SAFETY
My Experience: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Is No Joke! by Marty Snyderman , MartySnyderman.com
C ARBON MONOXIDE (CO) poisoning should be taken seriously! I know from personal experience. What might be thought of as “just a little CO” in a scuba tank can quickly become life-threatening, even in very shallow water. At depth, even small amounts of CO can become deadly because it binds to hemoglobin 200 to 250 times more readily than oxygen, thus greatly reducing our blood’s ability to transport oxygen to vital tissues. In a nutshell, CO is odorless, tasteless, and potentially lethal. Even in cases in which a victim survives, exposure to CO can have serious lifelong consequences far beyond just ending your diving career. I believe that issues resulting from CO in scuba tanks
detecting CO in your home, hotel room or garage. They tend to be less sophisticated and not useful when it comes to detecting low concentrations of CO that can prove fatal to divers. Analyzing for CO is as easy and fast as analyzing a Nitrox mix. I purchased my CO analyzer through Divers Alert Network (DAN). I will use it to verify that the gas in my tank is free of CO in every tank I ever use for the rest of my diving career. You can buy a CO analyzer by going to the Divers Alert Network website at DAN.org > store, and entering “CO analyzer” in the search bar. Some people are quick to say the dive operator should analyze the gas they put into a tank. I wholeheartedly agree.
But as with Nitrox, so should the diver who uses the tank. We need to take responsibility for our own safety and the safety of those we dive with. My Story: Until recently, when I have shared my story with my diving peers I usually felt like my incident was not received with the concern I
are likely to be far more common than our industry has believed they were. The good news is CO poisoning and the resulting issues are prevent- able. The Reflexive Response: My CO poisoning incident occurred in 2008. In the years that followed, whenever I shared my story with my diving peers,
thought and hoped it would be. Recently, follow-up conversations with a friend who along with numerous shipmates experienced a CO hit on a dive charter boat have made me realize that I shouldn’t give up on sharing my experience and what I have learned about CO poisoning. My incident was not the result of the exhaust valve of the compressor used to fill my tank being too close or downwind from the intake valve. Recent conversations with a friend who had suffered a ‘CO hit’ led me to make a Facebook post about the fact that I recently purchased and now use a CO monitor, and almost 300 people reacted, commented, or shared stories of their own CO incidents on my post. There have likely been a lot more CO poisoning-related incidents than we recognize. Many involved causes unrelated to the relative positions of the intake and exhaust valves on a compressor. Most had to do with poor maintenance, a compressor that overheated, and some unknown reasons. Many were nuanced.
those I was talking with almost always stopped me and asked if the “compressor exhaust valve was too close to the intake valve.” No doubt about it, their suspicion is one way CO can enter a scuba tank. But the fact is, those are not the only factors that cause CO to enter a scuba cylinder. I am not a doctor, an EMT, or an expert on compressors or compressor maintenance. Numerous other factors that can cause CO to be in a scuba tank include failure to properly maintain a compressor, using the wrong oil, using the wrong filters or a compressor that overheats. Remember, CO is odorless and tasteless. Unless you check the gas in a scuba tank before you inhale it, you have no way to be sure the gas is not contaminated with CO. The good news is there are small, portable CO analyzers made to detect a low number of parts per million of CO. Be aware, some CO monitors are designed to be useful in
10 | SCUBA DIVING INDUSTRY
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