Be Careful at Your Sleep Center

[RipVW]

Saw this on another forum--never heard of this before, so wondering if anyone knows if this is a real concern--

Just heard from a sleep tech that her sleep center, located within a highly prestigious hospital in one of America's largest and most affluent metropolitan centers, fills patients humidifiers with tap water on CPAP titrations. furthermore, a 7 year-old child contracted Legionnaires Disease and died from being titrated with a CPAP humidifier filled with tap water.
Make sure you insist on distilled or reverse osmosis/ purified bottled water for your CPAP titrations in the sleep center. The life you save may be your own.

from: http://www.sleepguide.com/forum/topics/ ... eep-center

[chunkyfrog]

Probably not fresh tap water, but moldy crud left in for who knows how long.
City tap water (not well water) should be safe for a single night's use,
unless the tank is not clean or the patient has immunity issues.

[ameriken]

Never thought about this, and now that you mention it I think I'd be more concerned about the tank not being clean than I would the tap water. The odds of tap water killing you are probably worse than the odds of winning the lottery, so to me that's a non issue. The issue is tap water has the impurities that growth can feed on, and with repeated use, if the tank isn't clean then it really won't matter if you bring distilled water. It's not the water per se...it's the mold that can result from tap water and an unclean tank.

I think now I'd insist on seeing the tank and making sure it is clean and mold free.

[xenablue]

Never thought about this either, but may be why I hear my DME staff always reminding people to empty out their tanks every day, let dry and refill at night instead of just topping up each night.

Maybe those of us who just top the tank up and wash every now and then have just been lucky.

I read up on what causes Legionnaires and this is exactly what it needs - water, a warm environment and someone to breathe that humified air!!!

YIKES!!!!!

Cheers,
xena

[ems]

After reading this thread, I took an extra good look at my tank which I have never washed... there is nothing in it or floating around. I only use distilled water. Perhaps it depends on what part of the country you live in. Now, maybe if I used that blue light , but I don't have one and not going to worry about it.

[chunkyfrog]

A little slimy, (feels like home?): Not so good!
I need to set up a schedule!

[greatunclebill]

i have my sleep studies done at a big teaching hospital that is part of a medical school at a major state university. during testing they do not use humidifiers. they use straight cpap machines for testing.

tap vs distilled vs boiled is an age old argument among cpap'ers. i used tap for a long time til i got tired of cleaning the calcium deposits out of my reservoir and switched to distilled. it sure didn't hurt me.

[avi123]

I could not find in the AASM's Accreditation protocol for Sleep Clinics if distilled water should be used for the humidifiers or that each testing room in the clinic should have its own thermostat for climate control.

[Quality Zees]

There were two deaths reported last year caused by infections from tap water used in a Netipot.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/12 ... er-warning

I always use distilled water in my humidifier because that's what the directions say to do. I admit to having used bottled drinking water a few times when I was away from home and couldn't find distilled water. When I saw all the residue that was left in the water chamber, I swore "never again." Tap water may not be harmful, but why take the chance?

The clinic where I have had my two sleep studies done uses humidifiers when requested and they use distilled water in them. I couldn't have a study done in a clinic that doesn't use a humidifier; the dry air just tears up my sinuses. If they didn't use distilled water, I'd bring my own.

[adrianne]

I use tap water. I'm also not a fan of how germ-phobic people have become.

[tetragon]

I normally use distilled, with tap being used if I run out. I base my choice off of the office kettle. I open it up and it looks like a snow globe, with all the pretty flakes of calcium swirling about the water.

[avi123]

IMO, boiling tap water for 4 minutes should be as safe as distilled water.

[Bluecat]

I've used tap water since I started CPAP. You don't find distilled water in shops, only demineralized water (which I was specifically told not to use).
I empty my tank daily, wash it in the dishwasher every week and have never had any problems. No growth in the tank and have even never had a cold since starting CPAP (13 months, this is great!!).

[Otter]

I don't see how a tap water in a properly maintained humidifier would be dangerous. The humidifier doesn't aerosolize the water, so pathogens in the water wouldn't be transferred through the hose. Taking a shower with the same water would be far more dangerous.

Come to think of it, though, my S9 may be an exception to this rule. If I allow the blower to run when the tank is full and I'm not wearing my mask, drops of water do get blown down the tube. I'm not sure if there's enough flow to aerosolize water when I'm wearing the mask, though. I certainly don't get visible droplets traveling up the hose.

But if scum is allowed to grow in the humidifier, that's another thing. Though mature pathogens will still remain in the humidifier, spores may blow down to the mask and cause disease in a susceptible person. If a sleep lab was letting things like that get out of hand, though, I wouldn't want to use any of their equipment. You could catch something from an unsterilized mask or hose too.

I use distilled in my machine because I'd rather spend a buck every week or two than clean the tank.

[deltadave]

I think Mike's board is dying and he'll say anything to generate hits.