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>I thought it was a good, rational post, and refreshingly free of parroted
>agency bullshit. Simple, clear, cheap, peelable labels. What the heck is
>wrong with that? No need for a new standard - that's already the federal
>one, which the tech agencies can't resist trying to screw up.
The federal "standard" is one of many, and doesn't apply in Mexico,
British Columbia, or anywhere else outside the US. Gasses use different
colors in Europe.
>And one suspects even a non-english speaker would be able to puzzle out
>what, say, "Argon" or "Oxygen" means. Carrying around a standard (read
>"big") dive tank loaded with argon and unlabeled is simply dumb - what
>possible reason could there be NOT to label it?
Because putting ANY label on any tank is feeding the problem. The only
things that I need marked on a tank, I mark on the tank. Maybe you know
what they mean, maybe you don't.
It only matters if you use my tank.
If you do that, you might die.
Go ahead, pick a tank, any tank.
Don't you guys see it? Do you think I'm the only one out there with death
in an unmarked tank? Didn't you read the original post? Mako Lodge, on
the Sunshine Coast, in British Columbia, a for-profit, licensed,
"professional" supplier of gases, rented a tank to an open water, (non
nitrox trained) diver, with big IANTD band on it that said nitrox, with
AIR in it! Doesn't that ring any alarm bells in your head? Like, for
instance, the one that says "If HE does it..."
Don't you think it might be just slightly wiser to be absolutely certain,
every time? That you might want to use tanks that you KNOW what's in
them? That it might even be worth going just slightly out of your way to
find out? There are idiots all around us. Some of them own dive boats,
and some of them rent and fill tanks.
Or do you think that if I concede your points, and mark MY tanks, that
the problem goes away?
I don't care what your tanks say, I'm not using them.
All guns are loaded, there is no such thing as an unloaded gun.
The only people I know who knew that the gun was unloaded are dead.
This is the same thing, in a different package.
All tanks contain mixes that will kill you, given the right circumstances.
So you better treat that gun like it's loaded. I'm not advocating less
safety, I'm advocating more. I'm advocating that that car roaring up to
the stop sign on your right is going to ignore it, and you better be
ready. I'm advocating that the labels mean nothing, (witness my original
post), you better check for yourself, or you better watch the fill, and
go to any other lengths you deem neccessary to know what's in that tank.
My original post, with the story about Canadian Nitrox, was posted to
show that labels are often incorrect, and, as such, mean nothing. The
prudent, responsible diver, therefore, takes whatever measures are
neccessary to ensure that gas he breathes at depth is the gas he needs.
---------
"Huh?"
--Jammer, 1992
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