Breathing air from a compressor
 

Richard J Kinch writes:

You breathe more oil fog and vapor cooking dinner.

Yeah, but that's vegetable oil, not mineral oil ...

So what? You're just being superstitious. Please explain the organic
chemistry if you assert some hazard to mineral oil. Mineral oil is in the
USP. People coat their skin with it and drink it medicinally. It is in all
kinds of cosmetics applied near sensitive tissues.

Mineral oil is a legal food additive in the USA.

Maybe you're confused by the indiscriminate "harmful or fatal" warnings.

We breathe mineral oil fog and vapor all day long in a metalworking
environment from hot chips.

You should use non-detergent types without the additives, not automotive
motor oil, if there will be bodily exposure.

Breathing air fed off the compressed air main is done commercially -
see it in foundry fettling shops. For a person working in a fixed
position, it gives a light-weight uninterrupted feed.

Here's equipment I've seen - "3M" Co's website

http://solutions.3m.co.uk/wps/portal...Z C6FRTPMWXgl

3M Aircare Air Filter Units

The 3M Aircare 500GR Air Filtration Units for preparation of compressed air for the 3M range of Supplied-Air Respirators


or PDF:


http://solutions.3m.co.uk/wps/portal...Z C6FRTPMWXgl

"Supplied Air Range Brochure - Data Sheet (PDF 1.4 MB)"

Richard Smith

Breathing air from a compressor
 

In article ,
Richard J Kinch wrote:

You breathe more oil fog and vapor cooking dinner.

Yeah, but that's vegetable oil, not mineral oil ...

So what? You're just being superstitious. Please explain the organic
chemistry if you assert some hazard to mineral oil. Mineral oil is in the
USP. People coat their skin with it and drink it medicinally. It is in all
kinds of cosmetics applied near sensitive tissues.

Mineral oil is a legal food additive in the USA.

Maybe you're confused by the indiscriminate "harmful or fatal" warnings.

We breathe mineral oil fog and vapor all day long in a metalworking
environment from hot chips.

You should use non-detergent types without the additives, not automotive
motor oil, if there will be bodily exposure.

Well, I breathed a bit too much oil emulsion coolant mist one busy
weekend, and was coughing for days. Maybe not a danger, but sure was
annoying. So I got a face mask that filters oil mist out, which worked.
So I can sympathize with the OP who wants to keep the oil mists out.

Joe Gwinn

Breathing air from a compressor
 

On Jun 13, 12:41*am, Richard J Kinch wrote:
Too_Many_Tools writes:
You might want to read this.

You can get chemical pneumonia from your own saliva.

The dose makes the poison.

You can break your neck falling out of bed too.

It is up to each individual to decide what risks they want to take in
life.

And to pay the resulting price for errors in their judgment.

TMT

Breathing air from a compressor
 

"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message
...
On Jun 13, 12:41 am, Richard J Kinch wrote:
Too_Many_Tools writes:
You might want to read this.

You can get chemical pneumonia from your own saliva.

The dose makes the poison.

You can break your neck falling out of bed too.

It is up to each individual to decide what risks they want to take in
life.

And to pay the resulting price for errors in their judgment.

TMT

-------------------------------------------------------

Yeah perhaps, but just because some people like to run around screaming the
sky is falling, is no reason for knowledgeable people to dive in to the
basement.

Scuba divers have been breathing compressed, filtered air from piston
compressors with petroleum oil for more than 50 years without incident. It's
just not that hard to adequately filter the air.

Breathing air from a compressor
 

"Too_Many_Tools" wrote in message
...
On Jun 13, 12:41 am, Richard J Kinch wrote:
Too_Many_Tools writes:
You might want to read this.

You can get chemical pneumonia from your own saliva.

The dose makes the poison.

You can break your neck falling out of bed too.

It is up to each individual to decide what risks they want to take in
life.

And to pay the resulting price for errors in their judgment.

