Bad Air!!!

Hello SB just wanted to ask if anyone has ever gotten bad air from a fill station?
a buddy and I stoped at a shop that is not our normal, and got six tanks filled.
"to add our regular LDS was closed for the day."
anyway we got our air and meet up with our other dive buddys later on that day an had a quick dive just to get wet an find out what our local water's were like after the winter. one of my buddys said his air tasted like dirt but ne will often say something wierd like this so we blew him off! Bad idea we should have looked harder into this.
we started our dive our big guy Steve went with me for a 58 min tour, while Jason who had our newest buddy stayed down for only 24 min cause he did not like the taste of his air, that none of the three of us had! yes very odd indeed.
anyway dive over, we went home an did our thing.

the next morn I felt like crap and had a raw mouth!
my buddy Steve had the same as well as upset tummy!
my buddy jason felt like he had a night out drinking!
and last our new buddy felt the same as Jason but went home that night and sleep't or his couch till his wife made him get up at around 7:00 to eat and then went back to sleep!

this is very new as none of us had ever had this happened! today my buddy jason and I took all six tanks and had them looked at our now open LDS and found oil in the tank's!

My question is this what can you do other than going to a doctor to stop the effects of bad Air!! and has anyone else had this happen?

Even a good fill station can experience a compressor malfunction and unknowingly pump bad gas. It happened to me. I was working a fill station that pumped over 20,000 cubic feet of Nitrox a month and over 8000 cubic feet of trimix. We had a part break on the compressor and oil/water waste wasn't being blown off out of the seperator. The way I found out was through a customer telling me the gas "tasted funny". ALWAYS CHECK YOUR GAS BEFORE YOU DIVE IT! Don't dive it if it's suspect.

A few times. Dive boat compressors are notorious for giving stale air. It can be caused by an intake being too close to exhaust fumes, oil/water separator malfunction, not changing filters often enough or contaminants in the tanks. One of my LDS had a problem for over a month. They changed filters too late, but didn't empty their storage banks of the contaminated air.
It's always best to crack open your valve before putting your reg on. That will blow out any dust, dirt, spiders, etc. and give you a chance to smell the air before breathing it. Bad air will usually smell like the stale air in tires. The burning sensation in your throat will go away after a day or so.

Cave Bum:

Even a good fill station can experience a compressor malfunction and unknowingly pump bad gas. ... ALWAYS CHECK YOUR GAS BEFORE YOU DIVE IT! Don't dive it if it's suspect.

Click to expand...

Exactly.
Some on this board have reported bad air as well, some with serious consequences. Some even use a Carbon Monoxide tester and/or blast a small amount onto a white card, if there is residue, don't go diving.
Again, play it safe, if it smells or tates funny, pass on the dive and check the air and call the fill station.

In addition, if you have had a tank of bad air, make sure you have your dip-tube cleaned as well.

Talk to DAN and have the offending LDS pay for cleaning those tanks.
Posted via Mobile Device

Avonthediver:

Hello SB just wanted to ask if anyone has ever gotten bad air from a fill station?
a buddy and I stoped at a shop that is not our normal, and got six tanks filled.
"to add our regular LDS was closed for the day."
anyway we got our air and meet up with our other dive buddys later on that day an had a quick dive just to get wet an find out what our local water's were like after the winter. one of my buddys said his air tasted like dirt but ne will often say something wierd like this so we blew him off! Bad idea we should have looked harder into this.
we started our dive our big guy Steve went with me for a 58 min tour, while Jason who had our newest buddy stayed down for only 24 min cause he did not like the taste of his air, that none of the three of us had! yes very odd indeed.
anyway dive over, we went home an did our thing.

the next morn I felt like crap and had a raw mouth!
my buddy Steve had the same as well as upset tummy!
my buddy jason felt like he had a night out drinking!
and last our new buddy felt the same as Jason but went home that night and sleep't or his couch till his wife made him get up at around 7:00 to eat and then went back to sleep!

this is very new as none of us had ever had this happened! today my buddy jason and I took all six tanks and had them looked at our now open LDS and found oil in the tank's!

My question is this what can you do other than going to a doctor to stop the effects of bad Air!! and has anyone else had this happen?

Click to expand...

Very important and something that you learned on your open water course, smell your air before you attach your regs and don't use any gas that has any smell, taste or color. If you see, smell or taste anything the air is BAD and breathing it under high partial pressues can lead to much worse that a sore tummy, raw mouth or head ache. DEATH is possible and 3 dead divers is 3 too many.

To answer your last question: The toxicity of inhaled hydrocarbons is related to several things. One is their depressant effect on the central nervous system, which will be more pronounced at depth. The danger here is that a diver will be rendered unconscious or sufficiently incapacitated to be unable to continue to control the dive. This you would have known during the dive, but it is the reason that gas that tastes or smells bad shouldn't be used, because you cannot predict how bad the effects will be with prolonged exposure and at pressure.

Aerosolized hydrocarbons can cause a pneumonia -- they interfere with the function of surfactant, which is the substance that allows your small air sacs in your lungs to stay open. This would be manifested by coughing and shortness of breath, and possibly odd-tasting sputum. The effects here are delayed, and can increase over 24 to 48 hour, or even then be complicated by bacterial superinfection. Anyone who has been breathing oil-contaminated gas should be alert for increasing bronchitis-type symptoms, and should see a physician if they occur.

