Air contamination - Oil

[aoumi]

Hi, hope someone can help with my questions.

Yesterday I did two shallow dives (I am a new diver), but during the second dive noticed that the air had a bit of a taste. Once finished I smelt the air and it definately had a rubbery smell. I have been told it is likely oil contamination in the air.

Last night the back of my throat has a burning feeling, and now also my chest feels quite irritated and a burning feeling.

Has anyone else experienced these oil contamination symptoms? Now it feels like when I have a chest cold, and irritated, burning . Will the symptoms resolve themself, or have I done permanent damage? I am a bit worried about it.

Thanks for your help!

 

[KevinNM]

You should get it looked at. This doesn't seem to be something that will normally permanently hurt you if treated, but it certainly isn't good and you should seek medical attention. And if it has oil it might have more bad stuff that you have breathed. You might try the DAN medical hotline, the regular business hours line is+1-800-446-2671, the emergency 24/7 one is +1-919-684-9111.

Don't return the tanks. Instead "To encourage divers to report compressed gas contamination, DAN is offering to assist with the gas analysis of reported and approved cases. If you have an incident possibly related to breathing contaminated gas and have lawful control of the tank, please preserve your tank and contact DAN Research by phone (919-684-2948, ask for Research department) during regular office hours (8:30am-5opm EST) or through the online incident reporting system."

 

[DogDiver]

Had my cylinders contaminated with oil a few years ago. Was cave diving at 100 feet and about 600 feet back. I knew something was really wrong. Headache, dizzy, nausea, couldn't breathe. Called the dive and with the high flow at Little River, looked like a pinball all the way out.
Full blowen pulmonary edema!!! Went on oxygen, shot myself up with 125mg of solumedrol. I'm a RN.
Tanks on disassembly full of oil. All the O rings in the manifold crumbled.
Dan diagnosis of Imergent Pulmonary Edema. It will be a lifelong issue. Dan and the USN are doing a lot of reasurch on this.

 

[rx7diver]

I have been told it is likely oil contamination in the air. Last night the back of my throat has a burning feeling, and now also my chest feels quite irritated and a burning feeling. Has anyone else experienced these oil contamination symptoms? Now it feels like when I have a chest cold, and irritated, burning . Will the symptoms resolve themself, or have I done permanent damage? I am a bit worried about it.

aoumi,

Absolutely get this checked out! Few things frighten me as much as the thought of breathing oil-contaminated scuba air. I learned in my open water course that a very famous U/W photographer died after breathing such air. The oil coated his alveoli and prevented the oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange (a condition called "lipoid pneumonia", IIRC).

Don't delay. As others suggested, contact DAN immediately, and follow up.

Safe Diving,

rx7diver

 

[Bratface]

Two of my buddies had contaminated air. They had headaches and dizziness. Like others have said, get checked by a doctor right away.

 

[Bob DBF]

Good luck, hope you do well in the long run.

My buddy and I got a bad fill, but as soon as we "tasted" air, it was a quick trip to the surface and a very short dive. We did fine, the shop corrected their problem, and cleaned our tanks then refilled them. Back then it was not as isolated incident as it is now.

I've been lucky catching this and various other issues over the decades and thereby dodging some nasty consequences. The rule I learned, way back when, was that if anything seemed off, get to the surface and out of the water.



Bob

 

[clownfishsydney]

Very common in the South Pacific, shops seem reluctant to change their filters when they should. Most times all it does is make you cranky, but you can get lungs irritated, sort of like bronchitus. Hope you get better soon.

 

[aoumi]

Followed the advice and got checked over as soon as I could. It seems that although the air was bad, it possibly wasen't oil (or maybe not much of it) as I haven't developed lipid pneumonia since the weekend. What it was in the air is unknown and impossible to test now (rental ranks were returned), but whatever it was it had a bad effect. The inflamation is now starting to subside so hoping to fully recover.

Thanks to everyone for your replies! A big scare and I hope others don't have to go through this.

 

[abnfrog]

glad to hear it isn't oil . That crap scares the hell out of me too , it could kill a a nearly 40 year dive career. so im super anal (if that's possible to be anal about breathing oil ) about it . Years ago a lds had a reputation for bad air I stayed away from them , dive ops should really strive for the best air they can produce I know my shop does .

 

[fmerkel]

I thought scuba air compressors used vegetable based oil. Is this not universal/common?
Petroleum caused pneumonia is very very bad.

I've had a couple fills in my dive history (20 years) that smelled/tasted bad and one of them 'oily'. The wife and I popped back up after only a few feet of breathing off this and debated whether to go on with the dive. We did and were fine. It was a boat dive with a bunch of tanks that needed to be filled while we were at lunch. I think they got the compressor hot when they filled so many tanks so quickly. Other people on the trip also noticed the taste. No one had any side effects.