Whats a safe smoking distance from an Oxygen Concentrator?

[FishOil]

The doctor gave me a Bipap with an Everflo Oxygen Concentrator and it says No Smoking on it, but there are people in my house that smoke. Whats the safest distance they can smoke away from my room? Should I close the door when they do?

[Emilia]

Don't know...but what a great opportunity to tell them to take it outside! Think how clean the house air will be.....

[FishOil]

So they can't smoke in the house at all anymore? That really won't work. What about candles? Incense?

[FishOil]

Think 16 feet and a closed door is safe enough?

[Goofproof]

As far as I'm concerned, about 350 miles downwind. For anyone with lungs, the last thing you need is smoking, or candles or incense using up your O2, and plugging your lungs.

That said the Concentrator just removes O2 from the room it's in and feeds it to you through a hose. It will get fouled faster from having to pump crappy air. In the room where you are using the O2, fire is a hazard, as is the person that puts your health at risk. These are the reasons they provide the signs to put in your house warning others that O2 is in use. Jim

[Otter]

Call the DME and ask about candles, pilot lights, etc. But if someone needs oxygen, there shouldn't be any smoking in the house at all. You've got enough trouble without breathing their exhaust.

[FishOil]

Oh so the smokey air could light the concentrator on fire when it sucks it in?

[Goofproof]

Oh so the smokey air could light the concentrator on fire when it sucks it in?

Not likely, O2 doesn't burn, it supports burning, very well! As we posted it's bad on the machine, and bad on your lungs and in the room where O2 is used fire is easier to start. Jim

If I owned the O2 unit and it was exposed to smoke you would be buying it outright.

[archangle]

You really should have gotten some warnings and instructions with the device. There are a lot of possible problems with oxygen. For instance, if you put vasoline on your nose, it might catch fire if you use oxygen. Some antibiotic ointments might do the same. Anything with grease or petroleum can spontaneously combust. I wonder if Lanisnoh Lanolin would combust in pure oxygen.

Oxygen can build up in your hair or clothing. When you turn the machine off and leave the room, you may still be highly flammable until it dissipates. This site says "The Massachusetts Department of Fire Services recommends that, if you cannot stop smoking, you turn your oxygen off, wait for 10 minutes to allow high oxygen concentrations to leave your hair and clothing, and then go outside in the open air to smoke."

i.e. if you take off the machine, and go into the next room and brush against a cigarette, you may turn into the human torch.

The Massachusetts Department of Fire Safety web site says not to allow any smoking in your home.

Yeah, I usually don't pay much attention to government people from Massachusetts, but still.

You really need to get good instructions from your provider.

The oxygen concentrator doesn't bring any additional oxygen into your home, it just takes oxygen from the room and concentrates it, so it shouldn't be making the whole house more flammable. It seems to me that only the person using the oxygen concentrator and nearby objects become highly flammable. Of course, as you run through the house burning and screaming, you may spread the fire around the house.

[archangle]

Oh so the smokey air could light the concentrator on fire when it sucks it in?

No, the oxygen makes everything it touches much more flammable than it was before. Your clothing, your hair, vaseline or other ointment, bedding, etc. now act like dry newspaper with a little lighter fluid on it. If a smoker with a burning ember on their clothing puts out his cigarette and walks into the room and brushes up against you, it could set things on fire.

[FishOil]

Okay so 10 hours after turning it off should be safe then is what I'm getting? They don't smoke until later at night before I go to bed so my hair and clothes should be normal with oxygen levels.

Also no, the person that came and delivered it didn't say anything about smoking. The only safety thing he told me was to turn on the bipap before the oxygen or it could leak into off machine and start a fire. It wasn't until later that night I was examining the machine and noticed a "no smoking" sticker on it and thought to myself "holy shit thats right, its oxygen."

[NotMuffy]

Okay so 10 hours after turning it off should be safe then is what I'm getting?

No, what you should be getting is those smokers the #&@% out of your house.

Second hand smoke is harmful to your health:

Low levels of smoke exposure, including exposures to secondhand tobacco smoke, lead to a rapid and sharp increase in dysfunction and inflammation of the lining of the blood vessels, which are implicated in heart attacks and stroke.

Why do you need supplemental oxygen? Did the second-hand smoke cause the problem? Or did you smoke too?

Do you have a copy of your Pulmonary Function Test?

While second hand smoke is harmful to healthy people, you are undoubtedly at even greater risk.

[Slinky]

And just to clarify: lit candles, pllot lights, sparks are also fire hazards around 02.

My daughter and I went to visit one of her college friends whose mother lived w/her. Her mom was on oxygen. We sat in the kitchen at the table w/her mother and her liquid oxygen tank, cannula in her nose - smoking a cigarette.

I couldn't get out of that house fast enough!!!!!

I realize now that she probably had the 02 turned off whilst she was smoking - at the time I couldn't think straight about anything except how to get the h*ll outta that house!

[NotMuffy]

These are the reasons they provide the signs to put in your house warning others that O2 is in use.

Bill Engvall is bringing it now.

[nanwilson]

To but it bluntly............NO ONE should be allowed to smoke in your house............if its not your house and you are just renting.........get to HELL out of there NOW!