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>Steve, >Perhaps the following will cover your request for documentation of the >problem and the hazard. There is lots more but this pretty much covers all >the bases in principle, I think. > Lot of stuff about an airplane fire snipped > Can you tell me how you are different from these guys at Value Jet who >also thought the procedures were BS - other than the fact that you are openly >encouraging others to do the same thing as you ? What a great example of what I've been talking about - how the "O2, the invisible killer" crowd", when asked for substantiation, always comes up with horror stories that are about anything BUT diving. The oxygen generators mentioned are actually pyrotechnic devices - they work by igniting and producing O2 by intense heat. So that tragedy has little to do with O2, and nothing at all with diving. So your argument reduces to "since these people broke some regs and a lot of people got hurt anyone else breaking or encouraging others to break any reg is guilty of attempted murder." Or something like that. Get real. Surely you have been around long enough to know that there are all kinds of regs, some bullshit, some essential, and it requires constant questioning and examination to tell the difference, and to pare away the dumb ones, before we are inundated by them. PADI had a reg until recently that PADI cave divers must wear snorkles. Would you argue the fact that it was a PADI reg made it right, and as valid as not loading pyrotecnic oxidizers into the cargo hold of a passenger airliner? Most of the O2 "regs" we are discussing here are not real laws, but just something, like the PADI idiocy, that someone at a self-appointed tech agency thought was a good idea - or a way to sell more stickers. One way we can tell if a reg is valid to to compare the results obtained by following or not following it. In some cases this is hard to do, without blowing up a jetliner or two, in others, where a large percentage is ignoring the reg, it is quite easy (as was the case of snorkles in the caves) just by comparing the accident rate for the two groups. Which is why we keep begging the "O2, the invisible killer" crowd here to cite examples of injuries cause by ignoring the agency rules. When PADI observed that cave divers were not dying for lack of snorkles, they modified their rule. I hope the dive industry will be as open minded as it gains more experience with O2. It may be, though, Chuck, that you just have me confused with someone else. I don't recall ever encouraging anyone to disregard any basic safety regs or procedures. I have, though, questioned many of them, and frequently bemoaned the fact that, when it comes to writing the standards for the dive community, the wolves are guarding the sheep. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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