Oxygen compatibility, materials and explosions

[Celt]

It doesn't even have to be a scuba compressor or a scuba tank. In the sport of paintball, there have been players (mainly kids) who have, in cleaning their equipment, lube either the quick disconnect fitting with WD-40 or a drop of their paintball gun oil. Then they connect to their paintball tank which are most commonly rated for 4500 psi but most only fill to 3000 because alum. 80's are the most common tanks out there and not everyone has a Haskel. This fill blows a bit of the WD-40 or oil into the tank. Just using HP air with only the 21% 02 in it, these tanks have exploded. Same principle as a Diesel engine. The combustion occurs due to the increased pressure even though there is only a smidgen of fuel present. When your compressor finally builds up a smidgen of oil in the right spot,,,,,BOOM

I have no experience of paint ball so can’t comment, but I’m using my Bauer since 1976 without a singe incident

 

[grf88]

Normalization of Deviance

 

[Jonny Wishbone]

Great read and so very true...

 

[RainPilot]

Oxygen is one the safest and beneficial gases in use.

I burnt my lips quite badly when I was a young student pilot. It was a winters day and I had put on some lip balm since my lips were a bit chapped. I had no compunction since I had done this numerous times before with no issues whatsoever, even though some of the older hands had warned against using petroleum jelly etc with an oxygen mask.

Unfortunately for me, on this particular flight, one of the drills we were to do was a simulated smoke in the cockpit / fire drill. One of the first steps was to place the oxygen to the "100%" setting from the "Normal" setting. If you flicked the switch a little too far, it would go to "Emergency O2" which was a positive pressure breathing system.

At 18000' , so around 1/2 an ATA of ambient pressure, I selected 100% and inadvertently switched it to "Emergency" and then instantly back to 100%. This allowed a short, 1/2 second puff of O2 onto my face at a pretty low pressure, into a high volume breathing mask. I would be VERY surprised if the PPO2 even got to 1 ATA.

A few seconds later I felt a burning sensation on my lips and assumed it was the chapped part hurting. A few seconds later I began to REALLY hurt. I handed over control to the instructor, pulled my mask off at 18K (that's how much it hurt) and had the strange sensation of seeing the smoke from my lip skin puff out of the mask.

I basically beat my lips to death and then we RTB'ed. I spent a pleasant afternoon on industrial painkillers and then a less stellar week losing my mind from the pain. I was VERY lucky to get away without skin grafts. This was all from a reaaaaally thin layer of several hours old lip balm. I was really lucky. I could have died if I had been solo but instead my bandaged face was a stark warning to my comrades, many of whom stopped using the lip balm they had been using, some for years.

So to recap:

1. I did something a certain way for ages, incident free, even though older wiser heads than mine advised strongly against it.
2. I heard several stories and anecdotes of other people having a serious problem but rationalised that it wouldn't happen to me because I was doing things differently.
3. I had an event occur, not terribly unusual or hard to happen, but on that day the random number generator came up with my name and I got hurt.

I really hope you stop at point 2.

 

[LiteHedded]

lol I shouldn’t laugh but I’ve never heard of anyone lighting their lips on fire from o2

That sucks

 

[RainPilot]

lol I shouldn’t laugh but I’ve never heard of anyone lighting their lips on fire from o2

That sucks

Like a Hoover, man. I laugh now but eating for a week through a straw was less than entertaining for me.


All I was grateful for was that none of my colleagues were fans of M*A*S*H or I would have had a very different callsign.

 

[Celt]

I burnt my lips quite badly when I was a young student pilot. It was a winters day and I had put on some lip balm since my lips were a bit chapped. I had no compunction since I had done this numerous times before with no issues whatsoever, even though some of the older hands had warned against using petroleum jelly etc with an oxygen mask.

Unfortunately for me, on this particular flight, one of the drills we were to do was a simulated smoke in the cockpit / fire drill. One of the first steps was to place the oxygen to the "100%" setting from the "Normal" setting. If you flicked the switch a little too far, it would go to "Emergency O2" which was a positive pressure breathing system.

At 18000' , so around 1/2 an ATA of ambient pressure, I selected 100% and inadvertently switched it to "Emergency" and then instantly back to 100%. This allowed a short, 1/2 second puff of O2 onto my face at a pretty low pressure, into a high volume breathing mask. I would be VERY surprised if the PPO2 even got to 1 ATA.

A few seconds later I felt a burning sensation on my lips and assumed it was the chapped part hurting. A few seconds later I began to REALLY hurt. I handed over control to the instructor, pulled my mask off at 18K (that's how much it hurt) and had the strange sensation of seeing the smoke from my lip skin puff out of the mask.

I basically beat my lips to death and then we RTB'ed. I spent a pleasant afternoon on industrial painkillers and then a less stellar week losing my mind from the pain. I was VERY lucky to get away without skin grafts. This was all from a reaaaaally thin layer of several hours old lip balm. I was really lucky. I could have died if I had been solo but instead my bandaged face was a stark warning to my comrades, many of whom stopped using the lip balm they had been using, some for years.

So to recap:

1. I did something a certain way for ages, incident free, even though older wiser heads than mine advised strongly against it.
2. I heard several stories and anecdotes of other people having a serious problem but rationalised that it wouldn't happen to me because I was doing things differently.
3. I had an event occur, not terribly unusual or hard to happen, but on that day the random number generator came up with my name and I got hurt.

I really hope you stop at point 2.

Sorry to hear you got hurt and your account is certainly sobering and will take your advice onboard. Thanks.

 

[Akimbo]

I burnt my lips quite badly when I was a young student pilot.

I wonder if this would be classified as chemical burn? Great example of how combustibility changes with Oxygen concentration.

A person might need a new face if it happened at 60' on pure O2 during a treatment table. We always confiscated anything that even hinted of a Petroleum product but I never thought to check someone's lips. @Duke Dive Medicine: Have you ever heard of making patients remove lip balm and lipstick?

 

[JohnnyC]

lol I shouldn’t laugh but I’ve never heard of anyone lighting their lips on fire from o2

That sucks

If you knew @RainPilot this level of weirdness woukdn’t surprise you in the least.

 

[rjack321]

I wonder if this would be classified as chemical burn? Great example of how combustibility changes with Oxygen concentration.

A person might need a new face if it happened at 60' on pure O2 during a treatment table. We always confiscated anything that even hinted of a Petroleum product but I never thought to check someone's lips. @Duke Dive Medicine: Have you ever heard of making patients remove lip balm and lipstick?

I was asked about hair spray, sunscreen, and any other lotions or oils on me before my chamber ride (a decade? ago). They also asked similar questions before surgeries to avoid any sort of fuel for a spark where O2 is in use.