British diver found dead - Talay Songhong park, Thailand

[tuxevents]

That'll work, but expensive.

Cheaper than a funeral

What do you use?

 

[Apecks]

Any thoughts on these or will a decent household CO monitor suffice?

DE-OX SAFE Carbon monoxide analyzer – TEMC DE-OX® Digital Computers and Analyzers

 

[DandyDon]

Cheaper than a funeral

What do you use?

True, but to the typical diver, who is untrained on CO risks, it seems pricey. I have a CooTwo, and Analox (no longer made), and a Sensorcon. I've been looking at a new, low cost model, but a 60 second tank bleed to test each tank is discouraging.

Any thoughts on these or will a decent household CO monitor suffice?

DE-OX SAFE Carbon monoxide analyzer – TEMC DE-OX® Digital Computers and Analyzers

The De-ox unit will work. Home alarms aren't anywhere close to sensitive enough for tanks, but every home needs two or three.

 

[Brad_Horn]

CO killed this diver, but the doctors released the official report giving decompression illness as the cause.

DCI was the outcome.
CO was only found in the one bailout cylinder?
And if so, then what was the originating root cause, of the APD rebreather failing, that triggered the need for him to bailout to the CO contaminated bailout cylinder.....

 

[lermontov]

DCI was the outcome.
CO was only found in the one bailout cylinder?
And if so, then what was the originating root cause, of the APD rebreather failing, that triggered the need for him to bailout to the CO contaminated bailout cylinder.....

do we know he bailed out? the CO might have ben in his dil - i read it as co was found in his BO not he bailed out to a CO contaminated bottle

 

[Angelo Farina]

Is testing CO really so rare nowadays?
It was common practice in the eighties, when I and my wife worked for 5 years at Club Vacanze (1985-1989: at the time, Club Vacanze was the better Italian holidays agency, running a number of luxury all-inclusive resorts in Italy, Greece, Maldives, Kenya, Tanzania and Caribes).
As highest-grade instructor, and engineer, I was in charge of maintenance and test of the equipment, including the powerful Bauer compressors. The tests of air quality were done employing a Draeger pump analyzer:

Changing the glass probe, this was capable of measuring accurately the concentration (in PPM) of almost any gas: CO, CO2, Oxygen, NH3, Humidity, etc...
Draeger.Web WWW - Draeger Master
As this was normal practice 40 years ago, I wonder why this is not done routinely now...
Are the compressors improved so much that the risks associated with air pollution are now so small, that testing air quality is not anymore so critical?

 

[BlueTrin]

It's rare, but only takes one tank. Back when Padi required quarterly tests for compressors be done by a recognized lab, failure rates were 3%, which for a life & death risk is huge. Padi dropped the requirement tho. It's Russian Roulette except CO hits can be ignored, written off as travelers flu, talk hushed, deaths written off as drownings or in this case decompression illness as is the official doctors statement. It's rare that we learn the original trigger as we did from Apecks.

It gets boring checking tank after tank always getting zeroes, until you get your first tank failure, then you view it all as worthwhile.


It's a pain, depending on local resources and models you can buy & have serviced at home. Since no one else has crusaded about this, others who test just quietly protecting themselves but not spreading the word - it's bad for business you know and the industry, I have spent a lot more than I ever wanted to on this. I have two testers that I have serviced by the manufacturers - less often than required by fire departments and other industries with rules but I allow for sensor drift as I go, and a third that I can calibrate in the field - but it's not longer made.

The agencies are doing nothing as exposure is bad for business and the industry. They fight to keep recreational diving self regulated, so no rules. DAN has done much to make diving safer but is also doing nothing as again it's bad for business. DAN is non-profit aside from hidden profits made by some administrators, but very dependent on business as usual. Only in recent years have we had affordable technology to expose the risks and protect against them, but as long as hits & deaths are kept at accepted levels and can be ignored with official statements from doctors hiding the truths, the old problem continues. It's really discussing.


Extremely so, yes! That's the main risk. I don't know how much training you have had, but you taking diving seriously I can tell from you DIR status, yet no one has taught you the basics about CO. It's odorless, colorless, and tasteless, easy to produce in compressors, and hurts & kills divers, but it's also easy to get away with.

CO killed this diver, but the doctors released the official report giving decompression illness as the cause.

Just to clarify, I have read and know about the effects of CO but I have never read specifically that it was also function of partial pressure.

It kind of makes sense now that you mention it though ! Thanks for the post, it is very insightful.

Out of curiosity, how many times in your diving career have you found CO ? I know that even one is too many but I am really wondering how frequently it happens.

I use a CooTwo analyzer to test any nitrox tank I get, whether in the US or abroad. Thankfully I've never had a tank register as having CO in it, but why take the chance? And the CooTwo analyzer is nice because it's compact, easily travels, & gives me both nitrox percents & CO percents.

I usually calibrate once to twice daily & once every year send it off to have the sensors replaced.

It’s not easy to buy a CooTwo in the UK, I would have probably bought one as it combines two analysers.

I may have to buy a separate CO analyser: £280 for a CO analyser that does not allow me to check for O2.

BtS - DE-OX SAFE Carbon Monoxide Analyzer with Alarms & Open Collector

 

[Apecks]

DCI was the outcome.
CO was only found in the one bailout cylinder?
And if so, then what was the originating root cause, of the APD rebreather failing, that triggered the need for him to bailout to the CO contaminated bailout cylinder.....

No, CO was found in all the bailout cylinders allegedly at 45ppm and 30ppm in the diluent gas.
The CCR did not fail and has been checked to be in good working order.

 

[Apecks]

do we know he bailed out? the CO might have ben in his dil - i read it as co was found in his BO not he bailed out to a CO contaminated bottle

It does not appear he bailed out

 

[Apecks]

Sadly it does not appear that there will be any more official information on this. The authorities here have concluded there investigations, funeral has been held and the tanks and ccr sold and funds sent to his family. The compressor has been sold to be stripped and rebuilt.