o2 cleaning reg for hygienic purposes?

[Scuba_18]

Salt water is not used in hospitals because it does not kill fast enough or selective enough. However i am assuming that you are not diving 24/7/365 and that you will rinse your gear and dry it out after usage.

salt water doesn't have very many natural human pathogens because chemical properties are very dissimilar to human plasma. Ie: pH, sodium concentrations, Chlorine concentrations etc.

Fresh water pathogens in lakes, quarries etc could occur, but again rare to get if you rinse your gear and dry it, E.coli cannot live on just air, doesn't happen, it can live in water however or intestines but that is physiology as well.

ozone or O3 would be very effective against most pathogens. I am not an expert on 02 cleaning nor do I know how to do it, but anything that involves O2 should not be effective against pathogens unless it is in a totally dry non-organic area.

A microbe could live on plastic but that microbe will not be a pathogen, a microbe can live on uranium but it also wouldn't be a pathogen. Pathogens must be able to live in the human body, on the human body or in the conditions of the human body, we are not salt water.

 

[Scuba_18]

The other great thing you could do that will make your regs really clean of all bacteria is to autoclave them(wouldn't suggest this, don't want to get sued if it hurts the internal components of the reg). But it would be cleared of all bacteria except some mycobacteria and some endospores.

eric

 

[The Kraken]

O3 would be very detremental to metal components if they were exposed to any great extent or frequency, and even moreso to any rubber component.

the K

 

[halocline]

I don't think anyone said anything about using O2 as a disinfectant; the original poster's question about O2 cleaning referred to cleaning the reg so that can be used with higher than 40% O2, not using O2 to clean the reg.

So plasma is chemically dissimilar to salt water? Just goes to show you what I know...anyhow, how dissimilar? I was thinking in terms of salinity and ph, but I guess not? I mean, I was not suggesting that someone in need of a quick transfusion on a boat (shark bite?) could drip seawater into a vein... never mind.

 

[The Kraken]

Mattboy,

You may want to read not only the title of the thread, but also the first sentence of the post just one more time:

"guys do any of you o2 clean your regs for hygienic purposes?"

the K

 

[Puffer Fish]

Salt water is not used in hospitals because it does not kill fast enough or selective enough. However i am assuming that you are not diving 24/7/365 and that you will rinse your gear and dry it out after usage.

salt water doesn't have very many natural human pathogens because chemical properties are very dissimilar to human plasma. Ie: pH, sodium concentrations, Chlorine concentrations etc.

Fresh water pathogens in lakes, quarries etc could occur, but again rare to get if you rinse your gear and dry it, E.coli cannot live on just air, doesn't happen, it can live in water however or intestines but that is physiology as well.

ozone or O3 would be very effective against most pathogens. I am not an expert on 02 cleaning nor do I know how to do it, but anything that involves O2 should not be effective against pathogens unless it is in a totally dry non-organic area.

A microbe could live on plastic but that microbe will not be a pathogen, a microbe can live on uranium but it also wouldn't be a pathogen. Pathogens must be able to live in the human body, on the human body or in the conditions of the human body, we are not salt water.

Just for the record - we typically have a blood pH of 7.3 - 7.5 (depending on who you read), while sea water is typically 8 or slightly above. That is, unless you are living close to a shore, where the pH is typically 6 to 8 depending on where and the amount of rain water/runoff that is happening. Lots of areas have that same pH in the ocean as human blood.

Our salt level is also very similar. My human physeology prof, used to say that we were little sacks of walking sea water.

E.coli can live in environments that no human could ever live in (your stomach, for example).

Read the following, as an example:

"People get Legionnaires' disease when they breathe in a mist or vapor (small droplets of water in the air) that has been contaminated with the bacteria. One example might be from breathing in the steam from a whirlpool spa that has not been properly cleaned and disinfected.

The bacteria are NOT spread from one person to another person.

Outbreaks are when two or more people become ill in the same place at about the same time, such as patients in hospitals. Hospital buildings have complex water systems, and many people in hospitals already have illnesses that increase their risk for Legionella infection.

Other outbreaks have been linked to aerosol sources in the community, or with cruise ships and hotels, with the most likely sources being whirlpool spas, cooling towers (air-conditioning units from large buildings), and water used for drinking and bathing."

The above is from the CDC - guess they don't know about your theory.

I picked the above infection, because, while rare, it is one that can grow in a regulator and/or any rubber type resporator (would be happy to link you to the OSHA manual regarding this).

Salt water is normally bacteria free because it is out in the sun and UV light kills bacteria (thank goodness)

 

[Spoon]

Mattboy,

You may want to read not only the title of the thread, but also the first sentence of the post just one more time:

"guys do any of you o2 clean your regs for hygienic purposes?"

the K

correct

 

[halocline]

Spoon (and Kraken), when I read "O2 clean your reg" I assumed Spoon was talking about the procedure that is commonly called "O2 cleaning" which is what people do to use a reg with higher than 40%O2 mixes. I understandably thought Spoon was asking if this procedure had any hygienic value. Sorry for the misunderstanding, but I imagine you can see how I might get that impression, right?

 

[The Kraken]

No !!!

 

[jsmith89]

I know in the lab I work at we use UV Light to kill off most contaminants and it works really well and really fast. Why not just disassemble the reg and stick it under a good UV Light for 5 minutes?

-Jacobi