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I see a "big deal" in putting *air*, hydrocarbon free or otherwise into a tank marked for nitrox. Mis-use is a mislabeled tank with regard to its contents, not the purity of its contents. It's mis-use if the tank is filled with *non* hydrocarbon-free nitrox or hydrocarbon free air. I do not see the problem as "what could happen" or how dangerous is this... The tank should contain what its identification says. That only makes sense. The fact that someone can create a scenario showing how 21% in a nitrox tank might not hurt anyone is specious to the labeing argument. We can create scenarios going both ways all day long. We dont bend rules simply because no one might get hurt. We adhere to the rules for the unforseen and the unexpected. What can the reasonable person expect to find inside, based on what the outside says or doesn't say? If someone wants an air fill in a nitrox cylinder, I'd remove the labeling so the inner contents match the outer identification. If the air were hydrocarbon free, I would even make the argument that to put the tank back into nitrox service, it be VIP'd but most likely wouldn't need to be recleaned, but I'm not a service tech. In Mike's remarks to Jammer's story: >in them (some call it air). Some people will say this was mis-use of >the stickers, well ok, fine, what if those tanks had had 22% in them? >Would be a lot harder to call it a mis-use then, but the effect would >have been the same. It would not have been *possible* to call it a mis-use then. Yes, the effect would have been the same because the stickers *apparently* drove the novice diver AWAY from those tanks, toward the unlabeled ones, as they should have. I submit, again that had Jammer's tanks *been* marked, the result would have been entirely different. This idea of only filling nitrox tanks with 21+% to ensure they arent filled at another shop is ludicruous and ensures nothing. If I take a nitrox labeled tank to a non-nitrox facility, the tank identification is supposed to put them on notice not to touch it. If I bring them a CO2, or Argon, or whatever bottle and they dont have the gas for it the same thing should happen. And what am I doing there in the first place? If I need their air, I take my labels off, drain the higher fo2 out of the tank and fill it with their air. If the tank isnt nitrox labeled, what should stop the other facility from filling with their air? Short of any reason to be suspicious, they will assume its an air cylinder. If I go to another nitrox facility, why shouldnt they give me whatever mix I want, regardless of what's currently in the tank? Assuming of course they maintain their air system and pump clean enough air? I suggest there are more or less standard ways of marking cylinders, but many divers, for their own reasons choose not to adhere to them. Rather than everyone reinventing the wheel, I say use the systems in place. Most of us wait at red lights even when there's no other traffic. We could slip through and the effect would usually have been the same. Why risk it? I have yet to hear from anyone how this could be construed as anti-safety / anti-survival. Art (Rat) Smith
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