Finally, hydrocarbons absorbed into the bloodstream can have toxic effects, primarily on the liver. This is one of the big toxicities of carbon tetrachloride, which used to be used for dry cleaning. Although the damage occurs at the time of exposure, the results may not be apparent for several days. Any skin discoloration or significant gastrointestinal symptoms (nausea and vomiting) should again be evaluated by a physician.

I think it's unlikely that sufficient quantities of hydrocarbons would be in the gas to cause the latter two toxicities, as the gas would likely be so irritating that it would be unbreathable. But it sounds as though you did have some of the toxic respiratory and gastrointestinal effects, so I may be wrong about that.

At any rate, there is no home remedy for any of this.

To add some reading for you... This is from the sticky'd thread in the compressor section. It was a great read and I learned a ton from this.

Millar IL, Mouldey PG. Compressed breathing air the potential for evil from within. Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine. 2008; 38: 145-51. RRR ID: 7964

Avonthediver:

Hello SB just wanted to ask if anyone has ever gotten bad air from a fill station?
a buddy and I stoped at a shop that is not our normal, and got six tanks filled.
"to add our regular LDS was closed for the day."
anyway we got our air and meet up with our other dive buddys later on that day an had a quick dive just to get wet an find out what our local water's were like after the winter. one of my buddys said his air tasted like dirt but ne will often say something wierd like this so we blew him off! Bad idea we should have looked harder into this.
we started our dive our big guy Steve went with me for a 58 min tour, while Jason who had our newest buddy stayed down for only 24 min cause he did not like the taste of his air, that none of the three of us had! yes very odd indeed.
anyway dive over, we went home an did our thing.

the next morn I felt like crap and had a raw mouth!
my buddy Steve had the same as well as upset tummy!
my buddy jason felt like he had a night out drinking!
and last our new buddy felt the same as Jason but went home that night and sleep't or his couch till his wife made him get up at around 7:00 to eat and then went back to sleep!

this is very new as none of us had ever had this happened! today my buddy jason and I took all six tanks and had them looked at our now open LDS and found oil in the tank's!

My question is this what can you do other than going to a doctor to stop the effects of bad Air!! and has anyone else had this happen?

Click to expand...

Wow! Congratulations on you four still being able to consume air today. Damn!

Do you happen to have one of those tanks of leftover air that has not been drained or refilled still? All the tanks and regs need to be cleaned and serviced I think, but I'd really like to see a Carbon Monoxide test on the air.

As some haves suggested, smelling & tasting your air then not diving any that seems funny is prudent, however "...he did not like the taste of his air, that none of the three of us had!" goes to show you can't count on that. I am certainly no authority on the subject, but I am aware that you really don't know how safe your tank air is with regard to CO if you don't test it yourself as there are no required protections on such other than quarterly air test sampling - that some compressors not bother with, plus are no guarantee of what happens between tests. One of the test facilities explains that failures are not common, but not as rare as many of us would hope, and when they fail - they often fail terribly.

TSandM is a medical authority as well as an impressive diver whom I would never disagree, other than she might have been a little stronger in her hint to be medically evaluated. There are treatments for CO poisoning if I am guessing in the right direction and your DAN insurance should pay for them. Was this a shallow dive? CO effects increase at depth, but then hit on ascent. The divers on the Maldives boat who did not die on an infamous CO dive there were sicker on the surface than below, yet had to render aid to the dying while suffering from their own injuries.

A well known boat captain told me about his close call with a Roatan compressor, bad taste, fouled reg, the week before a Texas tourist and a local DM died from air of the same source. You don't always get those warnings, tho.
Your local fire station might help with bad air information but their testing is not as stringent as ours needs to be since they do not breath tanks at depth. If you'd like to test your air in the future, as I do all air from all sources, even the most trusted - you can get an economical analyzer and do testing in a zip lock bag.

fisheater:

Talk to DAN and have the offending LDS pay for cleaning those tanks.
Posted via Mobile Device

Click to expand...

Hi Fisheater. Welcome to the real world. talking to DAN about the medical problems could be a good idea, and DAN may well want info for their Accident annual reports. I suspect the bad air station is going to deny any problems to avoid increased liabilities.

DandyDon:

Wow! Congratulations on you four still being able to consume air today. Damn!

TSandM is a medical authority as well as an impressive diver whom I would never disagree, other than she might have been a little stronger in her hint to be medically evaluated. .

Click to expand...

Dandy. . . the boat left. . . and you missed it!
You're the only diver using air, and carrying a CO meter. CO is odorless, and tasteless, but Oil contamination, mold, dirt and other contaminates leave a mild to stinking reaction to the air in a tank. Your doubts about her advice to get medical evaluation was WRONG. If you cut your finger, you can evaluate your need for medical evaluation. . . If you have inhaled contaminates that are causing breathing problems, you can't take a do it yourself approach. Very few ER specialists are trying to get more business, but seeing a victim of breathing distress early rather than later can make a difference between life and death. Our Borg princess can be scary, but her medical advice should be taken seriously, and she explained very well why time is critical. As a former EMT it is difficult to explain why some situations can turn deadly, and some inconvenient. These divers thankfully recovered. But, change the circumstances slightly, like the kind of oil in the compressor and the outcome could be worse.