At 15:20 03 October 2019, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
On Wednesday, October 2, 2019 at 11:59:20 PM UTC-7, John
Foster wrote:
On Wednesday, October 2, 2019 at 9:38:10 AM UTC-6, Dan
Marotta wrote:
You are correct.=C2=A0 Oxygen doesn't burn.=C2=A0 But it
really
support=
s combustion!
=20
When I was in AF flight school (early 70s, so everyone
smoked), they=20
warned us about smoking with a mask dangling along side
one's face.=20
Seems one fighter jock had his mask catch fire (maybe while
lighting
up=
,=20
maybe due to a cabin depressurization causing the O2 system
to go into=
=20
pressure mode, who knows?).=C2=A0 The point was that he
suffered
seriou=
s=20
burns to his face.
=20
Personally I never felt the need to smoke during a 2-hour
flight with
a=
=20
pressure demand mask and regulator.
=20
On 10/2/2019 12:09 AM, wrote:
Many moons ago when I was a junior hospital doctor in a
chest ward
th=
e preferred oxygen mask for low concentration O2 was the
"Edinburgh mask"
w=
hich had a circular hole in the front with the O2 nozzle entering at
its
lo=
wer circumference. Some of the chest patients loved it because
they could
=
smoke through the hole. As was demonstrated to me by a
marginally less
jun=
ior doctor, if you held the lit cig tip directly in the O2 outlet flow it
j=
ust glowed brighter. Oxygen doesn't burn, it burns.
=20
--=20
Dan, 5J
=20
I've seen this twice in my career so far. Both times the person
was
smok=
ing while oxygen was being administered through a nasal cannula.
In one
ca=
se, the cigarette actually exploded, sending the person the the
ICU burn
wa=
rd with 3rd degree burns to the face. NOT PRETTY!!!
=20
The oxygen causes accelerated combustion of the tobacco,
resulting in a
f=
lash of flame that can cause serious injury. I imagine this
happens while
=
they are taking a drag, and not just having it passively smolder in
the
pre=
sence of higher oxygen concentration though.

Natural selection at work. =20


I have been using a Dive type cylinder because they are easier to
get re filled.
Last Saturday I was flying with the bottle on but the regulator off
above a ridge trying to connect to the wave system.
About 1 hour in and 2700ft asl there was a loud pop and bottle
pressure O2 started blowing into the cockpit .
I could not turn the bottle off so I opened the DV window put a
Pan call out and got it back on the glider field in about 3 minuets .
I have never been so scared ,and I have loads of field landings and
thousands of hours in gliders.
I blame it on lack of maintenance and use, the cylinders has been
sitting in the glider since March turned off while I flew thermals in
the UK.
My bad just need the bottle re-filling and probably a new O ring.