Dangers of High-Pressure Oxygen - Training Films

What can the suppliers of high pressure oxygen, such as Air Products (usual disclaimer), suggest?

I may be able to put you in contact with someone who can help. Are you looking for films about medical or manufacturing applications?

I crossed my fingers and tried Youtube. Yup, there are videos there about oxygen fires and explosions.

This is the first one I got but there are lots more.

Thank you

You should go to your commanding officer and request formal training. This is very important stuff, your very butt is on the line here. Respect Chain of Command, but you can go to the very top with this.

Keep in touch.

Mr. Bricktop,

Off subject but I love the clown joke.

Mike

You are so very correct about what line my behind is on. I work very hard to make my craftsmen, sailors and instructors understand the dangers involved in working with oxygen systems and the components. I am the Sr. Oxygen Cleanliness Instructor for NAVSEA. That and $1.50 will get you a cup of coffee. My students are tired of seeing the same old films and I was just trying to find newer films for them. I am thankful that we don't have any fire incidents to use as examples so most of my fire films are NASA films. Thank you for the reply

Pity you voted your post off topic, it is a good idea.

With other issues dealing with Safety I have the same problem.

I'm pretty much stuck with training videos featuring the elderly guy that looks like he has his eyes closed lecturing on safety. I get my videos from the same place that services our fire extinguishers and replenish our first aid boxes.

The videos aren't graphic enough. I wonder what they are showing students now for drivers safety.

Most of the time when I'm preparing a safety training meeting I'll spend time looking on the internet for subject related materials. You'll find all kinds of materials normally and have to read several to find what you want to share with your groups.

For instance I was giving training on personal protective equipment and found an article of some guy that worked with an oil refinery, who responded to a call not wearing his coveralls appropriate, no safety eye wear and didn't follow safety procedures by not shutting off the engine of his vehicle. There was an explosion and he sustained 3rd degree burns. He also admitted sleeping during training meetings, he didn't take safety seriously.

One of the best ways to get through to your groups is to personalize your sessions. You might find some incidences that you have seen or experienced yourself that you can share with the group. When it deals with experiences of your own there is a different quality to your lectures that the group picks up on better then if you are just teaching them from a text book. Personal experience involvement comes from the Heart which is more influential.

Back to your main point:

When I was taking a Train the Trainer Forklift Safety Course, it was mentioned by the instructor that training films for safety were required by OSHA to not contain anything offensive. Such as womens skirts being too high or revealing and graphic details. They think that if the material is too offensive that it would loose the attention of those that are watching.

Thank you for your reply. One of the answers I received was to check on youtube (I think that is it). I am so geared to the traditional ways of searching for information I sometimes forget to use the new technology. I just wanted to share that info with you.

My training is in great detail and I work very hard to impress how dangerous oxygen is. My craftsmen and instrucators are getting tired of seeing the same old movies so I am just trying to get them some new material. Thank God we don't have many examples to show them.

Four sources immediately come to mind: 1. Any of the large Industrial Gas suppliers 2. Some of the big Insurance companies have their own test facilities. It's in their interests to make films available about storage and use of hazardous materials. If neither of these has what you want, try the American Chemical Society or NASA. Being in (or associated with) the military, NASA should be more than willing to help. An alternate would be Redstone Arsenal, in Huntsville, AL or the Air Force R & D center. Redstone Arsenal has both chemical and engineering schools related to storage and use of hazard materials, propellants and explosives.

A few years ago, there was a video floating around on email showing a group of Physics students in a contest to quickly light a charcoal fire. They placed a burning cigarette butt in the grill. poured on the charcoal birquettes, then pour on 3 lbs of liquid oxygen (in a cyrogenic flask with a 10 foot pole.)

The resulting flare and fireball rendered a 3 second white flash on the video. In the aftermath, the charcoal, cigarette, and the grille were gone in ashes, and there was a 5 foot diameter scorch mark on the ground.

I understand the Purdue physics club is banned from having similar contests in the local parks. Not exactly high pressure stuff, but it graphically illustrates the dangers of pure oxygen in concentration.

I guess maybe the moral of that story is that Colleges should teach safety classes first before students can participate in the actual hands on experimentation classes.

Usually all that is done is the instructor gives the students some off-hand safety advice when handling material that isn't on any tests. They assume the students are smart enough to know those things because they are smart enough to be in college. This would apply especially if such material is going to be released into the hands of these students.