TMT

Oh my gosh. An extreme liberal saying self responsibility is good. The
world may end, Hades may be freezing over.

Breathing air from a compressor
 

Too_Many_Tools writes:

It is up to each individual to decide what risks they want to take in
life.

No yankee-can-do spirit for you, eh?

I refuse to live a squeamish, abstemious life ruled by superstitious fears.
If the theory and experience show something to be safe, one should have
faith in the scientific knowledge instead of quailing over something
invisible.

It does amaze me that someone will stand over a pan of frying bacon every
morning, inhaling significant doses of organic chemical fog and vapor,
including hydrocarbon oils and fatty acids, nitrates, nitrosamines,
combustion products, and particulates, and then recoil in horror at a whiff
of petroleum.

Turpentine and petroleum oil are US FDA GRAS food ingredients, or US CPSC
"harmful or fatal if swallowed", depending on which bit of the government
is looking over your shoulder.

Breathing air from a compressor
 

The air that comes out of my 58 year old compressor is definitely
unsuitable for breathing. This compressor may not be representative,
for obvious reasons.

In any case, I would try to put at least two filters in the air line
to be on the safe side. If the air does not smell after filteriing, I
would use it. as there are many cheap sources of breathing
air, there is no sense to use anything substandard.

** Sent from my Google phone ** I apologize for any typos **

i

Breathing air from a compressor
 

"Ignoramus5857" wrote in message
...
The air that comes out of my 58 year old compressor is definitely
unsuitable for breathing. This compressor may not be representative,
for obvious reasons.

In any case, I would try to put at least two filters in the air line
to be on the safe side. If the air does not smell after filteriing, I
would use it. as there are many cheap sources of breathing
air, there is no sense to use anything substandard.

Why would anybody screw around with breathing air? Look at the junk that
gets drained out of compressor tanks. Not what I want to breathe, unless
it's been through a big Bullard filter, and they cost a bit more than most
of us are willing to spring for.

Breathing air from a compressor
 

On 2009-06-14, ATP* wrote:

"Ignoramus5857" wrote in message
...
The air that comes out of my 58 year old compressor is definitely
unsuitable for breathing. This compressor may not be representative,
for obvious reasons.

In any case, I would try to put at least two filters in the air line
to be on the safe side. If the air does not smell after filteriing, I
would use it. as there are many cheap sources of breathing
air, there is no sense to use anything substandard.

Why would anybody screw around with breathing air? Look at the junk that
gets drained out of compressor tanks. Not what I want to breathe, unless
it's been through a big Bullard filter, and they cost a bit more than most
of us are willing to spring for.


Those are not necessarily expensive.

I had a 5 HP Bullard breathing air pump once that I could not sell for
even $50. That was a very lucky circumstance, as I quickly realized
that I could use its 5 HP single phase motor on my old Curtis
compressor.

I think that a HVLP turbine should be acceptable for breathing air and
is a nice inexpensive package. Same with a very cheap vacuum cleaner
switched to blowing, as long as you did not use it for collecting
dust.

Again, I would not hesitate to use a compressor, if after filtering
its air does not smell of anything (and this is a big if).

i

Breathing air from a compressor
 

Calif Bill wrote:

"jay" wrote in message
...
On Jun 11, 8:59 pm, Richard J Kinch wrote:
jay writes:
I assume it's not safe to breathe air from an oil lubricated air
compressor at sea level.

I do it all the time and so do my kids. We hook it up to a scuba
regulator and practice scuba diving in the swimming pool. Never
detected any irritation or as much as a scratchy throat from doing this
for long periods. Boat and pool repair guys do this to work underwater.

The compressor consists of some metal and clean hydrocarbon oil, so
there's nothing particularly toxic in low amounts. The amount of oil
entrained into the air must be way below any OSHA limits for oil vapor,
since the oil consumption of a well-running compressor is miniscule.
I'm sure that running a lathe with kerosene cutting fluid and hot chips
generates more oil vapor into the lungs via ambient air than this.

