Absolutely not. CO is an unforgiveable contaminant, and a super exceedingly rare occurrence. Don't cite the numbers you heard until you can cite the number of dives conducted per year without incident and can cite reliable sources to prove the "I heard"s. There are thousands and thousands of dives every day. It would take lot of CO poisoning to make it a significant risk.
Cozumel is not a great place. You get what you pay for. Mexico is poster boy for corruption in government. An estimated 12,000 killed in drug wars in 2011. The next thing is to arm yourselves because a drug lord kidnapping/shootout is more likely than another CO incident.
Dive with operators you trust. It is their responsibility to provide clean filtered air. If you personally check for CO what else do you check for, and where does it stop? Are you going to check for oil? How about Helium? How about CO2? This is a wet-dream thread for Analox. There could be Cesium from Fukushima! The idea that you should carry a $700 CO tester or even worse that people routinely equip themselves with one relieves the supplier from responsibility for making sure it's not there in the first place. Its absurd.
Weird accidents happen. You don't arm yourself against them because they are outliers. A certain dive operator once delivered a tank full of rust to a diver. Not only was it full of rust, but the valve had no dip tube so the rust went right in a stuffed up the first stage. As I recall this happened at about 100 feet and the victim lived. It was of course, in Cozumel. The operator took all the heat, but it was a divers fault. Some idiot drained the tank, didn't tell anyone and let his 2nd stage get in the water. Oh wait it was the VIP'ers fault: he didn't secure the DIP tube. Oh wait it was the outboard motors that vibrated all the rust loose and caused the dip tube to fall out. No wait. It was the victims fault for not aborting the dive when he heard something metallic clanging around in his tank. It has never happened again SFAIK, and I don't feel compelled to inspect every tank before filling to see if there is rust and a dip tube. Zaphod Beeblebrox will hand me a pan-galactic-gargleblaster before it happens again.
If it was CO the most likely source was incorrect oil and/or a compressor that was too hot. Yes, operators should have CO monitors. Cozumel will get right on that as soon as they get their sewage underground.
The rest of the operators in Coz will be making sure their intakes are in clear air and that their lubricants are appropriate and their compressors in good order, lest they join the ranks of "secret drug war informants" leaked in the papers.
CO can be catalyzed, intakes can be protected and (sorry drive-thru critic) they are often far away from the compressor itself.
CO is absolutely preventable. It doesn't just happen. Once set up and tested to be safe it will stay that way. Some crazy accident is required change that or else a stupid human error.
Oxygen content is a completely different matter and O2 testers are widely available. Oxygen is a required contaminant and its measurement is exactly opposite. We measure to verify sufficent contamination, not to verify minimization. FO2 testing is not (as someone intimated) a justification for CO testing.
Last I knew there were only about 75 dive licenses in Cozumel. They were one of the most desirable and prized franchises on the island. If it is CO and Palancar did the filling, then they should lose the franchise. The slot should then be auctioned to the next owner, and part of the proceeds used to subsidize CO monitors on all fill stations, and cheap air purity testing. Mexico is just too short of reasons for tourism to screw around with killing this goose. Demolishing the Palancar operation will be signal enough to even the worst operators that they need to play ball or lose a dynastic fortune.
Cozumel is not a great place. You get what you pay for. Mexico is poster boy for corruption in government. An estimated 12,000 killed in drug wars in 2011. The next thing is to arm yourselves because a drug lord kidnapping/shootout is more likely than another CO incident.
Dive with operators you trust. It is their responsibility to provide clean filtered air. If you personally check for CO what else do you check for, and where does it stop? Are you going to check for oil? How about Helium? How about CO2? This is a wet-dream thread for Analox. There could be Cesium from Fukushima! The idea that you should carry a $700 CO tester or even worse that people routinely equip themselves with one relieves the supplier from responsibility for making sure it's not there in the first place. Its absurd.
Weird accidents happen. You don't arm yourself against them because they are outliers. A certain dive operator once delivered a tank full of rust to a diver. Not only was it full of rust, but the valve had no dip tube so the rust went right in a stuffed up the first stage. As I recall this happened at about 100 feet and the victim lived. It was of course, in Cozumel. The operator took all the heat, but it was a divers fault. Some idiot drained the tank, didn't tell anyone and let his 2nd stage get in the water. Oh wait it was the VIP'ers fault: he didn't secure the DIP tube. Oh wait it was the outboard motors that vibrated all the rust loose and caused the dip tube to fall out. No wait. It was the victims fault for not aborting the dive when he heard something metallic clanging around in his tank. It has never happened again SFAIK, and I don't feel compelled to inspect every tank before filling to see if there is rust and a dip tube. Zaphod Beeblebrox will hand me a pan-galactic-gargleblaster before it happens again.
If it was CO the most likely source was incorrect oil and/or a compressor that was too hot. Yes, operators should have CO monitors. Cozumel will get right on that as soon as they get their sewage underground.
The rest of the operators in Coz will be making sure their intakes are in clear air and that their lubricants are appropriate and their compressors in good order, lest they join the ranks of "secret drug war informants" leaked in the papers.
CO can be catalyzed, intakes can be protected and (sorry drive-thru critic) they are often far away from the compressor itself.
CO is absolutely preventable. It doesn't just happen. Once set up and tested to be safe it will stay that way. Some crazy accident is required change that or else a stupid human error.
Oxygen content is a completely different matter and O2 testers are widely available. Oxygen is a required contaminant and its measurement is exactly opposite. We measure to verify sufficent contamination, not to verify minimization. FO2 testing is not (as someone intimated) a justification for CO testing.
Last I knew there were only about 75 dive licenses in Cozumel. They were one of the most desirable and prized franchises on the island. If it is CO and Palancar did the filling, then they should lose the franchise. The slot should then be auctioned to the next owner, and part of the proceeds used to subsidize CO monitors on all fill stations, and cheap air purity testing. Mexico is just too short of reasons for tourism to screw around with killing this goose. Demolishing the Palancar operation will be signal enough to even the worst operators that they need to play ball or lose a dynastic fortune.
