Safety First When You’re on Oxygen

If you’re new to being on oxygen, safety is a must. Even if you’ve been on oxygen a long time, it’s good to review and make sure you are using it safely, especially with winter being right around the corner!
There are some obvious rules, such as no open flames. And some not-so-obvious rules also.
I often get asked, “I have a gas cooktop and oven. Can I cook with my oxygen on?”
The recommendation is to stay 5-10 feet away from electric or gas heaters, burners, furnaces, and pilot lights. I prefer 10 feet. I know, that makes it quite difficult to cook. If you can, have someone help you with stove-top cooking and you stick to making salads and uncorking the wine. Open flames also include candles, matches, lighters, and fireplaces.
This not only means that you stay 10 feet away from open flames, but also your tank stays 10 feet away. And your concentrator.
I had one lady with a 25 foot nasal cannula, who used an E cylinder to shower so she wouldn’t have to drag her concentrator into the bedroom from the living room. One cold morning, she turned on her wall heater in her tiny bathroom. OK, nothing bad happened, but it could have.
Another area where people make mistakes is in face creams and lotions. In tiny, tiny lettering on your regulator, it says “Use no oil or grease”. That’s because oxygen accelerates combustion. And petroleum products are combustible. Products such as Vaseline are petroleum based. Please read ingredients on your lotions and creams, and avoid products with ingredients like petrolatum and petroleum derivatives.
Since Oxygen is an accelerator, this means that things saturated with Oxygen will burn faster. In RT school, they made us watch a video (there was no You Tube back then….. I’m old…) where a guy smokes a cigarette outside. No big deal. Same guy goes into a room that has had oxygen flowing into it at 2 L/min for a couple of hours. He lights the cigarette, and in ONE drag, the entire cigarette burns up. So don’t let anyone smoke any where near you when you are wearing your oxygen.
Another safety pointer: Make sure your cylinders are stored correctly. They should be upright, in a cart, or at least chained so they won’t fall. ‘Empty’ cylinders still have some oxygen under pressure in them. I know a lot of folks who have cylinders under their bed, piled up in the closet, or sitting on their front porch wishing the oxygen supply company would come and get them.

Here’s another movie we had to watch in RT school: What happens when a cylinder falls over and the stem breaks off. It’s 2 minutes, go see it here: http://bit.ly/1tavL9h .
(Video courtesy of Discovery Channel, Myth Busters, and You Tube)
Finally, turn off the regulator when not in use. Read all of the materials that your oxygen company gives you to read. And if you have too many empty cylinders piling up or laying around, call your company to come and get them!
Looking out for you always,
The Breathing Specialist