Can one breathe industrial oxygen

I've spent some time sucking on an industrial tank of O2 when I got a serious case of asthma from the smoke from a lot of rosin flux in a fairly large solder pot (8x10" IIRC.)

It worked fine -- and I am still here about fourty years later.

Enjoy, DoN.

Well, come on then, Ig, what is it?

Thanks, Rich

Well, yeah, I guess I have to concede the point - my Dad used an O2 concentrator for awhile before he departed this mortal coil, and it didn't have a bubbler, but he didn't have a mask or anything, just one of those tubes with the little tubes in the nostrils, so he got some room air along with the O2.

Thanks, Rich

Well, helium gives you that funny voice; interestingly, freon (before the church of ozonism got it banned) makes you sound like James Earl Jones.

I figured argon is of a similar density to air, and wouldn't make you talk so funny. I've also heard of them using a blend of He and SF6, to adjust the density for deep diving.

Cheers! Rich

Ignoramus29041 on Tue, 11 Jan

2011 17:33:23 -0600 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Yes. There is nothing medical about oxygen in a tank marked "For Medical Use" - other than the Blessing of the Bureaucrats.

o2 is o2 - there aren't going to be any "contaminates" in the "Welding" oxygen, due to the ever so small detail hat Oxygen is an oxidizer, and will react vigorously with any other elements it comes in contact with. One of the reasons your are advised _not_ to grease or oil any of the fittings on your oxygen line - even the ones used just for welding.

Have you ever seen "USE NO OIL" in red letters on an oxygen regulator? That is because oil is explosive when compressed with oxygen.

But you knew that, right?

Steve

Unusual, Ernie. From 1974 to 1980, we used welding oxygen offshore in the Gulf of Mexico for decompression. But then, the standards were looser then, and we were using antiquated Navy diving charts, and there was VERY little OSHA regulation. Oh, wait, OSHA does not apply past a few miles offshore. I found that out after being injured one time. And you have to be a documented seaman or assigned to a vessel before the Jones Act kicks in.

Loopholes, loopholes, loopholes.

We did a lot of things that were outside the envelope, and I believe many men paid the price later in their lives. I know I did.

Steve

About 1975, my friend found his two children passed out from CO poisoning. They had gotten under a blanket on top of a heater register in his rented trailer. We were just starting out after diving school, and worked for a diving company, and he couldn't afford a doctor or ER. They were unconscious and cyanotic. We took a short bottle of O2 and took the torch off. We forced the oxygen into them through our cupped hands, allowing for exhalation, and had the pressure about 5 psi. They started coming around and breathing on their own. We put the kids in the back seat of his car, and shot them over to the yard, and he got into a decompression chamber with them. I ran the three of them down to forty feet. They stayed in about half an hour, breathing O2 through the nasal masks. They came around, and their cyanosis disappeared.

Did we do anything wrong? Probably. Did we save their lives? You bet. Would we do it differently today? Maybe. I just know that at the time, we were running 90, and it seemed the best thing to do. We had just come off

16 weeks of divers training that dealt with emergency diving situations, CPR, the bends, central nervous hits, and hyperbaric scenarios.

Over the years, many divers went into our chambers in the yard who were recovering from various injuries, myself included. Healing is speeded up by hyperbaric exposure, and is used today for treating many afflictions, and whole wings of hospitals are hyperbaric.

Steve

(...)

Didn't try that. At last, a use for an 'inversion table'?

Didn't.

By that time, I figured I had to get some O2 or I was gonna pass out again. Luckily for me, the gear was in good shape and ready to go.

--Winston

(...)

Me, too. :)

Thanks Rich.

--Winston

But I recall someone got the FAA to admit in writing that there was no legal basis [i.e FARS] prohibiting use of "welding" O2 in aviation applications.

"Welding" O2 is drier than the Aviation spec, but I bet that is a max moisture spec, not minimum. [I.e. the av-grade is likely just as dry.]

Welding O2 used like this is often used to kill a morning headache caused by too much night before. Many mornings there would be a line-up at my rig. Seems to work best when repeated at regular and lengthening intervals. Does not take a lot to make a real (or at least perceived) difference. YMMV.

Medical O2 is not used for aviation breathing because it can contain moisture and freeze at altitude. Use of welding O2 to recharge private aviation tanks is very common, but of questionable legality depending on many levels of regulation and if certification is required.

JMHE &.02, YMMV

(...)

Thanks Garrett. That is a new one on me!

I expect the real value of that tool is in obtaining a diagnostic sample rather than in clearing the lungs of fluid during a 'breathing emergency', in that the Japanese study showed that 20% of participants were not able to expel any sputum while using the device and best-case production was 5 ml.

It is a step in the right direction, though.

--Winston

There is no freaking way one oxygen is "dryer" than any other at tank pressure!

Sounds like another FAA con job...

Since I'm having problems with congestion right now I miss my O/A rig.

Long term effects may seem more important when the doc gives you the bad news years later.

In many cases, welding oxy and medical oxy come off the same manifold. Medical oxy has a high standard of purity but it's often not cost-effective to maintain different fill manifolds. Oxygen is produced by distillation of liquid air in either case but some filtering is applied to medical oxygen. Unfiltered LOX is still quite pure unless the plant producing it draws its air from near an LA freeway or something. Even then, the distillation process would purify.

So, as a generality, welding oxy is safe to breath though there may be exceptions. If you want certified safe, go with medical oxy. Pick yer pony, take yer ride.

I've dealt with a few hangovers by sucking oxy from the welding tank, and the oxygenated water I put in my minnow bucket made pedestrian shiners into killer ninja "show me a walleye" vigorously active bait.

I was a smoker for many years so I regarded risk of sucking on the welding oxy as negligable. So far so good, no news. I may outlive Mary, who did everything right. Nobody said life would be fair.

Hangover remediation?

The welding O2 purity standard is stricter than the medical (USP) or "Aviator" grades of O2, and by a notable amount. Impurities that will not hurt a person breathing the O2 will screw up a critical weld.

Yea, that would do it, but would also do in your wallet as well... I've got a 15HP, 15CFM, 4,000PSI SCUBA/SCBA compressor sitting out in my shop waiting for me to get around to overhauling it.