TY - GEN A1 - Ciscato, W. A1 - Binder, Christian A1 - Hesse, Olaf A1 - Lehné, Siegfried A1 - Kasch, Thomas ED - Davis, S.E. ED - Steinberg, T.A. T1 - Another dangerous practice in the SCUBA diving community T2 - Flammability and sensitivity of materials in oxygen-enriched atmospheres - 13th volume N2 - The widely held incorrect belief in the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) diving community, that oxygen-enriched gas mixtures, so-called NITROX, with an oxygen content of up to 40 vol. % can be considered as regular air, has already been refuted in many papers. Now, another dangerous practice has drawn the attention. In a market study, more than 60 representative SCUBA cylinder valves were examined. Sales offices claim that all of those valves can be used for oxygen-enriched gas mixtures. The fact is that some of these cylinder valves are for air use only. By exchanging the nonmetallic materials and applying additional cleaning procedures, these air valves become so-called “oxygen clean.” Then, the valves are on sale for oxygen-enriched service. This procedure is dangerous because the labeling pretends a pseudo-safety. All of the 60 SCUBA cylinder valves were tested applying the standardized oxygen pressure surge tester at BAM. As suspected, many of the cylinder valves are not burn-out safe. In addition, different test results were received for actual new valves, for so-called new but temporarily stored valves, and for used valves. This paper reveals another dangerous practice and wants to alert the SCUBA diving community. KW - SCUBA diving KW - Pneumatic impact KW - Burn-out safety KW - Oxygen KW - NITROX KW - Modified air valves KW - Aging of diving valves KW - Oxygen compatibility PY - 2012 SN - 978-0-8031-7547-1 DO - https://doi.org/10.1520/STP20120007 VL - 13 IS - STP 1561 SP - 162 EP - 171 CY - West Conshohocken, PA, USA AN - OPUS4-27136 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -