I'm a certified diver and one of the things they beat into our heads in class was use "clean" air. all the compressers have to be oil free or use Vegatable oil. The US remake of the deep sea challenge made a point of showing the use of Olive oil(?) vs. mineral oil. Oil in a fine enough mist will go into your lungs. mineral (Petroleum) oil will cause pnuemonia that will not go away as your lungs cannot digest it like vegatable oil. Did they clean out the compresser and use vegatble oil or does the expert have a lingering cough?

-- Stephen A. Binion (Stephenbinion@hotmail.com), February 13, 2001

Answers

Hello Stephen !

I'm not a diver, nor am I qualified to answer your question. But I do have a thought on the subject. I also wondered about this, and I think that the fact that the air is not "forced" into the diver, such as would be the case with your diving apparatus and a face mask, may make the difference in safety. It seems to me that an "atmoshpere" is being created for the "diver" in the helmet thing, and this was probably OK for the diver to use, especially considering the short time period. My 7¢ worth. :-) bobwatts

-- bobwatts (watscarb@one.net), February 13, 2001.

Im still woried as the air at the regulator (mouthpiece) is at ambient pressure when breathed. Premies also get that type of pnuemonia according to the missus (RN) from malfunctioning incubators.

-- Stephen A. Binion (Stephenbinion@hotmail.com), February 14, 2001.