachian Trail in NY, especially in the three-sided shelters that through-hikers tend to use. Mice nest in them, and when backpackers use them they tend to sweep out the dried leaves and debris, thus kicking up the dust from the fecal matter left from the mice.
 
Don't want to be bleaching your regs
 
Bleach is not the best for this application. Too harsh and potentially damaging.

Steramine is the tool: Steramine Multi-Purpose Sanitizer

Techs don't usually put the plastic stuff in ultrasound. Too soft to be effectively cleaned and unnecessary.

Mouse urine is not plutonium. Rinse, wash with mild dish soap, Steramine. Inspect and function check then dive. That's all that is needed.
 
@jgttrey, you aren't concerned about the fibreglass particles?
 
Nope. It's super easy to wash off a second stage, especially if you pop off the purge cover and exhaust tee. I can't imagine anything of substance being left behind. It'd take 5 minutes to get it squeeky clean. You can check it with a magnifying glass if you're really concerned.

Just cleaning out the mouse nest probably exposed OP to a million times more airborne particles of insulation compared to breathing out of a 2nd stage after it is cleaned.
 
Here's a link to the service manual for the Legend second stage and you'll see the instructions on how to remove the exhaust tee/deflector, check the exhaust valve and replace. Takes 5 minutes and a little hot water.

You can remove the purge cover and check the purge diaphragm if you want to as well. Maybe need a pin spanner for that, but maybe can be done by hand. I just don't have experience with that particular second stage.

http://scubaspares.com/manuals/LXLSS.pdf
 

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