T&T: Hookah

[Gary Bell]

I would like to insert a mention of another important issue here.

I will not belabor the other issues related, the conversation has 
touched on lots of valid points and points of view.  We all live in a 
risk filled environment and manage in our own special way.

By way of credentials, long ago as a zoology grad. student I taught 
surgical practice in comparative vertebrate physiology lab, (although my 
degree work ended up in marine invertebrates).  I have been since my 
undergrad. days in the late '60's a certified diver and served as a 
rescue swimmer in the Navy.  My wife -- THE ADMIRAL -- has had a very 
successful practice for forty years as an anesthetist (puts folks to 
sleep for surgery).  I have assisted her in numerous medical missions in 
Mexico and South America.  I am familiar with the technical details and 
maintenance for our own and other anesthesia machines. 

The traditional dive folks have already considered and explained the 
issues with the mechanics of trapping compressed air in the lungs and 
moving too rapidly to the surface where the expanding gases would over 
inflate and seriously damage the lungs.

My issue is the greatly increased exchange of chemicals through the 
lungs and directly into the bloodstream when operating at increased 
pressure.  Even at normal air pressure chemicals present in the air are 
bathing most of the cells in your body within seconds (remember trying 
that first cigarette?).  I find little to worry about with the normal 
respiratory gases, oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and such.  At a few 
feet below the surface, using clean air, these would not pose a 
substantial physiological risk -- the body chemistry would still 
function within normal bounds.  Other chemicals, potentially found in 
the completely restricted air supply entering your body could pose 
significant risks. 

Starting with oily materials, there is very good news and very bad 
news.  The good news is that very little oil will penetrate the surfaces 
in your lungs and enter the blood stream.  The bad news is that even 
tiny amounts (far less than a drop, as vapor) will form an oil film on 
the vital moist surface of the lungs, through which all gases have to 
pass.  In the short term a single molecule layer will effectively shut 
down gas transport in both directions (suffocation, not pleasant at 
all).  Long term a single exposure would likely damage dose dependent 
numbers of vital surface cells, likely permanently (think emphysema).  I 
know you are only considering various 'oil free' compressors; how truly 
oil free are they if they are not certified by the manufacturer for 
respiratory use?  Might the cheapest ones be just oil free enough to not 
poop oil into your paint? 

Metals?  Metals send surprising levels of atoms directly into the air at 
normal temperatures and pressures.  Hold a piece of copper tube to your 
nose, you can easily smell copper.  Iron pipe, a little less so, but 
identifiable. I can smell lead, you probably can too. Try a freshly 
scrubbed piece of stainless steel, both chromium and iron are very 
easily smelled.  These and other metals play vital roles, for good and 
evil, in most biochemical reactions (as co-enzymes most often), and are 
normally sourced only from minuscule amounts in your food.  Much of our 
general purpose hardware is cadmium or zinc plated to keep it from 
quickly rusting.  Both metals are highly toxic in the same way.  The 
good news and the bad news here are the same:  Metal toxicity is not 
quickly apparent, but it is cumulative, where each exposure adds to a 
body burden that is not generally excreted, even over long periods of 
time.  Anesthesia machines and scuba equipment are made so that the only 
metal that contacts the air is PASSIVATED stainless steel (rendered 
chemically inert after fabrication with electric currents and strong 
acids).  Which compressor maker would go to the considerable trouble and 
expense to design and produce equipment like that for the paint and 
pneumatic power user. 

Volatile Organic Compounds.  Materials found in this sort of equipment 
are either naturally flexible because of the presence of small molecular 
weight compounds which are in turn volatile (the common smell of rubber 
for example) or because 'lubricating' compounds like pthalates have been 
added to them.  Pthalates are currently being investigated and various 
ones removed from production in water bottles, baby toys, plastic hoses 
and such.  Among other actions they often behave as synthetic estrogen, 
implicated in the increased incidence of men developing breasts -- 
something we mighty macho trawlermen should avoid. 

Conclusion (finally!):  I will front the extra cash for breathing 
equipment that was designed and produced specifically with these issues 
in mind.  Yeah, they cost more, due to increased development and 
production costs, liability insurance costs at every level, extended 
distribution chains, and all of these increased costs absorbed by a tiny 
niche market of buyers.  OK.  I'm worth it.



Message: 21
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:52:04 -0500
From: "Rich Gano" <richgano at gmail.com>
To: "Trawlers-and-Trawlering"
	<trawlers-and-trawlering at lists.samurai.com>
Subject: Re: T&T: Hookah
Message-ID: <AOEAJGECFICIKCFOHEFPIEEJCKAA.richgano at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I am not a certified diver, but the guy who set up my oil-less compressor
dive rig years ago was, and he was an ex-Navy diver as well.  I did learn a
few things about dive safety during my training leading up to my command a
US Navy diving and salvage ship - I have been underwater in a Mark 5 hardhat
rig complete with lead boots.  My ex-Navy diver had connections to the Navy
Experimental Diving Unit here in town, and he took a unit like mine over
there and had its output tested.  The result was that the air quality was
better than the premier Navy diving compressors.  He went to a local rubber
supply company and got 50 feet of blue hose rated food-grade or some such
thing (never smells rubbery).  To this he connected a second stage regulator
and told me to junk the whole rig if I ever got a headache while using it.
The point here is that the unit was set up and tested by somebody who knew
what he was doing and who allayed my initial skepticism.  I never would have
come up with this idea on my own.

I use this rig only for bottom cleaning (hour and a half underwater two days
ago) and unfouling props - I do NOT dive anchors or ever go below a few feet
and the admiral will not let me use it unattended from the deck.  The
compressor has a filter and is on deck well away from the exhaust of my
generator, and I wouldn't dive in marinas or other places where other
engines are running.  I have had the regulator stick a time or two and know
to exhale on the way up from my usual five feet.

I understand the reaction of people who are certified scuba divers with
qualifications up the wazoo and imbued with the PADI safety mantra.  It is
probably similar to my own feeling that people without a USCG master's
license should not be allowed to operate anything larger than a rowboat, but
that's just not the way of the world.

Apparently, my rig mirrors what others are using.  I consider MY PARTICULAR
risk less than walking through a WalMart parking lot.  Is this a
recommendation for others to run out and buy an oil-less compressor and rig
it up?  Certainly not, because I had the benefit of some experience and
know-how (air testing) not available to most.  HOWEVER, with those caveats
covered, I'd say the average Joe who is comfortable in the water snorkeling
would be fine.  Certainly better off than an untethered and possibly
uncertified scuba diver with self-filled tanks who might be tempted to want
to expand his underwater "horizons" after the bottom is cleaned.

Rich Gano
CALYPSO (GB-42 #295)
Southport, FL (near Panama City)