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At 12:24 AM 10/11/1995 GMT, Jammer wrote:

>In British Columbia, last year.
>We took nitrox up in our tanks, we had them filled here at our favorite 
>shop with 32 and 36 percent.
>
>We were diving off a boat being run by a Captain who runs a lodge that 
>pumps nitrox and teaches nitrox classes, and we assumed he knew what the 
>hell he was doing.
>
>With us on the boat were other divers, some of whom were untrained in 
>nitrox, and some very experianced nitrox divers who were not diving nitrox.
>
>Our tanks were unmarked, except for our names and the mix written in 
>black grease pencil on the tanks. 
>
>One of the untrained divers asked the Captain which tanks he should use, 
>he was renting tanks for the day.
>
>The lodge's tanks were all clearly marked with nitrox stickers. They all 
>contained air.
>
>The captain waved his hand at the rear of the boat and said 
>  "All my tanks have air in them." 
>
>The diver went back to the back of the boat, looked around, saw 12 tanks 
>with nitrox stickers, (all with air in them) and our four tanks with no 
>stickers, filled with nitrox.
>
>He took 36% to 120 feet on the wreck of the Chaudiere.
>
>There was lots of shouting and arm waving when we all realized what had 
>happened, and then lots of flaming when I posted the story to rec.scuba.
>
>The whole incident served to set in stone my views on tank stickers, and 
>that is that they are meaningless. My newest philosophy on diving, be it 
>tech, wreck, nitrox, or recreational, is one of absolute personal 
>responsibility.
>
>I am responsible for the gas I breathe, and no one else.
>There is no way to make me (or anyone else) responsible for the gas you
breathe.
>
>I will not mark my tanks, it creates more problems than it solves. 
>
>If you use my tanks, you might die.
>
>
>---------
>  "huh?"
>     -Jammer, 1992
>---------


I wonder if I've got this straight: 

Your tanks look like air tanks but contain nitrox.

The boat's tanks look like nitrox tanks but contain air.

An untrained diver picks up what looks like an air tank
(but really contains nitrox) and dives to a ppO2 of 1.7.
He could have died, partly because the skipper is mis-
using nitrox labels and partly because you aren't using
them at all.

And then you tell us that this sorry tale of compound
stupidity only serves to harden your views that nitrox
stickers are meaningless?

See, this sounds a bit like switching the 'H' and the 'C'
buttons on a pair of water taps (faucets) and then, when
someone scalds themselves because of the switched labels,
you declare that it proves that labelling taps 'Hot' and 
'Cold' is meaningless.

Have I missed something? Or does this just show that no 
system, no matter how simple or logical, is immune to
human stupidity?

rgrds    billyW

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