If you have enough oxygen present, say from an O2 Bottle from an Acetylene torch, you can throw a car battery into a pile of metal shavings present in any machine shop and start the metal on fire. THE METAL, regular black iron.

When Iraq accidentally fired two Exocet missiles into the USS Stark back in the late 1980's, the missiles didn't explode. The majority of the damage caused was from the aluminum that the ship was manufactured from catching fire from the rocket fuel from the missiles. Rocket fuel is rich in producing its own oxygen.

Google for Purdue video:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS269US270&q=video+purdue+liquid+oxygen+fire+starting

Totally agree on your statement on "safety" instruction. The powers that be generally assume people have picked it up somewhere. It really needs to start before highschool, except I would not trust the current US "education" system to be able to do an adequate job of it. Need to assume people don't know unless specific individuals demmonstrate their knowledge to you. Even then assume they will have a bad day.

Semi "off-topic",

Actually I would still consider you being on topic because we are still talking about safety training and its availability.

JJ Keller has a website JJKeller.com that deals specifically with safety issues. They provide outlines and training programs and training aids specifically for safety training in all aspects of safety that I know of. They even allow you to sample their site for one month free and encourage you to take advantage of all their materials during that month. They also have speakers on different topics in safety and if you miss the meeting they will post the recording so you can see it and see the questions that were asked. If you attend it live you can participate with the questions.

I was hit up to try out another site but their safety information was inaccurate and I wouldn't recommend them but JJ Keller I do recommend.

Thank you for the reply. I'm a Purdue graduate and I can see limits being needed on these 20 something students that are still under the impression that they are indestructable.

I know the film you are talking about. I actually have a picture of the explosion but not the film clip. One reply I received said to check youtube. I have not had a chance but I will check it later.

I used to work for a company called LinCare, and they served oxygen to home bound patients, but also provided various systems for ease of portability. Polar was another company that also did O2 systems. I used to "Pump" liquid O2 into containers that were basically overgrown thermos bottles with a heating coil that would enable the liquid to come back into a gas and be delivered via a liter per minute format. I hated having to do a fill on a container out in rain or snow because the fill nozzle would become frozen to the container receiver, and then the fun began. There were two main problems that we were always to be aware of, 1, being sure to turn all 1/4 turn valves to the off position so that the hoses didn't frost up and later off gas causing the entire truck to look like it was "smoking", and the second was to be careful around anything with oils secondary to the instant reactions between the two substances. I had done a refill on a liquid system and in the process had some drip onto the asphalt surface of the driveway, and although the amount was small, sure did some popping and fizzing. As I do not know where you are located, I would check into seeing who supplies the local welding shops their liquid tanks and something should be available from there. The only other item that was always of concern was the action of having a container tip and the valving at the top break off. You couldn't run fast enough to escape the potential build up of the reaction. The only other safety films were showing the actions of cylinders that were loose on the fly after having the top stem broken by a tumble and the erratic flight of the cylinders. I can tell you this, in that if I had to take on a fire, I wouldn't try to put it out but let it burn. But in your case,.....damned, girl.....good luck. You might also look into the civilian aircraft breathing air system suppliers for more information as well. Ohio Air products has some good information, and is most often used by ambulance builders.

I'll look into some of my stuff and see if I can locate some of the information that was used during my training.

Oil and O2 under pressure is definitely an unhealthy situation. Fortunatly not one I have seen, but I have heard stories of valve tops exploding due to using valve NOT cleaned for O2 service.

Sorry for the late reply. I have had some interesting experiences with the administration of liquid O2. I had one valve on one of my old units tanks develop a leak and it would dribble liquid O2 onto the metal floor of the van, and when I discovered the problem I couldn't get to the shop quick enough. I have had some dribble off of the main fill valve of a reservoir and run down to the asphalt driveway surface and it would dance and snapping and popping until it evaporated. When you do a fill in the open air and it would rain or snow you had two options to free the fill valve from the truck to the reservoir, and neither one really blew my hat to my satisfaction, one being pouring reasonably hot water over the metal fittings to melt the ice, and the second was to use an old hair dryer, which took more time but I felt a little more comfortable melting the ice that way. I do not miss that job as interesting as it was. The customers were the most interesting parts of the gene pool at time. I'll check this again later. Take care.