I was working with this every day I might add a filter canister.

Now in filling scuba tanks to 3500 psi you have to be scrupulously
clean, but this is only 90 psi.

I'm more worried about microbes growing in the puddle in the bottom of
the compressor tank. But the intake filter should keep out most of the
nutrition for them, so there's just clean distilled water and rust in
there.

http://www.truetex.com/scuba_lp.pdf

Are you saying that even an oil lubricated compressor is safe to
breathe @ 1 bar (sea level). If oil lubed compressors are safe a 1
bar, that's great news for me.

Being a former SCUBA diver we were always told not to use an oiled
compressor. Just need the oil to get by the rings just once to cause a
really bad case of pneumonia. Since there are oil less pumps, why tempt
fate?

Nearly all SCUBA/SCBA HP compressors are oil lubricated, pretty much the
only breathing air compressors that are oilless are the little portable
airline units for surface use. The two important points with the oil
lubed units are proper filtration and proper maintenance of the
compressor so it's running within spec. Poor maint can lead to excessive
operating temps in the HP stages, combustion of the oil and resulting
carbon monoxide in the output air.

Breathing air from a compressor
 

"Ignoramus5857" wrote in message
...
On 2009-06-14, ATP* wrote:

"Ignoramus5857" wrote in message
...
The air that comes out of my 58 year old compressor is definitely
unsuitable for breathing. This compressor may not be representative,
for obvious reasons.

In any case, I would try to put at least two filters in the air line
to be on the safe side. If the air does not smell after filteriing, I
would use it. as there are many cheap sources of breathing
air, there is no sense to use anything substandard.

Why would anybody screw around with breathing air? Look at the junk that
gets drained out of compressor tanks. Not what I want to breathe, unless
it's been through a big Bullard filter, and they cost a bit more than
most
of us are willing to spring for.


Those are not necessarily expensive.

I had a 5 HP Bullard breathing air pump once that I could not sell for
even $50. That was a very lucky circumstance, as I quickly realized
that I could use its 5 HP single phase motor on my old Curtis
compressor.

I think that a HVLP turbine should be acceptable for breathing air and
is a nice inexpensive package. Same with a very cheap vacuum cleaner
switched to blowing, as long as you did not use it for collecting
dust.

Again, I would not hesitate to use a compressor, if after filtering
its air does not smell of anything (and this is a big if).

i

5 hp would supply a lot of breathing air! The Bullard filter I was referring
to can be used with a regular tow-behind compressor, in conjunction with CO
monitoring. The setup is fairly expensive.

Breathing air from a compressor
 

On Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:16:01 -0700 (PDT), jay wrote:

Hi All
I assume it's not safe to breathe air from an oil lubricated air
compressor at sea level.

As an alternative to all the other posturing, here's a thought.

Specifically relating to oil contamination of the air. If the air's clean
enough to use in a paint spray gun, it's clean enough to breath.

This does not account for carbon monoxide from the gas engine driving the
compressor or re-circulated isocyanate fumes from the paint booth :-)



Mark Rand(been spray painting today)
RTFM

Breathing air from a compressor
 

On Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:22:17 +0100, Mark Rand
wrote:

On Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:16:01 -0700 (PDT), jay wrote:

Hi All
I assume it's not safe to breathe air from an oil lubricated air
compressor at sea level.

As an alternative to all the other posturing, here's a thought.

Specifically relating to oil contamination of the air. If the air's clean
enough to use in a paint spray gun, it's clean enough to breath.

This does not account for carbon monoxide from the gas engine driving the
compressor or re-circulated isocyanate fumes from the paint booth :-)

Nor does it account for the carbon monoxide sometimes produced from
the lubricating oil getting past the rings and getting hot. And the
problem with CO is that it binds to hemoglobin much better than O2 so
even a tiny amount over a long period of time can poison you.

Mark Rand(been spray painting today)
RTFM
ERS